What do you want your life to smell like

[Music]

what did ancient egypt smell like

when denver art museum asked me to

create a presentation for their king tut

exhibit

this was my first question not great as

you can imagine

people in the ancient world lived with

their animals

had no running water and no bathrooms

so when they came across something that

smelled good they thought it was sent by

god

in fact they thought it was god

it’s with the egyptians that western

history begins and the historical use of

fragrance starts with them

they created sacred scents anointing

oils and incense made of resins

spices herbs dried fruit

wine and animal fats to send messages

and prayers to the gods

perfume or perfume literally means

through smoke

at first these scents were only to be

handled by the priests and priestesses

but eventually fragrance became so

important in their culture

that scent was used in everyday life by

everyone

even the enslaved in fact the first

slave revolt happened

when there was a perfume shortage and

they weren’t given their quota

for the ancient egyptians having a scent

was synonymous with having a soul

essentially if you had no scent you

weren’t truly alive

we still embraced these ideas today with

the notion of a signature sent as our

invisible calling card

our sense of smell affects nearly every

part of our lives

with every breath every movement we are

taking in the world

smelling it and communicating something

back

smell is the only sense that bypasses

your brain’s filtering system

with vision for example your eyes take

in way more information than you

consciously see

you don’t see anything that your brain

finds unimportant

in this way your brain filters vision

hearing your

sense of taste and touch but smell is

different you are already experiencing

the effects of scent before your

conscious mind even realizes it

we’ve all had the experience of walking

down the street only to encounter a

smell that

transports us through time and space to

a long forgotten memory

the smell of your dad’s jacket when you

were six or that first whiff of green

grass on field day in elementary school

this is the power of scent

but now here’s where it gets a lot more

interesting

aside from putting on deodorant in the

morning or lighting a candle to enhance

the smell in your house

most of these experiences happen

accidentally

so what if we were more intentional with

our use of scent

we could shift our mood in an instant we

could slip into a new identity

a better version of ourselves we could

trigger

old memories on purpose

i’ve been making multi-sensory art for

nearly 30 years

and like so many things in life i didn’t

set out to work with fragrance

i didn’t even know it was a job i was in

art school

studying to be a painter when i started

learning about herbs and aromatherapy

in the hope that it would help me better

handle my asthma

this led me down a winding path to a

small perfumery in boston that made

all custom-made fragrances of course as

a student i needed a job

so i applied with no experience and

no training i showed up on my first day

to see what i could do

and it was a sink or swim moment i swam

through this first job i realized a few

things that would change my work and

life trajectory forever

one i love scent

smelling is an incredible source of

pleasure

two perfumery is an endless art form

you can never exhaust your imagination

there are always new materials being

produced to

combine in novel ways to make your art

and tell your stories through

three i’m synesthetic which means that i

smell in color

texture line and shape for me every

aroma has a unique visual quality

attached to it

cold pressed lime oil smells like a

cubist painting

with stripes of lime green dark green

black and silver

coming out at you at sharp angles

oris root smells like buttered carrots

with violets and dark chocolate but it

looks like a light periwinkle gauze

made of the thinnest strands of silk and

cashmere floating in the sky

it’s this last bit that’s been the

foundation of my work as an artist

i confuse visual design elements with

scent impressions to make my work

and this art form has brought me to all

kinds of places like

art galleries and museums to make

installations and presentations but

some of my favorite work has been made

with individuals

people telling me their life story to be

translated into scent

like bottled biographies that you can

uncork any time and

even share with others people tell me of

their closest

relationships of the things and people

and places that they love

together we smell materials as we

decipher their story and

find the aromas to bring it to life some

of my work is autobiographical

when i was four years old i spent my

first night away from my parents

it was preschool summer camp and as a

finale to the experience we had a

camping trip

we all spent the night outside in a pine

grove under the open night sky

i didn’t sleep at all that night because

i couldn’t stop listening to the trees

whispering to one another above my head

i’ll never forget the magic in that

night

and infused in my memory as the smell of

sweet pine sap

cool night air and the ancient aroma of

woods mixed with

earth decades later in my studio i would

have to find just the right pine and fur

and frankincense oils to replicate the

sweet sap aroma

and mix it with warm cedar lab denim

resin

and sandalwood to give the feeling of

the grove

but it’s the top note of green leaf

alcohol that gives the essence of cool

night air

i call this perfume the voices of trees

another favorite is called august picnic

when i was a kid my family would get

together for summer picnics at my

grandfather’s farmhouse and we’d all go

swimming in the pond

in my memory there was always a rhubarb

pie or

fresh rhubarb to eat with sugar this

perfume

august picnic 1976 tells the story of

those

humid summer days filled with tall grass

the cedar cabin and rhubarb

but it’s the sweet sugar note in the

background that tells of our bond

the sweetness of playing with my cousins

and feeling connected to the older

generation

we know people by the way that they

smell whether they’re wearing perfume or

not we know if they smoke a pipe or

drink coffee or love to garden by the

way that they smell

and unconsciously we all want to be

known

for our scent to be remembered

one day a woman contacted me to ask if i

was familiar with a particular iris

perfume from the 1940s

of course i was i’ve been collecting

perfume since i was a kid

among perfume lovers this scent is both

famous and rare

she said she got a sample from a perfume

collector and had

fallen in love with it it made her feel

even more like herself

but it was even more than that faced

with another round of chemo

she needed this perfume to be her

scented shield a kind of lucky charm

a scented talisman to ward off danger

and give her strength

i smelled the perfume on her skin and

matched it in the bottle using tiny

precise amounts of

materials together we created the scent

of hope

a direct reformulation of the original

that

got her through her chemo it still

brings her joy

and brings beauty to those who wear it

we can all bring this power into our

lives

by deciding what we want our world to

smell like

we can transform it modern life is

filled with overwhelm and anxiety but

like the ancient egyptians we can become

the architects of our own scentscapes by

consciously doing

what we’re already doing breathing

and smelling we can all take a moment

each day to ask ourselves

what do i want to feel like what do i

need

pay attention to the smells that give

you pleasure

make you feel peaceful or even strong

and powerful and give yourself

more of them this most ancient sense is

the doorway to our deepest selves

the key to our joy self-expression

peace and empowerment use it

intentionally and you’ll find

that scent is deeply life-affirming

thank you