I've realized that I often feel like I need some kind of VERY GOOD reason before I ever start to make art....a provocative and deeply insightful statement about contemporary society, a medium yet to be explored in art history's trajectory...I don't know, a funny joke to base it on, at least...
But then I remember the metaphor a teacher once gave in school about the necessity of having a fridge full of good ingredients before cooking a feast. And I think I want this blog to be part of how I grocery shop: A record of collecting inspiration, savoring deep relationships and good food and purposeful living, exploring ideas and images...and then seeing what comes of it all, both in how this kind of living shapes me as a person and how it shapes my art. Of course, I don't need a blog for any of this, but what a fantastic opportunity to flesh these things out among community and maybe even spur another on to their own form of grocery shopping! (and what a nice little kick in the butt to do the things I want to do anyway, because someone might actually read! Lordy, I'm such a people pleaser, but whatever works).
So about these bottles...I let my appreciation for their designs and intricacies justify drawing this little collection. While I was drawing I day dreamt about a little indy perfume maker that repurposes vintage bottles for her/his potions (surely there's someone doing this). I thought about a fantastic book I read about 10 years ago now called The History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman and how it completely increased my capacity for wonder. For example, did you know that the sense of smell is subjective to the degree that there are tribes of people who would recoil at the idea of freshening one's breath with mint, but who routinely use animal feces by products as a hair tonic? ...Or that Napoleon asked Josephine not to bathe when he would be returning from war shortly, so he could enjoy her natural scent? This is one wild and crazy world we live in.
I brainstormed ideas of where these drawing could go...paired with details from vintage inspired anatomical paintings of respiratory systems? Something to connect science with romance? Plus other scent oriented imagery in some kind of salon style hung art collection ? Or something metaphoric, something about the body as a vessel? I wonder if this is kinda what it's like to try to guess what your kids might do when they grow up? Probably not. It would be okay if these guys stayed in my sketchbook/on this blog and just taught me a little more about what it's like to see and interpret with a pen...I don't think the analogy holds with kids. I'm not a parent, but just sayin.'
Anyway, thanks for reading. And how do you fill your fridge?