When Goals Seem Too Far and Too Hard

Artwork by: Tiana Crispino

The story:

“ “Every artist was first an amateur.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson”

I know I am making progress when I am doing projects for myself or for clients that previously seemed so far out of reach. Doing something that didn’t feel feasible a week, a year, or a decade ago!

I have had some recent benchmarks in my career as a career in the last year that remind me of the progress I’ve made. Creating stickers from my designs from both my personal and professional work. Finally buying prints of designs and art I’ve made and creating an Etsy shop. Actively making art and posting it on my art Instagram. Designing my first logo for my friend’s business. Making sure I am getting paid fairly for the work I do. Being featured as ‘Designer of the Month’ for the ‘Women in Graphic Design’ Instagram this month. Those are some benchmarks that have felt really far fetched when I’ve dreamed about them, that I realize I’ve made significant progress in achieving them in the last year. It makes me so hopeful about the benchmarks and progress I can make in the next year.

This collage that I created for this prompt was inspired by how I’ve been dreaming of benchmarks like the ones I’ve made in the last year and how they’ve seem so far and too hard to achieve at times, when the reality is that I need to adapt and change the way I was going after them and to start chasing after my dreams! The subject of this collage is found in the ocean, painting the side of a mountain and the way I see it, she had a creative goal to paint a mural on that beautiful mountain and just because it was big and in the ocean wasn’t going to stop her, she adapted and changed her approach, but she is still painting that mural. In 2020, I am going to paint a mural too.

Tiana Crispino is a designer, artist, and art educator from New York. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 2019 where she studied Art Education & Graphic Design. She’s worked for newspapers and magazines, an environmental organization, a military installation, and an art museum! Since graduating, she’s moved to the wonderful Pacific Northwest and is excited to do more commissions, brand design, and editorial illustrations/collages in the near future! Find more of her work in her portfolio and Instagram.