“Surrender To Your Mediocrity”

What now??!! That doesn’t sound like a good thing. And yet it was advice given in a painting course that I’m taking. And the advice is, I feel, actually quite good. Excellent even. It just depends on how you interpret the statement. Do take note, though, that it says to surrender to your mediocrity and not to mediocrity in general. Am I splitting hairs here? Let’s take a closer look.

Surrendering to your mediocrity can, of course, be interpreted in a negative way. As in, give in to the fact that your work will always be mediocre. But that’s not at all what the instructor meant. She meant to accept the fact that you are not likely to be the next Monet or Van Gogh (or, in the photography world, the next Ansel Adams). Accept that you aren’t likely to set the painting or photography world on its head. It’s only when you surrender to that fact that you can really start to make your best work!

Why is that so? If you have it in your head that you are the next Ansel Adams, you hold all your work to be precious. You must make masterpieces to live up to that internal goal. Which means you are going to make the work you think others will like, not the work that reflects you. It also means that because you hold your paintings or photographs (or whatever art form you practice) to be so precious, you won’t play and experiment, which is how new and exciting work is born. It is when you let go of that desire to be the next great that you can experiment, play, and find the best way to express yourself in any artistic endeavor. It is only then, if you are indeed destined to set the art world on fire, that your work can rise to the highest level.

So, surrendering to your mediocrity does not mean surrendering to being mediocre. Quite the opposite.

Does this idea resonate with you? What do you think?

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