To smell like
an ashtray

This body of work was a brief and iterative exploration of the relationship between memory, addiction, and scent. The smell of cigarettes for those of us who grew up with a caretaker who smoked or who have smoked ourselves may evoke a mix of nostalgia, disgust, longing, or shame. When I began smoking, it became a strange source of camaraderie between my father and me; A way for me to relate to him. When he passed, I had  difficulty parting with this ritual, which felt like so much more than the self-destructive habit that it actually was. 

 

I began making these pieces the year I decided to stop smoking  to explore the nature of my complex relationship to addiction. Using an enameling technique called plique a jour to reference the confessional, these works ponder the way one wears scent much like a piece of jewelry or item of clothing and the shame I've felt after sneaking the occasional cigarette.