Jie Kuang is the artist behind Char & Whiskers, a brand that offers hand-drawn pet portrait services and products for animals and humans alike. As a hobbyist-turned-professional, Jie’s devotion to providing loving pet parents with high-quality products to pamper their pets makes Char & Whiskers a fulfilling and special way to connect with people.

BACKGROUND

After having spent most of her life drawing and participating in various art programs as a child, a successful career in the creative arts industry was ultimately bound to happen for Jie. When she wasn’t drawing at home, she was signing up for art activities in school and painting murals as part of an arts program in her hometown of Philadelphia.

Through the art community, Jie found a constant source of inspiration in her fellow creators. “I grew a huge admiration for my friends because I’ve never looked at another artist and felt like we had to be in competition with each other.”

With such a definitive passion for the arts, it feels inevitable that Jie would find herself making art full-time and running a continuously growing business. She recalls, “In a way, a lot of things made a lot of sense on how I ended up here, but I wouldn’t say it was the easiest journey.” After having worked in SEO for nearly a decade and being part of the founding team for a tech start-up, Jie took the lessons she had learned in her experiences and applied them to her art business.

CHAR & WHISKERS

Named after Jie’s orange tabby, Char, who she had rescued as a stray when he was a kitten, the pet brand offers custom hand-drawn portraits alongside accessories, toys, and apparel. The business originally began as a favor for a friend, who had asked Jie for a single-line style portrait of her dog. By asking customers to share the artwork of their pets on their social media platforms, Jie started to build a flourishing community of pet parents.

Using only what she had at the time, which was an old hand-me-down iPad and a $5 stylus, it wasn’t long until the hobby turned into her main work. From there, she used the funds she earned from drawing, purchased a printer, and invested in premium paper in order to offer high-quality physical prints in addition to digital delivery. For the first year of the business, Jie worked out of her own living room and used her apartment’s closet for supply storage until she was presented with the opportunity to occupy an artist studio in the historic Bok Building, located in South Philly. Having a dedicated space to do creative work allowed Jie to grow exponentially, both as an artist and business owner.

ONE PAW IN FRONT OF THE OTHER

In 2023, Jie’s focus was on experimentation and gaining insight: “The entire year, I said yes to every opportunity that was presented to me. I wanted to say yes to as many things as possible and see what works and see what does not, really testing everything.” Now that she has significantly widened her experiences with navigating Char & Whiskers through both online and in-person spaces, Jie’s plan for 2024 is to lean into the things that she felt worked positively for the brand, strategically say no to other things along the way, and continue to improve, refine, and scale in the future. 

“Sometimes things will get really hard, and that’s okay because it gets better. You have no idea how good it can be in just a year, so I always have that in my mind whenever I’m frustrated with something or I feel like I’m not growing fast enough. I remember that things are supposed to happen at certain times, and you can’t rush things.” — Jie Kuang

Artist of the Month

By featuring a different artist every month, The VALOUR Artist of the Month highlights members of the creative community and seeks to find out more about the person behind the work.