Beloveds, I am so happy to announce that I will be curating the newly relaunched Scent & Society series for the Institute of Art and Olfaction! I’m excited to go more in-depth about subjects adjacent to my smelly work here, but that don’t quite fit into Death/Scent’s vibe. Don’t worry though, D/S will still be going forward as usual. To start things off, I will be covering some of the basics about studying scent throughout time and in other cultures, details below.
Category: Art
[June Online Class] The Putrid and the Divine: The Magical Scents of Christian Saints
I am so excited to announce that I will be teaching another online class for the Institute of Art and Olfaction. This class is a fun dive into Christian olfactive ontology (I swear, it is cooler then it sounds, see below). The course will be held June 23rd, 9:00am-10:30am PST. My last two classes with…
Books I’m Excited to Read This Year
A new year is upon us and with it, a fresh start to crush my Goodreads Reading Challenge, or at least that is how I would have approached it in past years. I’m an intensely competitive person, and I would read 60-90 books a year mostly just to prove I could. I always had a…
More Spooktacular Fragrance Pairings for Halloween
Spooky season has descended upon us once again and with it the age-old quest for the perfect Halloween costume. Personally, I’ve been oscillating between Dolly Parton and Pugsley Addams this year. That’s right boys, get you a girl who can pull off both Dolly and Pugsley! All this mulling has led me back to one…
A Holiday Gift Guide For Difficult People
Let’s face it, I’m difficult, you’re difficult, Aunt Kathy is difficult, everyone is a pain in the ass to buy for. No matter what you celebrate this time of year, you may find yourself with a difficult person on your list. It’s not that they are rude or mean about your gift, its just…
Ephemera Guide: Poisoners, Flower Factories, & Malheureux
Hello my lovelies, November is here and my mind turns to thinking about what I’m thankful for. For me, the inspiration of amazing artist has been something that has kept me going and creating through a year that has been politically grim, to say the least. We need people out there creating beautiful things even…
A Murder Two Ways (Scent the Scene)
History is painted by the winners, but what does it smell like?
Ephemera Guide: Valentines from Beautiful Dark Hearts
Hello lovelies, so every once and a while I like to share the things that I love and inspire me in our Ephemera Guide. In contemplating what to boost in this month’s guide I thought it only proper to showcase some bad ass people and their amazing projects that I think you should know. They are…
The Perfumed Mummy (Egypt Part IV)
Now we reach the intersection of material culture, belief systems, and death with the physical preparation of the body, which used many aromatic ingredients. The creation of the archetypical Egyptian mummy was a complex evolution that embraced the olfactive elements of the putrid and the divine.
There Will Be Blood (Scent the Scene)
In this series, we examine aspects of death and bereavement through art, olfaction, and imaginative thinking. Feel free to follow along at home and leave your take on this scented death meditation below. This Week’s Muse St. Francis Borgia at the Death Bed of an Impenitent, Francisco Goya, 1788
