I Started an Art Side Hustle As an Escape From the Corporate Grind

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lee Tze Gwen, a 32-year-old animator and artist from Singapore. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been drawing since I was 10. It’s always been a hobby for me, but I found my true calling in animation in the game industry because gaming is my biggest passion.

As an animator, I had to create a lot of gory scenes because that was the nature of the game. I had to make it as believable and cinematic as possible — the stabbings and the explicit scenes.

So after coming home, I felt like I needed something wholesome to escape from all the violence. And during the pandemic, when we were all stuck indoors, I realized that plants help us a lot in maintaining our sanity. So I thought, why not share some greenery with everyone?

That’s how Curious Pots, my art side hustle, was born in 2020.

My art style is simple: lots of greens and blues, with a dash of pink and yellow to brighten everyone’s mood. My main character, Layla, is a tired corporate worker stuck indoors, who turns to greenery to feel better.

I started with stickers because the sticker business was booming at the time, and have since expanded into stationery, calendars, and a subscription-based snail-mail club.

Snail mail club

Since December, the US tariffs pushed me to start a whole new product: a subscription-based art snail mail club.

My customers in the US had to pay a lot more in taxes after the tariffs kicked in, with some having to pay double the amount for a $25 calendar. It just didn’t make sense.

So that’s how I thought about a mail club. Because it just contains art prints, letters, and stickers, which can be sent by personal mail that doesn’t face a tariff, it was a lot more affordable.

It’s priced at 8 Singapore dollars within the country and a bit more for postage abroad. I now have about 80 subscribers.

The idea for the club is that my character, Layla, delivers bouquets of peonies to her friends. I want to make it feel like no matter where you are in the world, just remember that someone in a little nook is looking out for you.

I used to earn about 6,000 Malaysian ringgit, or about $1,500, monthly in my animation job in Malaysia. Now, my Curious Pots side hustle earns more than that.

I recently moved to Singapore because of my family, and have taken advantage of the many art markets and conventions here to set up my booths.

A balance of work and fun

I’ve left my full-time animation job and now balance my freelance animation work with my art side gig. If I’m tired of animation, I can always go back and draw something for my mail club.

It has become a healing ritual for me. I don’t see it as work sometimes because I benefit from it.

The best thing about running a side hustle is the flexibility it offers with your time. You’re your own boss. If the business is not working, it’s on you to figure out how to improve it. So it’s a lot of thought process that goes into building it up, which I find enjoyable.

But I’ve realized that although I have flexibility in what I design, I do need to listen to the customers.

Sometimes artists like to stick to their individuality a bit too much. But you need to look at what they do well and build on from that, instead of sticking to one idea because you think this is your thing, and you need to persist with it.

Stop doubting, start creating and posting

I knew nothing about social media when I started, but I decided to post a reel a day until my account took off. It takes tenacity and consistency to keep doing it.

But my advice to anyone who wants to start an art business is to stop doubting and start doing.

Perfectionists will always say their work is not ready for the outside world to see. I used to be like that, but you need to push yourself out there to get direct feedback from your audience and see if your work really resonates with people.