We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Tocko a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Growing up I was always maximizing my creative outlets; my parents sent me to art camps in the summertime, I chose to be in art classes all throughout my education, and I loved creating things in my free time. In my early teens I learned that in order to be the best artist I could be I had to stretch my talents beyond what was interesting to me. I sought out classes that were outside my comfort zone, ones that expanded my skillset and sharpened my artistic abilities. Some of the most valuable parts of my education were spent doing utterly silly tasks that, at the time, felt pointless and frustrating. I remember my freshman year of college I took Drawing 101 and it felt so juvenile that I had to take it to be able to take higher level art classes that I was actually excited about. I spent a lot of time during that semester pushing myself in directions that were different and new. This widened my viewpoint of my art and what it could look like.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my professional art career in 2021 by opening Meadow Daughter Studio. I have been an artist my entire life, but labeling myself as a professional and marketing myself as someone who knows what they’re doing with their art (even when I feel like I really don’t know what I’m doing) has been incredibly rewarding. I put in a lot of effort to try and not compare my journey to anyone else’s. I spent quite a bit of time while creating my brand thinking that I had to do everything a certain way; my website had to look like everyone else’s, I had to have these features in my shop, I had to become a full-time content creator, among others. None of it actually matters if your goal is to create a brand that’s authentic to you. Painting, no matter the media or the scale, allows me to outwardly express what I feel in my soul. I take in inspiration from my garden and hiking with my dog; flowers, water, clouds, sunlight. I don’t know if I will ever be able to do this work full-time and support myself financially, but creating Meadow Daughter has pushed me to hold myself to a higher standard and that has brought me nothing but good things.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I would have know how much of my career was going to be taken up by business management. I certainly would have opted towards business classes in college. Understanding how to start up a small business, manage expenses, and market my work have been the steepest and most unexpected learning curves I’ve encountered in the past several years. And everyone else makes it look so easy, it’s not!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The past two years I have been seasonally employed doing garden design and ecological restoration work, which I absolutely love and I am so happy that I decided to leave education to follow my passion for natural resources. With that being said, it is absolutely draining (especially in the heat of the summer when you are working 8-10 hour days) working outside all day and then coming home and having to recover just enough to get to work the next day. I don’t think I made any paintings from May to December of last year. And that, to me, is not sustainable for the life I want to live. I’m working really hard right now to find jobs that aren’t so draining and time consuming for this upcoming season of work. Hopefully, at the very least, I can allocate more of my time and energy towards art moving forward so that I can keep growing creatively.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://meadowdaughter.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meadowdaughter/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smtocko/