During most of March and half of April, 2010, I worked on the biggest project I’ve ever created. I was commissioned to illustrate all the walls of a mega restaurant/club called Sugar out in Long Island based on a campaign I illustrated for a boutique based in Chicago back in 2005- which launched my fashion career. More specifically, they fell in love with this drawing:

I was given the dimensions for all the walls, kind of, and attempted to design most of them on paper first, in order to get them approved by the client. Out of all the designs I did on paper, about 8, only 2 ended up being on the walls. Everything else was designed on the spot, drawn out of my head, life size. A challenge I hadn’t planned on but that turned out to feel very organic and much easier than I’d expected.

These are pictures of most of the space- except for 4 big panels I painted and the bathroom little men and women icons. The owners and a designer art directed me, giving me as much freedom as an artist could ever hope for. I designed the color palette based on what I was told about the space’s color scheme- changing radically about 4 times until finally hitting the right note-  and the idea of keeping it ‘sugary,’ festive and playful. Fortunately, they were all thrilled about the outcome.

I could have never done this in only 31 days without the help of my amazing assistant and partner in crime Manolo M., my brilliant student Miki Ishikawa and my dear friend Diana Eliazov. THANK YOU!