Gift of Prose

I’ve been silently bemoaning the fact that Heather, of the blog Memory and Desire, has gone into a hermetic phase. I find her to be such an exquisite writer and innovative thinker. She blends her skill in the right and left hemispheres beautifully. Artistic, creative thought with high intellect.

If you have not checked out her blog, here is a link: Memory and Desire
Explore the posts and her fantastic resource files on perfumers, classes and suppliers.

At the San Diego Comic Con this year Deepak Chopra was there once again to share his views on the Super Hero, Story and Quantum Physics. Perhaps Heather is like Batman, she has gone down to her cave to replenish and nurture. When she arrives back to our sphere, with all her super powers intact, she will once again dazzle us with her gift of prose.

Image above ©Greg Spalenka

Memory and Desire
Roxana Illuminated Perfume™

Visual and Aromatic Arts

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place;
from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper,
from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.
~ Pablo Picasso

Yesterday I was filmed here in the studio for an upcoming conference for "solpreneurs" happening this summer. Once I get more details I will post here, it sounds fabulous. I was asked questions regarding what business challenges I face. It's interesting that as a botanical perfumer and visual artist the challenges are quite similar. The main difference is that for an aromatic artist the health of ones sense of smell is paramount to your ability to work. Lately my olfactory sense has been a bit compromised by allergies. It's so frustrating! I can duplicate perfumes which have already been transcribed, however, creating new accords and perfumes can be a challenge. Interestingly enough, sometimes, when I sit down to work my sinuses and breathing clears. I attribute this to the healing powers of the essential oils, focus and working blissfully.

At the moment I continue to work on several custom perfume portraits, new accords, perfumes and the special fragrance I am creating for the Heather Ettlinger Perfume in a Poem Project. Have you been following the project? It's so fascinating to read each perfume artists interpretation of the Ezra Pound poem. Check it out, it's really inspiring. Fellow perfumer and colleague Ayala Moriel was featured yesterday.

Perfume in a Poem Project
Ayala Moriel
Roxana Illuminated Perfume™
Greg Spalenka
The School of Visual Arts

"Butterfly Lady" © Greg Spalenka is an original mixed media painting created for the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The original hangs at school in New York. If you lived in NYC in the eighties and rode the subways you might remember seeing it plastered on the walls.

Perfume Inside the Poem

Heather Ettlinger, devotee of both perfume and poetry, has fused her love into a fun and creative project on her blog Memory and Desire. Heather has attracted fourteen perfumers from different terrains to participate. The collaboration is called Perfume Inside the Poem and centers around the Ezra Pound poem titled In a Station of the Metro. An introduction to the project and the poem has been posted on the Memory and Desire blog. The contributing perfumers are quite diverse with aromatic palettes ranging from Naturals, Botanicals, Synthetics and/or a combination. Besides reading and viewing the contributions from each participant one can also enter to win samples.

The contribution from Roxana Illuminated Perfume is scheduled to be posted on Memory and Desire Saturday, March 29th.

The image above is more evocative of the Poem Inside the Perfume, than the Perfume Inside the Poem. However, it is a lovely illustration which conveys an appropriate mood. The bottle in the illustration is a mason jar which I use to tincture and infuse many of the materials that go into my botanical perfumes. The illustration is called "Preserved Memories" ©Greg Spalenka.

Perfume Inside the Poem
Memory and Desire
Roxana Illuminated Perfume™