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Trust Art is a social platform that is commissioning
ten public artworks over the next year. People are invited to
become shareholders with $1, share with interested friends, and renew culture.

Perfume Fountain for Humanity

A public project led by artist Anne McClain

Project Proposal

The creation of a perfume begins with a brief. For Anne’s project, that brief is to create a scent based on the experience of an act of humanity.

In September of 2009, Anne will travel to the city of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico with a group of twelve friends and perfumers and spend one week volunteering at the Casa de los Angeles, teaching art and visiting the local botanical garden at a day care center for children of single mothers. This act will serve as a tribute to a friend of Anne’s who volunteered at the Casa de los Angeles in 2003 and wrote of her experience, “I want to work with children..and do something to somehow improve their lives. I know that sometimes that means simply being 'present' to them..sharing a hug, holding them, smiling with them. We don't always have to do the big things to make a difference. If in my time of working with them I can benefit their families and the community in which they live I will be grateful.”

In Grasse, France, the capital of the perfume industry, Anne will create the Humanity scent by combining the techniques of modern perfumery and her studies in aromatherapy. Anne's intention is to use the inherent healing and transformative effects of natural plant materials to create a scent to uplift, encourage relaxation and making connections, stimulate compassion, and nurture a sense of letting go.

The Humanity scent will take the form of a fountain of perfumed water. A place of gathering often found in town squares (in Grasse, a fountain is located in the central square where the daily flower market takes place; in San Miguel de Allende the area where the fountain is located is called El Jardin), the fountain will serve as a place for communing, contemplation, and reflection. The creation of the fountain will be a collaborative effort between Anne, glass artist Alan Iwamura, and industrial designer Lance McGregor.

The fountain will be placed in a public space in New York, acting as a gathering place for people to experience the inspiration and meaning behind Humanity. The fountain is meant to transmit positive energy into the public. The question it will pose is: can good will be spread through scent?

About the Artist

Anne McClain is currently attending the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, taking courses in natural and synthetic raw materials, chemistry, and creation. She studied environmental studies, philosophy, and art at Brown University.

Anne fell into scent as an artistic medium through photography. Anne used photography in the same way she uses scents now - to flatten an experience or memory into something tangible. She also studied aromatherapy to understand the psychological effects the distillation of flowers, resins, barks, peels, leaves and other plant materials have on people.

Anne is passionate about revealing scent's power as artistic medium, and the unparalleled beauty of natural raw materials.

Artist's Past Work







Photography naturally lead Anne to scent artistry. Both mediums lend themselves to the pursuit of trying to capture moments and memories. Anne loves the dreamy, lingering quality that the memory of place can give over time. The excitement and displacement of travel leads one to an experience of being untethered. Anne likes to try and take those feelings, somewhere between illusion and reality, and to condense it, to flatten it, to create something so that she can remember what it feels like, always.




108, 2004
While spending four months living in Nepal, Anne studied with a rinpoche and was initiated into Tibetan Buddhism by a lama. This book recounts some of the insights into her spiritual practice, accompanied by photographs.




Transit/Home, 2005
For a period of a few years Anne travelled incessantly visiting Thailand, Indonesia, Baja California, Japan, and Hawaii, all the while thinking of someone she loved. They circled the globe on different paths, sometimes meeting and sometimes not. They took photographs influenced by each other and collected them into a book.




Kept, 2008
Stemming from her fascination with all things relating to memory, Anne was thinking about the phrase 'a kept woman'. She realized that not only would she most likely be keeping herself, she wanted it that way. At the time she was disappointed in love and conceived of a loverʼs gift to herself. she cut a hole through the center of a book about Paris, writing a story of lost love along the edges. In the void she placed a ring and the book became a jewelry box which she kept for herself.

Perfume - Left
Perfume - Right1

From The Artist

Perfume - Right2

Your Voice

« Day 2 - San Miguel de Allende | Main | Mexico! »
Tuesday
Sep012009

Day 1 - San Miguel de Allende

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.

DateSeptember 1, 2009 at 17:21 | Comment1 Comment

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