Temple and Garden
Jonah Meltzer’s Green Wings is an olfactory journey and companion as summer fades to fall.
Earlier this spring, I began exploring metaphysical healing as a theme in my artwork. As traumas and tragedies continue to snake their way through our collective consciousness, I’m grateful to be making a life in a city that understands the political infrastructure of our world, and still continues to create—continues to dream—not out of willful ignorance, but for a sense of personal agency, community, and resistance to the projected, darkening plume on the horizon.
My first piece was a series of cyanotype prints focused on my sacral center (the area on the body just below the navel). Around the frame, Fred Again’s words “light dark light again” were painted repetitively, encircling the prints in a ring of reassurance. It’s a cyclical representation of how life will meddle, and we must tend to restore a sense of vitality, sensuality, pleasure, and creative expression for ourselves.
An intriguing musician approached me on the night of the show’s opening. He was a true dandy, and I was captivated. The following weeks became my personal dream: endless conversation drifting in and out of bed, and in and out of the gardens of the city. Our time together was the epitome of sacral tending. He was about to begin his next chapter in Brooklyn, and while I felt bliss and excitement for his journey forward, I also felt the darkness of my own experience closing back in. One of our last nights together was spent sipping from a precious vial of French Chartreuse as I photographed him in his home.
Not long after, artist and friend Jonah Meltzer wrote to me about his upcoming perfume, Green Wings. He described it as a representation of metamorphosis; an aid for our own transformations. Such divine timing always brings me relief and delight.
My bottle of Green Wings
The main motif of the bottle is a pyramid, while the fragrance itself is engineered with a bouquet of notes including crushed stem, cool iris, tree bark, yellow moss and petrichor. From Jonah: “It’s operating in the tension between nature and brutalist architecture; a metaphor for the intentional curation of self as both temple and garden.” Say less. Say more.
“While allusions to ancient monuments are unavoidable, I wanted to connect with the pyramid as a building block, or as raw sacred geometry. One note is that pyramids are basically impossible to tie a string around, which to me represents a resistance to forms of binding. This led to the pyramid becoming a personal symbol of freedom and upwards motion, while still retaining stability… At its simplest, this perfume contains my well-wishes. It is an alchemizing of challenges into spiritual relief, alongside the intriguing sensation of entering new adventurous territory.” —Jonah Meltzer
As I work on my next piece, I’ll be tending to my heart center, which is, not so surprisingly, represented by the color green. I’ll be among my tools, sipping Chartreuse, wearing Green Wings.
Balm for the heart and transformational transits:
Track: “This Version Of You” by ODESZA and Julianna Barwick
Stone: Charoite
Fragrance: Green Wings
Movement: Yoga for Heavy Hearts by Yoga with Adriene on YouTube