Sublime Mediocrity

Art is Where Ambition and Limitation Often Meet

Some artists carry the cultural burden of their genius and mounting legacy. Ahem—not I.

Having run through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ first four stages of grief as pertains to my career (denial, anger, bargaining, depression), I’ve finally come to acceptance: I’m clearly burdened by neither genius nor legacy. This revelation has freed me to embrace what I’ve come to call “sublime mediocrity”—that liminal space where one’s creative execution so consistently falls short of one’s vision that it becomes kind of “your thing.”

In my case, it’s chiefly the result of executing idiosyncratic visions without sufficient money or talent. The result seldom robs my audiences of their imagination of how it could’ve, would’ve or should’ve been better if it weren’t for the above. I like to think my limitations give the audience space to imagine the version they think I meant to make, or the one they would’ve done better (had they tried). And in that way, it’s a…