By: Gabrielle Wong and Krystal Han
Art is neither a conventional form of work nor an easy journey to pursue in a education and business oriented Singapore, but Sarah Thursday has always been determined to carve her own path and chase her dreams.
Who is Sarah Thursday?
Clad in black, standing at over 170 centimetres tall, Sarah, the founder of the gothic art and apparel brand Sarah Thursday, cuts an intimidating figure.
Sarah Thursday is a 28-year-old Singaporean artist. With an impressive following of 32.7k followers on Instagram, from around the globe, she is one of the rare Singaporean artists that have “made it” worldwide.
The kicker?
She does fanart.
Fanart is art that has been created by fans of a series or franchise. Fanart is perhaps a rather unorthodox art form for one to succeed in, especially given that many don’t usually take it or see it as “actual” art given that it is built off an existing piece. The journey was not an easy one, but over eight years, Sarah has built her business from the ground up and made a name for herself within the art community.
Starting Her Journey
Sarah first got interested in art at the age of 6. Sarah tells us that for her, her identity has always been ‘rooted in the arts and illustration.’ She started with sketching lifelike photos of her guinea pigs, and after watching her first ever anime, Cardcaptor Sakura, she started experimenting with drawing manga at the age of 8. “It was a very natural thing for me, perhaps because my mother was also great at arts and craft,” she explains.
Her parents have always been supportive of her, and believe in giving their daughter the freedom to pursue her passion. Sarah is particularly fond of her mother who was also an artist. To her, her mother is her rock. “She prides herself on being meticulous” Sarah shares, she is “independent, patient, strong creative, and has an amazing set of principles. [From Girls Club Asia Interview]”
Further Pursuing Art and Beginning her Business
To pursue her passion, Sarah studied design at Temasek Polytechnic, and graduated in 2013 with a Diploma in Visual Communications, majoring in illustrations.
In Temasek Polytechnic, she had a lot of opportunities to experiment with different styles and not just the usual manga style she was used to. She gradually grew into loving traditional vintage etching styles as she hit graduation. Throughout the growth of Sarah Thursday, she has incorporated the etching style she loves so much into her dark surreal anime-ish style, and eventually, it gave birth to the current unique style she is known for today. Sarah describes it as a gradual build-up of a variety of styles she likes.
However, at the close of her journey in Design school, she was unhappy with the grade she received for her Final Year Project, titled ‘The Art Senses’ where she attempted to reach out to the general public to attempt to get Singaporeans to better understand and appreciate art in their daily lives through promoting the local art scene. “I really poured my heart and soul into it,” she explains, “I felt the lecturers didn’t attempt to understand me.”
This event encouraged the then 20-year-old to continue her project past school. She lightheartedly describes it as “a salty agenda to prove them wrong.”
And prove them wrong she did.
She began selling prints and stickers of what would be known as her first collection ‘The Art Senses’ to the public through an Instagram and Facebook page she started. She only had 200 dollars to her name at the time. However, with great determination, she launched Sarah Thursday that same year on Halloween, the 31st of October, and she never looked back.
Despite knowing a tough journey lay ahead, Sarah expressed that she “never had any particular fears” and that she “didn’t think much or worry too much about it.” She gave herself a year to test the waters and see how things would go. She worked multiple part-time and freelance jobs to sustain her living expenses while doing her label part-time. Gradually, she began investing more into the label, until it could stand on its two feet.
Fun Fact: Her brand name, ‘Sarah Thursday’ stems from her name ‘Sarah’ and ‘Thursday’ meaning “Day of Nature” in Japanese, which she finds she personally relates to a lot. Thursday is also her favourite day of the week!
As of today, most of her profits come from her Patreon. Patreon is an American membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. She chooses to run her business this way due to the current Covid-19 situation in Singapore. Currently, Sarah’s main source of income is her Patreon. “Events are sparse,” she explains mournfully. Past that, she feels that her Patreon is more than just a means to earn and make money. “Patreon has pushed me to create a new illustration every month,” she explains, “so I remain consistent in putting out work and growing my label.”
Every month, she specifically designs a new piece to launch on Patreon and she also likes to plan special illustrations for certain events such as Halloween (which is also Sarah Thursday’s anniversary) and her birthday.
The People Around Her
Sarah has made it clear that she would not have made it this far without the support of the people around her. Her friends, fellow artists, fans, family - they have all played a huge part in helping her make it to where she is today.
Over time, Sarah has managed to amass a following of loyal supporters. Some of whom have been supporting her since, or close to the launch of her label. One of her loyal supporters is Kaeden Lim, 18, who has been supporting Sarah for what is coming to slightly over 5 years.
“I first came across her booth at EOY Festival in 2016,” Kaeden says, “but I didn’t buy anything until 2017 because of monetary issues.”
He shares with us animatedly that he likes her brand for her art style and the unique designs, which he feels he cannot get anywhere else, and that he is extremely proud as someone who’s been watching the brand grow and blossom the past 5 years. “Watching her art get more intricate and personal has been quite a cool process,” He adds. He owns a large collection of her merchandise but his all-time favourite item of hers that he owns is a sling bag featuring the logo of the brand.
“I always make it a point to try and support the brand,” he tells us, “because I believe it and want it to grow. I feel proud because even though I’m not the one doing all the work, I have watched both the brand and Sarah’s art grow for the past 5 years.”
Though Sarah had always worked alone, she recently hired an intern, Hui Ping, to help ease her hectic workload. When asked to describe Sarah, Hui Ping described her as someone, “Chill, friendly, INDEPENDENT, business-minded and fun.”
Though she’s only worked with Sarah for a little over a month, Hui Ping has formed a close bond with Sarah and describes their relationship as “working with a friend but your friend is your big boss.” She is also extremely grateful for the opportunity Sarah has given her as Sarah has not only helped her network with other people in the community but also continuously supports her passion; tattooing. Hui Ping is an aspiring tattoo artist and in the recent booth that Sarah had hosted, she had designated a portion of her booth for Hui Ping to sell her tattoo stickers.
Covid Then VS Covid Now
Like every other business owner, be it small or large, Sarah was greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic that had taken the world by storm. At the start of the pandemic back in early 2020, when Singapore went into lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus, Sarah was pushed into a corner as 40% of her income came from physical events. Despite it being a rather challenging setback that was sprung on her out of nowhere, Sarah adapted quickly to the situation by focusing on growing her Patreon so she could have a more steady monthly income.
With extra time at home now on her hands, she managed to find the time to come up with a collaboration Kickstarter project named "Inugami X Kitsune" with her good friend, Sherms (@shermstan on Instagram). The Kickstarter went exceedingly well beyond their expectations, and it provided their brands with some much-needed financial stability as well.
Though the current Covid situation in Singapore is still rather unstable, the restrictions are more lenient as 82.7% of our population is fully vaccinated as of October 27 2021. Because of this, Sarah was able to host her first booth at Makers’ Market in 2021, with the only exception being an open studio booth she held in March.
She makes it a point to stay at the booth the whole time whenever she’s at an event to greet her friends and supporters.
Though it can be rather taxing on her both physically and mentally, the memories created and overall experience are always worth the exhaustion to her. Her warm smile when she told us, “Running the booth felt so surreal, and reminded me of how enjoyable boothing is again!” Was extremely heart-warming as you could feel how genuine her feelings were and how passionate she is about her brand.
Her Plans for The Future
Currently, Sarah hopes to further expand Sarah Thursday to further heights, even in the face of the pandemic. She recently held an extremely successful Kickstarter campaign and with further help from the Self-Employed grant(which provides up to $500 for SEPs who are facing a loss in their net trade), she took the plunge and decided to rent her own studio closer to her house so she could better work on her projects.
As the Covid situation evolves, Sarah hopes to slowly start moving back to holding events that are face to face. Currently, she is planning her first-ever Shop Takeover at The Lucky Shop located at Queensway Outlet from the 25th to 28th of November.
From Sarah To Aspiring Artists
To all those who aspire to pursue art in the future, Sarah encourages them to, and she leaves them with a word of advice. “Creating a business isn’t only about your art, it’s 80% business and logistic management too! Be kind, be
resourceful, be humble and have a keen spirit of learning.”
“There’s a treasure trove of potential in the art scene,” she enthuses passionately. It is reassuring to know that future artists will have someone as dedicated and passionate as Sarah to look to for guidance.
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