I've been thrilled and overwhelmed with the response so far to the Humanity Fragrance.  Because of the beautiful bottles (thanks Lance and Alan!), the fragrance has popped up on several cool blogs.  Here's a selection of some of my favorites:

Cool Hunting - Fourteen Heart-Shaped Design Gift's for Valentine's Day

PSFK - 8 Avant-Garde Perfume Bottle Designs

Now Smell This - Humanity ~ New Perfume

Lovely Package - Humanity Fragrance

Thanks to everyone for the support!!

And we're off!  The Humanity fragrance fundraiser has launched, and you can now pick up your first edition handmade bottle on our site: www.humanityfragrance.com.  It's the perfect gift for Valentine's Day! 

The Humanity fragrance is based around the Indian white lotus flower, a symbol of purity in ancient cultures. Rich with vanilla inflections with notes of maté tea and sustainable sandalwood from Australia, the scent is fresh, sheer, floral and woody, and comes in a blended in a base of three organic oils.  

The anatomical heart inspired bottles with white glass corks were designed by Lance McGregor and Alan Iwamura, and handmade by Alan.  Each bottle is engraved with the edition number.  100% of the proceeds go directly to the manufacture of the fountain this spring.  The Humanity fragrance is available online now as well as at Sigerson Morrison in Soho beginning February 9th.

To see the "making of..." pictures, click here.

And a special shout out to our friend Claire for the amazing photographs!

Alan, Lance, Alicia, and I have been working around the clock to make the Humanity fragrance in time for Valentine's Day.  Each bottle is hand-made and will have the edition number engraved on it.  I've just made the fragrance and am letting it macerate, and now all of the finishing touches are coming together.  Here's a peek at Alan in the glass studio.

Check back soon!  www.humanityfragrance.com

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting plaster artist Jarek Klim in his Greenpoint studio.  He showed us beautiful pieces of plaster he has been working on, embedded with natural materials such as leaves, grass, and flowers.  We're talking with him about creating a concrete top panel on the fountain using a combination of lotus leaves from upstate New York and McGolrick Park's own leaves.  The vision we spoke of is that the water would flow down from the glass heart and onto the special plaster panel.  

Plaster panel with a lily-pad embedded and painted into it.

The Open Space Alliance in partnership with Trust Art have put together a show a silent auction to raise money for public art in Brooklyn parks.  I have been asked to participate and created a piece called The Humanity Organ.  The shelves which line a laboratory and hold the ingredients of a perfumer's palate is called an organ.  This piece carries the twenty-one ingredients which have been used in the working drafts of the fragrance for the fountain.  At the base of the piece is a candle scented with drafts #8 and 10.

Go to eBay to bid on this piece.  The starting bid is $500 and the auction closes on December 11 at 9pm (EST).

The work is on view until December 11 at 30 Dobbins Street in Williamsburg.  There is a closing reception open to the public on December 11, 6-10pm.  Join us if you are in Brooklyn!

More info at www.bravebrooklyn.com

Over the past few months, Alan, Lance and I have been finalizing the design for the fountain so that construction can begin in early 2010.  Lance has made some incredible renderings showing a marble base which holds a glass heart. From there, perfumed water will flow calmly, creating a space for contemplation and reflection.  Click here to check out the full gallery.  

What is the scent of compassion?  

Ever since this project started I have been asking myself that question and I think I am getting closer to an answer.  For one, the central ingredient I have been building around is white lotus.  It has a warm, enveloping smell reminiscent of vanilla.  But more importantly, lotus's significance as a symbol of divine beauty and it's aromatherpeautic use as an aid to meditation make this ingredient special. 

Nelumbo Nucifera, or white lotus flower.

Lotus Temple, Delhi, India.

We've just finished editing the over five hundred photographs taken between Harry and myself in San Miguel de Allende.  It was hard to choose from all the pictures of those sweet kids but here's a look at the week we spent volunteering at the Casa de los Angeles.  Click here to check out the gallery.

Click here and become a fan for all the latest updates and photos.

I've been back in Grasse now for four days and it has been a whirlwind.  

This semester, most of our time at school is dedicated to creating a perfume, body lotion and candle for the brand of our choice, according to the brief given to us by our sponsor school, Firmenich.  The brief itself is completely indistinguishable from what I imagine are the origins of many other fragrances; our scent has to be "bold and shocking," for the "seductive" independent woman "who wants to live life to the fullest," and whose "loving, innocent trap you can't help but fall into."  (Should I be offended?)  In any case, Tessa, Vikki and I have chosen to work on a (pretend) special edition for Juliette Has A Gun.  

In the meantime, we also have a 2009 trend report due this Monday.  Because I was late getting back to school (Mexico!) Vikki and Tessa did the writing and my job over the weekend is to spruce it up and make it look magical.  I got horribly depressed and had to call a friend at home yesterday though, because all of the marketing jargon was getting to me.  It seems as if all people, referred to strictly as consumers, have been studied and classified so as to best exploit their buying power.  It was particularly scary to read about the "minimalist and purity" consumer trend, which includes marketing products towards people who are socially and environmentally conscientious.  However, if a brand is creating a product that is better for the environment or helps some social group (i.e. fair trade), should their intention, even when it may be purely for profit, matter? Because somewhere in my heart I feel that intentions do matter.  I feel a great hope though that companies such as Tom's Shoes and Pangea Organics, and organizations like Trust Art and Project H are leading the world into a new phase where consumerism, a necessary part of our life, is done with clarity, honesty, and an eye towards the greater good.  

Perfume seems to be particularly vulnerable to exploitative marketing.  We were talking in class the other day and a classmate of mine ran Diesel's recent cologne Only The Brave through a GC (gas chromatography, which can read out the ingredients, both chemical and natural, of an alcohol-based fragrance).  He found that the ingredients in Only The Brave amounted to just 10 euros a kilo.  When you consider that 2.5 oz bottle contains about 85% alcohol as a carrier, leaving just 15% pure perfume ingredients and costs $65, the actual fragrance itself costs just $0.17!!  That means that the majority of that purchase is going towards the packaging, advertising, salaries, and profits.  Of course I believe that salaries and profits should be made, but almost everyone I've talked to, perfume industry insiders included, have felt that the integrity of the scents themselves are being lost as more money is taken away from the raw materials and into other areas, primarily the advertising.

With the Humanity project, my ultimate goal is to show people, and the perfume industry, that fragrance can be used in many other ways rather than the merely superficial and profitable.  Of course I look for simple pleasure in fragrances too, don't get me wrong, but this project is just an example of the opposite, so that we can hopefully meet in some happy middle ground.

Si, se puede from Casa de los Angeles on Vimeo is a documentary about the center by volunteer Marisa Bollman.

And then there were four...

Harry, Cat, Jose and I took a bus back to Mexico City and landed at the Versailles 104 hostel.  Jose and I had dinner with Patricia, who writes for the Excelsior newspaper and her boyfriend Diego.  Afterwards we drove over to the Zocolo to look for the shaman that Jose met last weekend, to have one last chat with him about medicinal plants.  The Zocolo is getting completely remade in order to prepare for the upcoming Independence Day celebrations so no one was there and we made our way back to our bunkbeds at the hostel.

Harry’s been having a string of bad luck since losing his wedding ring a couple of months ago and he and Cat thought they might look for a new one in San Miguel.  Instead, as we lay in the dark at the hostel, Harry said he’s thinking about making one from the silver angel medallions that Donna gave us on our last night in San Miguel.  I can think of nothing more special to commemorate the occasion.  

From right: Cat, Donna, Sylvia (another volunteer), Seema, Miguel, me, Harry, and Wendell.

Walking around the town square and surrounding areas of San Miguel de Allende, we kept coming across the sacred heart iconography.  It’s in boutiques, side stalls, on home decor, posters, and more.  We asked a shopkeeper why it was so prevalent and she told us that the sacred heart was declared to be the symbol of San Miguel de Allende.  It’s considered so because San Miguel de Allende is "el corazon de Mexico," or the heart of Mexico.  Another great coincidence!

I am writing this on the bus back to Mexico City, where we will be flying to New York City from early tomorrow morning. Actually, W is so into his pet project of fixing up the Casa de los Angeles’s computer room that he’s staying another two days. I couldn’t be happier that he was feeling inspired to stay and help out more.

This morning we took the kids to the park in their matching “yo soy un angel” (i am an angel) shirts, each teacher or volunteer holding hands with two kids, one on either side. I walked with Dulce and Monserrat, and it’s hard for me to leave, as I’ve gotten so attached to the kids in just this one week. When I walked in to the classroom this morning, all three of the boys in the class, Oswaldo, Luciano and Angel ran up and grabbed my legs, yelling “Anna!”

All six of us have enjoyed our time here this week.  We’ve grown from it and learned. About a month ago Cat wrote me to tell me that Harry would like to build or fix things while we were at the Casa de los Angeles, as he didn’t quite know what he’d do with the kids.  Instead, he got along with them beautifully, drawing a three-foot tall Winnie the Pooh for their classroom.  

I have certainly felt compassion.  From my own heart, but also from the open-heartedness and immediate friendships from the children, and through the hospitality of the other people I’ve met while here.

All photos in this collage courtesy of Harry Fellows.

Inspiration Trip - Humanity Project from Trust Art on Vimeo.

Harry caught this video of me talking the first night over tacos about the week's goals: to have a great time playing with the kids, bringing to them all of the joy we can, and undergo a spiritual transformation ourselves in order to feel compassion to translate into a scent.

I woke up sick this morning and it could be because in the course of three days I have been peed on, coughed on, sneezed on, and had play-doh fingers in my eye.  I spent the morning nursing my cold at home eating Donna’s homemade banana bread, and making gifts for the teachers and staff of the Casa de los Angeles.  I had originally intended to teach the children how to make perfumed massage oils for their mothers, but I realized after arriving here that that was a bit advanced for three-year olds.  Instead, I used the materials I brought along to create body oils for the teachers and staff.  I made two blends, one with rose, bergamot, and sandalwood as it’s main ingredients, and another of jasmine, lavender, ylang-ylang, and sweet orange.  The teachers are the unsung heroes of the center, with most having children of their own to care of as well.  The teacher of the class I have been helping out with, Nesvit, is a pretty 26 year old with two sons, aged 5 and 12. Marisol, the cook at the new center and mother to twins Luciano and Angel who are in the class I assisted, crossed the border while pregnant so that her sons could have U.S. citizenship.  

In the afternoon, Jose and I went with Dulce, LuzElena, Aidee, Valeria, and Paolina to the orphanage where they live.  Run by four nuns, the Casa Hogar Julia Santa Don Busco is a home for girls of all ages.  Jose helped the girls with their homework and taught the girls how to make solar prints.  He had them gather all kinds of leaves and flowers and exposed them in the sun.  I sat and hung out with the girls, taking pictures and letting them play with my hair.  Some of the girls have parents but either because of poverty, domestic abuse, or other reasons, cannot take care of their girls and bring them here without signing over their rights.  Saying goodbye at the end of the day was especially difficult knowing that the girls were all staying there for indefinite periods.

Today was a full day of playing with the kids.  I’m starting to get into their routine, and my favorite part of the day is dancing to this little boombox.

The center has impressed me by being really well integrated.  Each of the mothers that brings her children there must give one hour of work per day.  The mothers have to have jobs, and in fact, most of the twelve teachers are mothers to children at the center.  Donna and Miguel, the director, have learned a lot in the nine years they have been running the center about what the families need.  There’s a shower in the newer center which families that don’t have their own can come and use.  There’s also a medical center with a pharmacy.  

 We’ve all found our little niche here.  Harry is painting some rooms in the older center this afternoon, Cat adores the boys at the older center, I am loving hanging out with the three year old class at the new center, Jose is doing an incredible job with the one year olds, especially Diego who never stops crying, Seema is fluttering around with all the age groups, and W is completely revamping their computer lab, replacing their outdated Microsoft with EduBuntu, a free open-source operating system designed specifically for educational purposes.  And, Ebuntu means "humanity towards others" in Bandu, a South African language!

Monserrat, from the three-year old group.Jose with Valentina.

Today I started off the day by going to the Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden with Seema for the 9am tour.  Well, actually it turned out it started at 10am which gave us time for a coffee, which I badly needed and loved having in the morning dew of the garden.

The tour lasted 2 1/2 hours and covered 2 1/2 miles.  Coincidentally, our tour guide, David, was from Brooklyn!  Established in 1991 as a non-profit nature preserve, the park consists of 165 acres, and almost all of the plants which grow there are wild.  There are 200 species of plants, 120 species of butterflies, and 160 different birds.  In 2005, the Dalai Lama visited and declared the park a place of peace.  

The pega ropa flower, which literally translates as "stick to clothing."  It’s flowers and leaves contain tiny little spines which feel just like velcro.

Seema picking from a peruvian pink pepper tree, which can be found all over the region. 

Although the peppers are not widely used in mexican cooking, the oil from the leaves and fruit are used to cleanse and scent the skin.  I tasted the seed and was surprised by it’s lemony-sweet top note.

The plant that has been all over the landscape and cuisine this trip is the nopale cactus.  It’s broad leaves are used in savory dishes (Seema made nopale tacos last night!) and the red fruits, called tuna, taste like a cross between a watermelon and cantaloupe, but more watery.  Mexicans consider this quite a spiritual plant, and it can even be found on their national flag.

After spending the morning at the botanical garden, I was surprised to find that I really missed the kids and could not wait to get back to the center and play with them.  I helped them eat lunch, a handful for sure, and then became their caballito, or little horse, and took turns letting them ride on my back.

The highlight of the day, and surprise, came at the end.  This trip to Mexico has been a lot about being open to possibilities.  Pepe, our new friend in Mexico City, called to say that he had a good friend in San Miguel de Allende who would be interested in the Humanity project, and may be able to connect us with a curandero, or one who heals using traditional medicine from plants.  Jose and I met Jose and Juanita Ramirez and their son Toto at Pollo Feliz for an early dinner, as they were scheduled to drive back to Mexico City where they live.  Juanita was born in San Miguel de Allende and as we told them about the project and our wish to visit with a curandero, they suggested we visit their family ranch outside of town and offered to take us there right then.  We met Juanita’s father Chewy, a true cowboy and owner of the ranch where Juanita was born and raised.  Together we all went on a two hour sunset walk of their sprawling, natural, wild ranch and learned even more about the plants’ healing properties, from the perspective of someone whose knowledge has been handed down over generations, and who still lives in a home with no stove and no electricity.

What I’ve come to learn so far on this trip about compassion has surprised me.  I thought that I would come to Mexico to offer my compassion.  What I have found instead, is that the people I have met on this trip have been far more giving to me.  Both in Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende, people have offered their hospitality, their time, their knowledge, and their help.  They have asked for nothing in return, and what’s even more, I think they have genuinely enjoyed spending their time with us. 

Jose, W, Seema, Cat and I arrived in the town of San Miguel de Allende last night and were picked up by Donna, the founder of Casa de los Angeles.  Imagine our delight after three hectic (but amazing) days in Mexico City doing the Dream shoot to find a cute and comfortable house waiting for us volunteers to stay in for the week.  I nearly cried when i saw that the volunteer house is called Casa de Bailey, my friend who I’ve come to pay tribute to.  Jose, Cat, Harry, W, Seema and I had dinner together and went over our game plan.  We are here to spend a week having fun with the children of Casa de los Angeles, bringing to them all of the joy in us, reflecting on compassion, and being inspired by this area.

We were greeted again by Donna at 9am Monday morning and had the opportunity to swap stories about why we were here.  Donna’s story is an inspiring one.  Nine years ago she decided to leave her teaching job and life in Chicago and move to Mexico.  With no money and no knowledge of the language, she came to San Miguel de Allende and asked women what they needed most.  She found that single working mothers needed a day care center.  The moms were used to walking miles into town for their day jobs, leaving their young children at home, sometimes having the five year olds take care of the two year old siblings.  After raising just $10,000, Donna came back and started the Casa de los Angeles with 18 children, 1 teacher, and 2 volunteers.  It grew organically (and serendipitously) from there, and the center now has two buildings, 100 children, and over 1,000 volunteers from 18 countries each year.  

We spent the afternoon playing with the kids, aged 4 weeks to 4 years, and they are too cute!!  While the center is now sustained by teachers, many who are mothers of some of the children, we were told that volunteers are there to have fun with the children, and at their age they can’t understand much of what we are saying, but they can understand our feelings.  We were asked that the one rule is that we walk in each morning with a smile.  Sounds like the perfect recipe for channeling compassion.

Talking with Donna, founder of Casa de los Angeles.

Three year olds in the new center.

Me and Dulce, who's name means "sweet" in spanish.