Friday, July 9, 2010

Mystery of Musk: Winner!




...and the winner is: Dionne!
(Get in touch with me at olfactarama at att dot net, and we’ll get your bottle of “Verdigris” to you posthaste!)
Conclusion

On beginning this project, I agonized over what I would say. As a perfume blogger, I’d learned to recognize things like aldehyde C-12, Iso-E-Super and Linalool, but not things like Ambrette Seed and African Stone, so I was apprehensive, especially considering the company of bloggers and perfumers I was in.
 A few of these perfumers are well-established businesses. Others, I’m pretty sure, are home-based. All have this in common: they believe in what they’re doing. That spirit shines out of the work. 
I sniffed and learned. The scents themselves are different. At first, they seem a little unfinished compared to mainstream perfumes, and without synthetic molecules to stitch not always predictable natural essences together in an easily controlled way, perhaps they are. But that difference gives them gravitas, a kind of authority. 
Evaluation is a left-brain thing. It was my wish that, through the series of gestural paintings, I could come closer to the mystery, and history, of this art; that I could bypass that analytical thing, be less judge, more participant; that I could, through wordlessness, capture the elusive something else in these essences. At times it went well and at other times I struggled. I’m not sure I always succeeded, but it was an intensely creative few days. And I do feel that it put me in better touch with the intent and essence of these scents.
So enough already. Thanks again to Anya McCoy and Elena Vosnaki for putting this together. And all of you who read and commented. And the perfumers, of course, who are:
Adam Gottschalk – Lord’s Jester 
Alexandra Balahoutis – Strange Invisible Perfumes 
Ambrosia Jones – Perfume by Nature
Charna Ethier – Providence Perfumes
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz – DSH Perfumes
Elise Pearlstine – Belly Flower Perfumes 
JoAnne Bassett – JoAnne Bassett Perfumes
Lisa Fong – Artemisia Perfume 
Nicholas Jennings – Sharini Parfums Naturels



...and the other bloggers, of course:




I Smell Therefore I Am - Abigail Levin
Indie Perfumes - Lucy Raubertas
Bitter Grace Notes - Maria Browning


1 comment:

Dionne said...

Woohoo! Oh, this is me doing a happy dance. :) Thank you so much!