Easy Sunday Club
San Gabriel, California
Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do:
Cathy: Easy Sunday Club
I am a self taught artist who works mostly in watercolor. I worked in corporate analytical and tech roles for 10 years before leaving in 2016 to start my own creative business, Easy Sunday Club. It is a collection of modern watercolor paintings, art prints, and baby/children's soft goods that showcase playful interpretations of subjects in my loose painting style.
Let us know more about your business name - how did you come up with it?
The classic song "Easy" by Lionel Richie was stuck in my head after watching the movie Baby Driver. I had been brainstorming a business name for a while and liked how easy "Easy Sunday" is to spell, and is pleasant to say. After additional research and making sure the name isn't trademarked, I named my business "Easy Sunday Club" to describe my community of customers. I also chose my business name because in acronym form it is ESC, which is the escape key on the keyboard. In more ways than one, ESC started as my way to escape from my previous discontentment with my un-creative career.
What is your signature style / item? How did it become so?
My painting style is often described as light, loose, and expressive. Though it may be hard to draw the connection on the surface, so much of my style is influenced by my previous career where I held very structured, analytical roles. Watercolor is already an unpredictable and hard to control medium. My loose painting style is my way of defying and deprograming my old ways, and a constant reminder to trust my intuition more.
What makes your business unique to the industry?
I don't mean this purely for self deprecation, but I'm not the best artist out there (thanks Ira Glass for keeping us in check). However, I believe I can bring a different set of perspectives as a "late comer" artist with corporate working experience, and also as an Asian American woman in an industry that we were often discouraged from pursuing due to the pervasive "starving artist" mentality that is especially strong in the Asian rhetoric. My uniqueness isn't in the art alone, but in the culmination of my artistic style, my voice, and my point of view. I also believe every artist is unique for the same reasons, as no two people have walked the same path in life to get to where they are. With a lot of time and trial and error, and persistence, I think we can all find our unique place in the industry.
What's been your biggest roadblock when it comes to business and how have you been able to overcome?
My biggest roadblock is a mental one, and it tends to evolve as my business matures. Surely, every business has growing pains, but the biggest roadblock is believing that setbacks, big and small, are a natural part of the course, and to have enough conviction to steer ahead even though the future of the business seems murky at times (e.g. during Covid-19).
How has your business had to adapt amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic? What are you doing to navigate the situation?
I was very very worried about my business in the beginning of lockdown in March. My wholesale business, which accounted for almost half of my business sales in 2019 completely stopped, and my online sales also slowed down.
Thankfully, my online sales increased significantly from April to May and I was able to offset some of the losses from wholesale. I also checked my privilege as a nimble online business and ran online sales that donated all proceeds to Covid-19 relief funds. For the most part, I haven't had to pivot my business too much to stay afloat, but this pandemic has made more clear my business priorities going forward and my vision for how I want to grow it in the next year that will align with my values. Forecasting anything beyond that is a futile exercise in my opinion especially given our current state of affairs in the country and this world.
What is your favorite part of what you do?
I know my least favorite part right away... ahem, accounting/bookkeeping. It's hard to pick a favorite because I like so many parts of running a small business, even with all the highs and lows. If I have to pick one, it would be designing, developing, testing, producing, and releasing a new product that people love.
What is your *must do* local activity?
We recently moved to the Pasadena area and love exploring the Sierra Madre neighborhood, the eateries, and surrounding trails (before the pandemic). Our favorites are Poppy Cake Baking Company and Mother Moo Creamery.