Elements with Enid: Fragrance

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Fragrance is a sweet or pleasing odor perceived by the sense of smell that often makes us smell a flower before really looking at it. Like color, fragrance is emotionally evocative, personal and closely tied to memory, more a component of the atmosphere created by the design than of the design itself. Placing pleasant-smelling flowers together with unpleasant-smelling skunks let Enid emphasize irony, making a pun that was both visual and sensational. Students examined how Enid’s visual representations of daisies and skunks evoke the sensation smell and learned:

• Perception of a fragrance can be as powerful as sensing the fragrance in reality

Click image to start slideshow.

The Fragrance Exhibit

Is the element of “fragrance” really part of Enid Collins handbags (the musty vintage odor of old purses aside)? Odi and the Benz School’s talented students show us how.

Floral Art student Kylie Day talks about how her piece, “Perfume de Odi,” pays homage to Enid’s skunk characters, as well as her skill at making olfactory puns that reinforce visual and verbal ones.

Day created “Perfume de Odi” on canvas with painted permanent botanicals, pine cones and winking faux gems.

Day was also inspired by the style of perfume ads from the 1960s, which she printed and used as a foundation for Odi’s floral “fur.” A section peeks out at the tip of his ear.

From the artist: “While fragrance is a difficult element to portray, the hope is that the viewer can imagine the smell of daisies and perfume when they view this work.”

Bringing Odi to life in the studio.

Day, an Ecology and Conservation Biology major, says she actually likes the smell of skunks. And daisies.

Under Odi’s nose, archival ads from the collection promise, “two perky little ‘stinkers’ cavort gaily” on a “2 scents worth” box bag, and “sparkling designs come to life on a Collins bag.”

Another exhibit inspired by actual displays used in Collins of Texas showrooms in the sixties. The bags (top to bottom, left to right): “daisies won’t tell” linen canvas tote (1972), “odi” box bag (1968), '“2 scents worth” box bag (ca. 1964), '“flower” box bag (1970) and a 1966 “daisies won’t tell” lunchbox-style box bag, with a period ad promoting it.

Closer look at Enid’s daisies and “little stinkers.”