We recently connected with Sarah Lee and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, appreciate you joining us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

I earned my undergrad degree in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. My school hosts two craft shows open to the public biannually and offers discounted tables to students to sell their work. My junior year, a friend and I shared a table in the spring and I was able to earn my first dollar off of selling loose sheets from my sketchbook and prints from my printmaking classes. I was overjoyed that strangers found my work endearing enough to financially support me, it made the anxieties of graduating looming near a little less scary. Little did I know this experience would foreshadow my career pivot 5 years later.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I run a merchandise based business named “goyangii” which means cat in Korean. I make original illustrations, primarily of, you guessed it, cats, and design them into stickers, pins, stationery, greeting cards, home goods and art prints. I mainly sell my work through events like craft fairs, conventions and pop ups. I supplement my business income with online sales and wholesale to brick and mortar businesses around the USA.

The main feedback I always get from my shoppers has been the relatability my artwork provides. Nothing brings me more joy than to see someone gush over my art saying it speaks to them or reminds them of a loved one in their life. When people ask me where I get my inspiration from, I answer honestly that each illustration is simply a diary entry from my own life. Being able to share that aspect of my work in person to my customers really makes me feel a sense of community with those that support me.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My career field out of college was designing products like kids activity sets, home goods, apparel, accessories, beauty, bath, gifts and more. Basically most things you might imagine at a Target store. While it wasn’t a bad career field, I felt incredibly unfulfilled as a creative. It felt like I was churning out designs like a fast food business and the companies I worked for kept pushing to make things cheaper and cheaper. Overall it felt like I was creating things destined for the landfill.

My last corporate position was designing apparel under a celebrity white label in New York City. It was a job I could have definitely coasted on for years but there was an existential pain that came with making meaningless things, manifesting into severe stress responses like heart palpitations and teeth grinding.

On a pure whim, I quit my job in New York City and moved to San Francisco. I had no plan at all, I just knew I needed a change of scenery and pace of life. Through unfortunate timing, I had moved right before COVID, making it very difficult to find remote work in a physical product based field. Needing to make ends meet I started making my own products and selling online, when restrictions lifted, I started to look for opportunities to sell in person.

I ran my own business alongside freelancing in hopes of finding full time salaried work but in 2021 I was abruptly fired from my contract to hire job. The constant job hunting circus from 2020 through 2021 was too exhausting to return to. I committed to running my art business full time, because if I was unemployable I would simply employ myself.

With the fury from being abruptly fired, I poured that rage into creating my best selling design to this day, a little black cat wide eyed with anger holding a molotov and lighter with text reading “thinking a little bit bout arson”. It went a little bit viral on social media with tons of comments pouring in demanding product to buy and even people claiming they’d get tattoos made of my little guy. That gave me the confidence that I going in the right direction and here I still am 5 years later making a living drawing silly little cats.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I travel a lot to sell my products in many different cities in the US. The events I participate in often draw other artists and attendees from all over the world. The most fulfilling aspect of being an artist of this nature has been building community and friendships with people from all sorts of backgrounds, all tied together by the shared love of creativity.

Being able to meet fans who very vocally share their support for my art has fueled my sense of purpose to create and being able to meet artists at various stages of their craft have inspired me to see my journey in a new perspective every time. I feel so fulfilled being able to be a part of a replenishing cycle of inspiration every time I set up shop and meet new people.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://goyangii.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_goyangii/
• Other: http://goyangii.etsy.com/