|
|
www.sugarluxe.com
Both Sugarluxe and Alayna Magnan (Room 207) describe their art as centered around sexy female forms that appeal particularly to women.
“Playboy Magazine has had a definite effect on my work,” explains Chandra Michaels, founder of design and apparel company Sugarluxe, “America’s Sweet Art.” “Oddly, it’s not the pictures, but the perception of the Playboy Centerfold that has always inspired me, particularly in early issues. Those woman had TRUE sex appeal--not just beautiful faces and fabulous bodies, but a sort of timeless allure. That’s the kind of thing I think about when I am conceptualizing a new Sugarluxe Girl.”
While her ultra-feminine designs have earned her high-profile clients such as the MTV Music Awards, Painted Rooms allowed her to take some time out from her intense schedule of business projects to paint for twelve hours a day over two weeks.
“I absolutely jumped at the chance to do work for the Hotel Des Arts,” she says. “Running a company requires that I tend to a hundred business-related things at once. Time to design, paint and create are now a luxury, and are usually done on tight deadlines. However, completing the Sugarluxe Room at the Hotel des Arts was liberating. It was such an honor to contribute to this great space.”
Dubbed “a magnet to the masses,” by New York Artist American Guru, the Sugarluxe aesthetic is as much brand as creative venture—and Michaels makes no apologies for her commercial success.
“I am an entrepreneurial, modern day artist who is dead set on making a living doing what I love. Art is what I create, products are what I design, and I look at everyday items with an eye for whether or not they would make a good canvas. I’ve been called a fashion designer because I have a line of fashion accessories, a surface designer because I create textile prints, a graphic designer because I can work digitally, and an illustrator because I draw. But maybe the best way to look at it is this: I am an artist who has learned to use every tool at my disposal to apply my art in ways that make it accessible to everyone.”
|
