The Facebook Quiz | Find Out: Which Sugarluxe Girl Are You?

June 2, 2009 by Chandra Michaels  
Filed under Art, Business, Featured, How To, Life, Projects

Which Sugarluxe Girl Are You?Quite seriously? I’ve been dying to make and take this quiz for years.  Sometimes technology just has to catch up with the vision.

Before completing my undergrad degree in Psychology, I began considering what I’d like to study next (yes, I’m one of those nerdy types who loves to learn!)

Luckily, one day, bolting  across campus to gather information on both the LSAT and requirements for secondary teaching certification, I ran into one of my former professors.  He told me a little bit about his research in the Ed. Psych Department.

He was overseeing a Graduate Program with a specialty in Cognition.  After hearing just a brief description, I knew it was what I wanted to do next. 

 LEARNING and COGNITION
“Educational Psychologists who concentrate their work in these areas try to better understand the factors that influence performance and how to affect positive change.”  Quoting this description from the department itself, you can probably see how this became part of the foundation upon which I would eventually build the Sugarluxe Brand

Having spent two years prior to graduation helping to conduct research with another professor in the area of Abnormal Psychology, I was really looking to switch gears.  It was my last year of undergrad that most greatly impacted my direction.  I was assigned to work at a hospital about an hour and a half south of town.  I reported to the psychiatric wing once a week.  We were doing a study on schizophrenia.  I was the only female research assistant (and barely 20 years old) on an all-male patient ward.  I remember the overwhelming feeling of apprehension the first time I walked through those double doors.

ART + PSYCHOLOGY
But after acclimating to the unrelenting cat calls, it was a weirdly rewarding and life altering experience.  Namely because of one patient.

I don’t even know if this man knew I was there.  I sat next to him.  I observed him.  I tried having countless conversations with him.  But he never responded to me.  He wasn’t catatonic, he was just a bit delusional and suffering from severe hallucinations.  The deal was…he would draw the entire time.  He was quite an amazing artist and when he finished each sketch, he would talk to it as if his drawing had come to life.

Despite having a fairly profound disturbance, I found him to be fascinating and inspirational.  In fact, he affected me so deeply, I realized, I wasn’t cut out for that kind of work.  I was afraid I would never be able (and never want) to desensitize myself.

Instead of focusing on what was wrong with him, I wanted to figure out what was right. 

What had happened to this man?  Who were the people he portrayed in his art?  What motivated him to draw?  Was he always compelled to create?  How did it help him to cope with life?  Could we use his talents to facilitate treatment?

CRAZY IDEAS
Back then, I would have never dreamed that I would get to live my life doing what I do. 

In all honesty, I think I was a little scared that people might think I was delusional for thinking I could be an artist.  Or that I could build a company with very little money, based on artwork that had never been seen by anyone, with no connections in the art world, no formal art training and with the intent to spread a message of hope and optimism, especially at a time when that was so clearly against the status quo. 

Maybe THAT’S crazy?!

Just as I imagine it must have somehow helped my patient, creating art has helped me to cope with pain, confusion, and frustration.  The fact that I’ve chosen not to depict those feelings as part of the artwork itself, and merely as part of the therapeutic process it provides, doesn’t make it any less profound.  There’s far more there for those who look below the surface.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
That’s why I’ve anxiously awaited the opportunity to implement a Sugarluxe Girl profile quiz. Even though there are probably thousands of quizzes on Facebook now, this one actually does have years of thought, understanding and analysis behind it.  Its influence is a product of my work itself.  The personalities that are infused into the art are drawn from the very people who continue to inspire each and every piece I make.

Part of my mission has always been to comprehend the complexity of the positive characteristics that make up our personalities and how those attributes contribute to our sense of self.  The way that I’ve tried to do that is by simplifying those wonderful traits into something visually iconic.

FUN on FACEBOOK
Does that sound too lofty and idealistic for a simple Facebook Application?  I hope not.  It takes less than 5 minutes and it’s also FUN!

I have a blast meeting up with friends/fans on Facebook.  I love seeing what you’re up to, learning about your families, looking at photos and watching the massive amounts of support that people provide one another there. 

Plus, I’d bet people agree – I’m actually a lot more light-hearted than I probably sound here.  This blog is like my diary and facebook is more reflective of my daily life. I guess it just depends on where I am at any given moment.

But that’s really my whole point.  Like the pictures that I paint, we have so many layers, don’t we?

sugarluxe-girl-quiz

I hope you like the first Sugarluxe Girl quiz.  More importantly, I hope you will share it with friends because the profiles, although definitely fun, are also meant to reinforce how wonderful you are – to me – and to all those who know you. 

The results I’ve seen, seem to be pretty spot on.  What do you think?  Which Sugarluxe Girl Are YOU?

Soul Sista | Dollface | Nautigirl

 

—————————————————————  GET MOTIVATED —————————————————————

Our True Potential?

I greatly appreciate your help in this mission:  To understand our most positive personality traits, how they affect our outlook on life and by acknowledging and owning those characteristics, we can identify, and hopefully, bring out the best in others, too.

This is one way, TOGETHER, we help people discover that confidence and kindness are essential building blocks of a better life. 

7 Steps on How You Can Help:

1.  If you haven’t already done so, START by joining us on the Sugarluxe Facebook Page.

2.  Paste this link to your profile - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sugarluxe/85019116599

3.  Next, be sure to take the Facebook Quiz - Which Sugarluxe Girl Are You?

4.  Post or even re-publish your results to your profile and invite your friends to participate too.

5.  Leave a comment here on this Sugarluxe Blog post and share the results of your quiz.

6.  Write your Facebook App Review on the Sugarluxe Quiz Application Page.

7.  Discuss ideas with other creative, compassionate, kind, charismatic Sugarluxe Friends!

Post to Twitter

Sugarluxe in Home of Pop Star Celebrity Miley Cyrus | InStyle Magazine

July 8, 2008 by Chandra Michaels  
Filed under Art, Business, Featured, News

You have 269 new messages:

Message 1: Karen Scott

“Is Fabulous in the dressing room of Miley Cyrus? It’s in her house. Have you seen InStyle Magazine? Why don’t you tell me this stuff? I had to find out from someone who came and asked me. I’m your best friend – I’m supposed to know these things. Call me back.  Nevermind, you won’t even get this message…”

Sugarluxe in the House with Miley Cyrus

Thank God Karen and I have been best friends for 10+ years and she forgives me for my failure to give her information first before it becomes public knowledge.

Not to mention, I rarely listen to voicemail messages (that’s just one of those things my friends, business colleagues, interns, other artists and my own family) have come to accept about me. I NO likey the phone.

But here’s the truth about magazine and celebrity stuff…

Sure, I usually know about magazine coverage, with big national publications like InStyle, they typically put an issue to bed many months before it hits the stands. But check this out — the ONE time I talked about Sugarluxe being in a certain magazine…it didn’t happen. The ONE freakin’ time.

So, my rule of thumb since that incident is this — mum’s the word.

What works about this approach is:

  • I love to surprise others.
  • There’s so much fun in your friends and fans discovering it for themselves and messaging you to let you know all about it.
  • Little doers are better than big talkers.

Here’s my other guideline:

Celebrities do not make Sugarluxe, however, Sugarluxe does make art for celebrities.

FABULOUS by Sugarluxe

What do I mean?

Let’s take Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Tom Cruise for starters. If you’ve completely associated your brand or business with a certain celebrity and they turn out to be a complete nutbag (which seems to be a matter of when and not if) what does that do to what you’ve created? Where do you go from there?

I’m not really into tying my name to somebody else who I can’t control.

Unless:

I really like them and they’ve been a good friend to me (John Corbett)

They are sexy, dirty hot (Tommy Lee)

I think they’re the sweetest mega-rich couple I’ve ever met (Gregg & Jeff Foxworthy)

Or, I meet Oprah. Which I haven’t. But I will. Soon.

So – yes, it’s super cool to see my work hanging in the spot Miley Cyrus calls “one of her favorite rooms in the house”. And, I have four nieces under the age of 11 – so I admit that I’ve watched my share of Hannah Montana episodes (and really liked them).

But to me, I get far more pumped about someone who writes me a special note saying that they love my work, or they send me a picture of a Sugarluxe piece that they bought, or they tell me that I’ve inspired them in some way.

It may not seem like much compared to all the fancy famous stuff, but that’s what means the most to me!

If you’d like to order an Artist’s Proof piece just like this original painting, you can find it here – Sugarluxe Fabulous Art.

Post to Twitter