Meet Cierra Fitzgerald

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cierra Fitzgerald. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cierra below.

Hi Cierra, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Ever since I was a child, I have held strong admiration for both my parents who have always been hard-working individuals. My parents are the type of people that work hard for what they want whether it is financial freedom or providing for their family. They instilled in me the drive to work for what I want and to turn my dreams and aspirations into reality. I have also developed from my father a somewhat competitive nature that drives me to want to be the best in all activities I pursue. Aside from my competitive nature, my father also motivated me to achieve my greatest potential. One cannot achieve their greatest potential if they only strive to do the bare minimum. I am also a strong believer that working hard and being your best self has the greatest positive impact on a greater number of people.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am an artist that loves to work in various mediums, so I see myself more as a multidisciplinary artist. I grew up with a strong passion for 2-dimensional art. I started out working with graphite and colored pencils and acrylic paintings. I then went to college to study graphic design and advertising. While in school I developed a strong admiration for illustration and photography. Once I finished school, I wanted to learn more about other mediums of art I had not explored and developed interests in newfound hobbies such as wood-burning, macrame, resin and jewelry-making.

Currently, I am most active in creating macrame, jewelry, and wood-burned pieces. My favorite part about working in these mediums is how therapeutic the process can be. I am always excited to see the end result of the masterpieces I produce. However, I remind myself to enjoy the process because it can be meditative and can also help to practice mindfulness.

I started my art business because I have an ongoing artistic drive to keep creating and I want to share the pieces I produce with people who enjoy my aesthetic and unique works of art. It gives me a great feeling to see the joy my art can produce in others. I do plan to expand my art presence both online and in-person vendor shows. I post new product launches, recent art, and upcoming shows on my Instagram page, @ceefizdesign!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The most important qualities/skills I can recall from my artistic journey are practice, perseverance and patience. Each artistic skill that I have cultivated started as a difficult and frustrating process that did not quite turn out how I would picture it in my head. Whether I was learning to draw realistic portraits of my friends and family or learning macrame for the first time, I would get frustrated and step away from projects until I was mentally ready to re-attempt them. I learned to be patient with myself when my first attempts did not yield the level of quality I anticipated. I have also encountered circumstances where I would make irreparable mistakes on my ‘almost perfect’ pieces. Sometimes I would destroy the piece, but at other times I would embrace the mistakes which sparked new ideas that helped to elevate the piece; I called these ‘happy accidents.’ When I embraced the mistakes, sometimes these pieces turned out to be my stronger works of art.

Practice, perseverance, and patience can help one overcome their inner art critic and cultivate their skills. Additionally, practicing gratitude helps one appreciate their freedom of creative expression. My advice for those who are early in their journey is if you are doing/creating something that brings you joy, keep working at it to be the best you can be. When the process is difficult, frustrating, or turns out not quite right, be patient with yourself and practice until you get better. You may have your eyes set on the destination, but try to enjoy the journey. Be mindful and embrace the process.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

‘The Mastery of Love’ by Don Miguel Ruiz and ‘The Untethered Soul’ by Michael Singer were both impactful books in my development. These books are amazing reads for wisdom in understanding how the mind works, understanding yourself, mastering interpersonal relationships, and achieving inner peace.

Some of the most impactful lessons that I can impart are this: Be responsible for your own happiness. When you put that responsibility in someone else’s hands, you are burdening them and opening up an opportunity for disappointment. Being responsible for your own happiness directly impacts your quality of life. By understanding this concept, my perspective on how I live my life changed. I learned to try not to let outer circumstances cause unhappiness. Regardless of my circumstances, I can choose to be happy. I sometimes still struggle with putting this concept into practice. However, it is helpful to occasionally remind myself that when I am facing difficult circumstances, difficult people, or become frustrated and upset, I can choose to ‘let go’. Letting go is the key to being happy.

This leads into another important lesson I have learned: Always keep your heart chakra open and “never close”. When something bothers me and it causes me to tense up, this is a similar feeling to closing the heart chakra. By choosing to let go, the heart chakra opens back up. Staying ‘open’ fosters positivity and opens up new relationships. Most importantly, live a life of love rather than fear. Fear has “conditions, expectations, and obligations” to protect us from emotional pain. On the other hand, love is unconditional. Living in fear negatively affects your quality of life. Living fully requires embracing fear and going outside of your comfort zone. It is difficult to grow as a person if you never leave your comfort zone.

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