NFS
This drawing was exhibited in 2004 at SOMA Gallery, during Patricia's Solo Show titled Perfume

Familiar Scent, is a culmination of the development of the perfume series. These drawings are watercolor on paper, and these are technically enhanced, by utilizing a spray bottle along with mixture of watercolor, to create scent effect. As I became involved with the perfume bottles, I became curious about designing my own bottle, origin and creation of me. It was engaging just to elaborate a bottle design. During the early 1900’s, perfume bottles were designed after the perfume was invented. A bottle could not exist until the perfume was tested, and ready to be part of a bottle to match perfectly for both beauty and function. The perfume maker would agree with the final decision of the bottle design. Such bottles designs were highly appreciated, crisply hand crafted, sophisticated in style, such as Art Deco. Perfume bottles are an art form. In 1868 synthetic fragrance was first created. Through this discovery of synthetics, perfume becomes a larger business, contrasting perfume maker boutiques. It is an art to create perfume. Alchemy and science with laborious procedure unite to create a particular fragrance. I very much admire perfume makers, authentic perfumers and designers that wish to create perfume for an individual versus for an entire audience. By the 17th century, it was common for noble women to create their own fragrances, by experimenting with different aromas. A perfume designed for someone…that caught my attention! Throughout the process and research, I brought together elements of portraiture for my own bottle design. I juxtaposed the linear and design format into a new composition for my own perfume. I began this series by working with old photographs of my mother and father, during the years they first met, at the height of their beauty and becoming.

In Beginning, I am depicted, as a young woman, at the lower right side, as imagining the experiment of a bottle design, in a chemical essence, picturing the face of my mother, an awaken and happy glance. In Windex versus Mom and I, I decided to combine Windex, a domestic usage intervening in my creative process. I focus on determining my scent. It’s an obstacle, which is non-sense. My mother and I are opposed, looking in different directions. Windex is included because I included Tylex in the other series. Again, an experiment by comparing scent in general, bottle design in general, the spray effect, and the function of particular scent, versus domestic and feminine qualities. A glimpse of a tree branch is denoted on the top left corner, diagonal to Windex, again as opposite elements, nature versus chemicals. Together and Apart, speaks about the family - mother, father and daughter. In reality, my parents are no longer a couple, and my father past away in 1985. So, this is a nostalgic retrospective moment about them. I am the new breed. In this drawing my mother is portrayed frontal, alive and smiling, I am in profile, looking away, as if observing the scene. My father, also in profile, and his eyes are closed, he is placed on the top of the page, skyward, as if going to heaven. Celebration, presents my facing forward and facing the viewer, happy, surrounded by outlined flowers shapes, lilies, and an imaginary bottle with spray…a birth and a celebration is about to begin! Calling, is another drawing featuring the family portraits. This time I am at the top of the page, moving towards the unknown, yet still part of my parents, as if no matter what happens, or where I go, I am part of them…origin is eternal. The Mix, focuses on a minimal portrait of the family, uniting the forces among the three. I am in the center, larger in scale, eyes open and confronting the viewer, and ready for the preparation of the bottle design. It is an abstract way of looking at a different approach to designing a bottle. Familiar Scent, is a personal story, which alludes to the viewer’s imagination in inventing the finished design of a perfume bottle. The fragrance can be imagined as a mixture of the human faces.