Lanier Smith ( Michael Smith) is an American friend and fellow blogger, author, artist and film maker (give a look at his YouTube channel: you’ll be finding incredible re-makings of the most important movies). He lives in San Francisco (California, USA) and he masters an huge and professional knowledge and experience about scents and fragrances history, culture and marketing.

On his blog –  “Scents Memory” – he wrote a great story about one of my “Lacer/actions” artworks which will be on display in my upcoming “Colors of an Apocalypse” show scheduled on Lake Como on July 3-4-5, at the Romanesque Baptistery we admire in Lenno.

Nothing new, someone will say. But Lanier Smith really did something unprecedented. He translated the “feelings” and the inner sensations of my artwork (an abstract photo of cracks) in an unique and extraordinary olfactory description, associating the image to the prestigious Chanel Cristalle.

Lanier Smith is an expert and researcher of essences and perfumes . And he is in love with Italy. In his post – that I reblog in its full version, pictures included – he splendidly combines scents, colors and feelings recalling a famous place in Rome: Villa Borghese and its wonderful Gardens.

* 

LACER/AZIONI! CHANEL CRISTALLE…

By Lanier Smith

Read the original story at: 

https://sentsmemory.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/lacerazioni-chanel-cristalle/

How do you escape the noise, pressure and the maddening crowds of a city? It is something we all can do; all you need is a park and the sky. Lying on the soft grass on your back looking up at the sky is an instant escape. Everything sinks into the earth beneath the soft damp grass you are lying on. Work, time, pressure, anger, frustration, worry, they all slide away as you seem to levitate toward the sky. The one thing that doesn’t slide way is your sense of smell.

My friend and fellow blogger Roberto Alborghetti is a wonderful artist. When I became enamored of his new works entitled Lacer/azioni,  “Lacer /actions”,  I got to know him over time. Roberto creates his amazing works from decomposing publicity posters and city signs. It is really amazing to see because there is not a trace of the source material in the finished pieces and you would never guess where they originated. He photographs details of posters and street signs and then transfers them to canvas, and video, and even to silk scarves. He is a renowned Journalist in Italy as well as the author of over 30 books and a television producer. But it is obvious from his passion about his work that this is where is heart resides, in his wonderful art. 

Roberto came to me with a challenge recently. Was it possible to find inspiration in one of his artworks that could lead to comparison to a particular perfume? Could I unlock the connection between visual and sensual? That was indeed at first a baffling idea to me, so I accepted the challenge.  It took months of looking at the painting once a day and smelling a different scent in conjunction with the visual. Each attempt lead to zero, nothing clicked and I was beginning to think the task was an impossible one.

In Thursday’s mail I received a bottle of perfume I had been looking for and waiting to try for many months. Filled with that anticipation we who love perfume all share, I opened the box and tested the perfume on my arm. Instantly I understood what had been missing in my quest for the perfect scent to go along with Roberto’s artpiece. Chanel Cristalle Eau De Parfum entered my senses and opened my eyes with a fresh point of view about the picture.

I was transported to the Villa Borghese, the wonderful and enchanted park in the center of Rome. The smell of the earth moist after a May rain shower meets the nostrils with a primal pungent primavera punch.  Flowers washed clean in the rain add to the aroma as you look up look up into the same sky in which Michelangelo must have envisioned God creating Adam amongst the clouds. There is a deep rich smell of bark in the background, the unmistakable smell of a city park. This is what I saw when I looked into the artwork by Roberto as I was entranced by Chanel’s Cristalle’s very deep green and floral Chypre notes. I was lying on my back looking up at the most beautiful sky in the world.

Cristalle opens brightly through the sun dappled leaves of the trees with a superb blending of exotic Mandarin, with hardy warm Sicilian Lemons. These are perfect Mediterranean citrus notes.  There is a little juicy peach in the back of the park warm and fuzzy in the sun adding a bright lush taste, up front at the entrance to the park Lilly of the Valley and bergamot join in right. It is going to be lovely here in the Villa Borghese.

In the middle notes just far enough into the park that the city sounds fade with the there is the “Chanel” Jasmine, like no other jasmine in the world it enfolds you in pure delight like the laughter of a beautiful woman in the dark. Rich earthy Iris adds a note of dangerous glamour and reminds you to dig your fingers into the moist richness of this experience. Hyacinth and Rosewood are found in this part of the urban forest and only enhance and deepen the sensuality of this fragrance.

At sundown near the edge of the park the base notes of green woody vetiver and oak moss enhance the beauty of your visit to this place where the sky meets the city and there is escape for anyone seeking it. Cristalle is marketed as a female perfume yet it is not at all overwhelmingly feminine. I would categorize it as a very bold uni-sex scent. Longevity is good and the silage respectable.

So at last I found the scent that met the challenge, at least for me. I am sure when you look at the works by Roberto Alborghetti you might find a special scent in your perfume wardrobe that it inspires.

To learn more about Roberto and his magnificent art please visit his blog:https://robertoalborghetti.wordpress.com/