American Resistance, 2017. Carbon resistor painted with acrylic.
perfume and my artistic practice /
A collage of recent works in perfumery, including my line, Field to Fragrance®, and my company insignia, The Virginia Perfume Company
I have decided to add perfumery to my artistic portfolio. For years, I searched for scents that I loved and was almost always dissatisfied. Real perfume is rare in today's marketplace; and when you find it, the costs are exorbitant. I understand the expense to a point: ingredients for perfume are precious and valuable, but the added fees for brand identity are excessive. I discovered that making perfume is similar to my existing practice, wherein I combine traditional media, engineering, and intuition. Perfumery promises transcendent results, but the process of creation is both artistically and scientifically demanding. Fortunately, I have a knack for art and science, so making perfume has been a natural progression for me.
Creating chakric perfumes for "Bee the Flower," 2015
Some of you may remember my initial foray into perfumery from Pollination (2015). I created a series of perfumes corresponding to the chakras of the human body, along with body pollen. Both were combined into a painting kit that is used to adorn yourself with scent and color -to literally become a flower- as would attract a bee (or in our case, another pollinating human being). I plan to revisit the formulas for my chakric perfumes and launch a related line in 2017 under the umbrella of The Virginia Perfume Company. Each chakric perfume is designed to evoke a bodily frequency spectra for the enhancement or healing thereof.
Some of my notebook writings to create a new formula, revealing my process and failures
Making a new formula is a challenge that I liken to inventing a new recipe, such as for Mrs Fields Cookies. Although I start with a vision, I can't predict the complex interactions that occur in the mixing process. Some surprises are positive while others are lackluster or even disastrous, ruining the entire mix and forcing a time-consuming and expensive restart. Obviously, I develop using small quantities because I never get the formula right on my first try. For some formulas, I spend many months and thousands of dollars of ingredients down the drain.
A typical view of my perfume bench during development
When a formula finally comes together, it feels like magic. The ingredients gel into a perfume that evokes memories and emotions. Smell is such a strong and ancient sense. The effort to create a perfume of great beauty is worth every effort. You can experience my results here. Thank you for your interest in my perfumery, as I take great pride in my work; not to mention, by purchasing my perfumes you are supporting my overall artistic practice. For that, I am extremely grateful.
Many thanks and kind regards,
Kelly Heaton
open studio: technology-dependent person /
Technology is changing our entire experience of reality. I grew up without email or cell phones, and only started to use a word processor in high school. Landline phones, TV, movies, and radio offered escapes from reality, but people basically lived in the real world all. of. the. time. Even when we were bored, we hung out in the real world. Now, the instant we experience boredom or social isolation, we check our email. We text instead of calling or talking in person. We search the web. We update our blog and procrastinate on social media. Our entire psychological construct is evolving from physical reality to virtual. Even our dreams replay experiences that do not exist in physical reality. What would Jung and Freud say? As we withdraw from nature and into ourselves, into fantasy and ephemera, we are ever-more vulnerable to basic realities that once occupied humans all of the time. Danger, Will Robinson.
open studio: boy meets girl /
Boy Meets Girl (2 Knobs with Variable Resistance), 2016. Colored pencil, graphite, and gouache on paper. 11" x 15"
This drawing is a study of potentiometers and their knobs as a metaphor for people and their personas. A potentiometer is a device that is used to adjust (vary) resistance in a circuit. Volume knobs are potentiometers. Or, more accurately, a volume knob is mounted into the shaft of a potentiometer to facilitate easy adjustment. In order than the entire mechanism doesn't turn when you twist the knob, potentiometers (aka "pots") are mounted into some kind of panel. Most people only see the knob mounted onto the panel, and are never privy to the pot behind -- which is the real story.
Relationships are similar. We hide our true selves behind a rigid panel, a wall, presenting others with a knob, or persona, with which to interact. Other factors twist our knob, represented here by a bunch of thumbs in the sky. Maybe God, maybe fate, maybe spirits ... who knows. In my drawing, I included a spark gap in the foreground which will ignite if the boy's and girl's knobs are properly adusted. If they are turned on, so to speak, ;-)
open studio: who /
Detail of "Who," 2016. Colored pencil, graphite, and gouache on paper.
I continue to study electronic circuit design as a means to represent the "energy anatomy" of a human being. In this drawing, "Who," I have constructed each chakra of the body using a simple circuit designed to manifest the corresponding energy. In the above detail, you can see the solar plexus, heart, throat, mind, and crown chakras (in ascending order). In the coming weeks, I'll be working on sculptural studies of the chakras; and I will explain my reasons in greater detail.
open studio: detail of drawing in progress /
open studio: buddha resists mara /
Buddha Resisting Mara, 2016. Painted ceramic, wood, electronics, and wire.
A little sculpture / study of Buddha meditating beneath the Bodhi tree. To his left, is Mara assumes the appearance of death. To his right, Mara is the illusion of life. The branches of the tree are full of so many little resistors, pursuing their own journey to enlightenment.
open studio: study for a chakra totem /
Study for a chakra totem, 2016
Notebook sketch and circuit diagram for each of the seven human chakras compiled in a single sculptural totem. The drawing reads from the bottom of the left page to the top; resuming at the bottom of the right page and ending at the top. The circuit design for each of the chakras relates to the energy of that center. The root chakra provides positive energy, ground, and negative energy. The sex chakra lights an LED, the intensity of which is determined by a heat-sensitive thermistor. The gut chakra is not really its own circuit, but I honestly cannot understand why the gut is not included in the 7 primary chakras. Anyway, here it is a looping intestine of wires. The solar plexus chakra illuminates according to ambient signals detected by a piezo electric sensor. The heart chakra is an astable multivibrator with asymmetric capacitors, producing a pulsing light like the beating of a heart. The throat chakra is a speaker driven by the mind and crown chakras (although I should really couple in signals from lower energy centers). The speaker is driven by mind and crown frequencies that are summed in the mind. The mind also contains a timer circuit to generate its own adjustable and mostly digital rhythm. The crown chakra is a simple crystal radio receiver.