MAIYA & JESSICA

Always surround yourself with people who support and inspire you. It's like playing an instrument with someone more advanced. You learn and improve!

-Jessica for Mirth

GADGETS

A version of the song, From Russia With Love, by ska saxophonist Roland Alphonso, rolled in waves from my computer speakers around noon. Delighted to discover a song that married my piqued-interest in ska and steady affection for James Bond film, I relaxed into the familiar tune and took stock of my surroundings. What occurred to me next had nothing to do with ska music and everything to do with gadgets.

James Bond is famous for utilizing inventive gadgets to save his life in a pinch. Tricked out Aston Martins, everything-but-a-watch timepieces, cigarette guns, secret bathroom peep holes, attaché cases and more are created by the Q-branch to assist Agent Bond in life-threatening scenarios and situations. In almost every film, Q, Bond's gadget mentor, presents new gadgets and explains how they work. Bond casually accepts the gifts, and as the film progresses, each gadget reappears in a more dramatic setting, normally allowing Bond to escape by the hair of his chinny chin chin.

Most American consumers possess a talent for blurring the lines of want and need, resulting in a collection of purchases--thought to be useful but unfortunately covered in dust. Mirth, however, is the people's Q-branch. If Q outfits Bond with life-saving gadgets, Mirth outfits its patrons with life-improvement gadgets. My purchases from Mirth never lay dormant. I find happiness and utility in them every day.

James Bond in a wetsuit topped with a duck from Goldfinger

-Jessica for Mirth

3/4 VIEW

The 3/4 view is a perspective used in image making to capture an object, person or place in the third dimension. As I shot the iPhone photos above, I struggled to reconcile this perspective's purpose--my mind a nerve-like cylinder with lense, breathing in and out, grasping for perfect focus. Do the photos indicate a more or less whole picture of the building? Is this image more whole than my own ideas? How do we process an image with three-dimensional perspective as opposed to one with two? Does this extra bit of information--the twist of an angle or another wall exposed--allow us to perceive more or less? My experience is that we all view the world, its shapes and parallels quite differently.

Walter Benjamin wrote, "The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses."  

-Jessica for Mirth

LIGHT AND DARK

People talk a lot about the light in Marfa, and it is wonderful.  It's the kind of light that fills your room in the morning, inviting you outside where the sky is a shade of blue you've never seen before.  Lately, though, I've been appreciating shadows even more than light.  I walked the Dixon Ranch trail this morning, and the sun was rising over my right shoulder.  I kept pace with my shadow the length of the trail, watching it cross other shadows of long grass bending west.

And so, a quick meditation on light and dark, from photos taken around town and in the store--I love the hidden "M" stamped on the wall. Enjoy, Mirthlings!
-Claire for Mirth

MEMORY/MAMMORY

Mirth is currently exhibiting paintings by Marfa-based artist, Biff Bolen. Since meeting Bolen, I have become fond of his process and work--most recently, one obnoxiously large canvas, covered in oil and silicon entitled, Memory/Mammory, 2013. Measuring eighty-four by seventy-two inches, Memory/Mammory demands attention if not affection and perhaps sheer amusement. 

An unwieldy, streaky, gestural green blob--dripping with painterly excrement--sits on top of and behind a calming gray-white background. The green blob is adorned with two asymmetrical spheres for eyes that float above a watermelon mouth, all colored black. In between, two relatively small diagonal strokes form a nose. Initially, the awkward shape of the green blob, its expression and visceral matter evoke fear and disgust from the viewer. The ominous character of the painting is further haunted but strangely lightened by a gooey, bulbous, translucent silicon smiley face--playfully placed atop the green blob. Meanwhile, a third figure extends from the top right corner of the green blob to join the viewer in glaring at the juxtaposition of a gloomy green blob championed by a smile. 

Bolen explicates that he utilizes layers of painted imagery to better understand the shift wireless search engines have forced on today's culture. He inquires,"...are we becoming more comfortable translating image into words or are we loosing the ability to interpret and connect with imagery? What does the search engine have in common with the brain? is it possible for me to be completely random?" Bolen believes that "as the Internet pushes more towards [a] Freudian theory of humanity, the artist should push back against it, looking further for the illogical, and therefore the real humanity." 

As technology advances towards a 'human' logarithm, the computer and the brain may inform one another or perhaps, the artist in all of us will breach the connective membrane as Bolen has wih Memory/Mammory--an image that stains the memory and demonstrates humanity's supreme ability to reconcile complementary opposites. 

-Jessica for Mirth

MANUALS

Yesterday morning, a dear friend dropped in to visit me at Mirth. While she was here, we looked over the instruction manual for the Japanese mandolin. We both found the manual to be particularly engaging for its pictures, character and multiple languages.  As stated above, 'manual's powers combined would mean instructions for how to work something with your hands. 

Thick manuals that accompany large household items, cameras and such are often overwhelming. I would rather an object's utility be apparent, but as we graced the folded instruction pages for the Japanese Mandolin, I indulged in the idea of a personal human manual. 

At age 25, nothing is apparent. Every day seems to bring a life lesson, a f**k up or a desire to unf**k something up. If my internal manual were a material object, it would be covered in edits and slashed with red ink. The process is frustrating and sort of beautiful. The beauty lies in the concept of humans' shared experience and the frustration, perhaps, because we are ultimately individuals, independent of others and quite literally alone (sans manual) with our personal challenges and triumphs. 

I prefer to have a confidant by my side, a sidekick, a soundboard, a partner in crime and witness to my life--even in the hard times...especially in the hard times! Despite my fervor for companionship, guidance and love and in regards to my detestation of hardships, I am, nevertheless, perfectly capable of navigating uncertainty and manually maneuvering my way into the light. 

This is to say that the Japanese Mandolin needs a pair of hands to cut the vegetables. 

-Jessica for Mirth

JESSICA SHOPS

On my recent trip to Paris, I fell into an outdoor flea-market. The collections, the objects, the people, the colors, the age, the design and the cobblestoned street all played a role in creating the perfect concoction...the remedy to my depleted soul, a soul deprived of trinket shopping. My first purchase was an antique horse and rider with the poise of David's, Napoleon Bonaparte.

I purchased this for my partner Sam as he too enjoys trinkets. A few blocks down, I spotted a brightly colored seahorse sculpture. With tunnel vision and jaguar stealth I reached the desired object, for which I still feel a great amount of affection but gave to my sister as a birthday present. Truthfully, she is more keen on sea themed decor, but since living in the desert, I am drawn to it myself. To be clear, there is something fabulously tacky about the sea horse creation but in the context of the French flea market and then later resting on my piano in Texas, I only found delight in its awkward form, material, color and content. 

This morning, Marfa Public Radio's Talk at Ten aired an interview with local artist turned gallerist, Sam Schonzeit, who is presenting a lecture by PHD student Josh T. Franco. Franco's dissertation investigates a particularly interesting juxtaposition that is the co-presence of minimalism and vernacular aesthetics in Marfa, an aesthetic Franco calls Rasquachismo in Spanish, loosely translated as tackiness. Franco explicates that Rasquache may be observed in the yards of locals--cluttered with decades of sentiment, accented with brightly colored flower beds and most likely completed with the iconography of Santa Maria.

Once a tourist, I remember celebrating the stark contrast of high and low here (picture above taken in 2010). In a less obvious way, Mirth flirts with the concept of high and low. Our aesthetic highlights the beauty of objects, but our objects are designed for utility, the ordinary and the everyday. On a mad shopping spree, I decided to purchase a few of my favorite things from Mirth.

Washi tapes, a turkish towel, a japanese body scrubber, a matching scissor and letter opening set, two wine glasses and the perfect pencil sharpner. I have used at least one of these objects everyday since. They are not tacky by any means but they do possess a sort of dual nature like Marfa.

-Jessica for Mirth

QUALE

I had the privilege of visiting with a lovely artist, poet and intellectual named Andi Shapiro yesterday afternoon. Andi has been a bright and pleasant follower of Mirth since our opening in March that coincided with her move to Marfa, TX. After a warm greeting, Andi served me a freshly-brewed, iced chai tea with milk in the thinnest crystal glass I have ever put to my lips--a delightful afternoon treat. She told me that the glass was a wedding present from Tiffany's years ago. Quickly, I knew that treasuring the experience of a perfectly crafted glass was one of many interests we shared.

After a tour of her and her husband Jim's beautiful home, Andi displayed her artwork for me. From her stories and associations with the works--ranging from the early 90's to the present--several themes surfaced and resonated with my own experiences of people, places, ideas and emotions. Andi informed me that the 'phenomenal character' of moments or relations to objects, meaning one's subjective sensory experience that floats between the physical world and a cognitive conscious, is called quale or qualia (pl.) in philosophy, an unfamiliar term to express a quality that is ineffable and strangely familiar to an individual. In her work, Andi daringly chases qualia, delicately plucking trinkets from the physical world to render new symbols and coax a visual language that evokes that which is verbally inexpressible.

Often I find my thoughts and desires difficult to articulate which can be dreadfully frustrating, but perhaps impulse needs no explanation. In celebration of this newfound purpose for many confusing moments in life, I vow to never question the ineffable in myself...for example, why I'm so attracted to Andi's partially painted over mouse brain or this perfectly organized washi tape display.

-Jessica for Mirth

NATIONAL ANTHEM

The Star Spangled Banner was adopted as America's National Anthem on March 3, 1931. We sing this wholesome refrain at sporting events mostly, and fun is had by all. The Fourth of July is a wonderful holiday for celebrating American staples and principles such as sports, hot dogs, fireworks, puppies, peace, sky, land, war, buildings, expansion, sex, beer, drugs, art, rock and roll, grills, love, freedom and each other. Today I am pondering upon a more appropriate national anthem for America--with a little help from my friends. (written by John & Paul, perhaps performed most famously by Joe Cocker)

My father has always claimed many songs as personal 'National Anthems'--too many to count he would say. There is Ohio Players, I Want to be Free, Jimmy Cliff's, Many Rivers to Cross, and Otis Redding's Call me Mr. Pitiful, on bad days. The ownership my father practices over these songs is a way of defining his own personality, experience, raising, emotions, principles, morals, and ambitions. Obviously, I am reading great value into many off-hand comments Daddy made with flared nostrils and tears brimming, but I like the idea of personal National Anthems as spiritual touchstones, complements or anecdotes to prescribed religion and practice. 

Lana del Rey released the single, National Anthem, from the album Born to Die on July 6, 2012 breathing yet another meaning into the idea of a National Anthem. In del Rey's twisted, patriotic world of acrylic nails, big hair and painted lips, she herself longs to be another's defining beat. The chorus goes like this: 

"Tell me I'm your National Anthem,

Tell me I'm your National Anthem, 

Red, white, blue's in the sky, 

Summer's in the air and baby, 

Heaven's in your eyes. 

I'm your National Anthem."

Del Rey's lyrics express a desire for someone to beat to her drum or perhaps, act as one beating to the same drum--an idea, seemingly, buried deep in a romantic past. Nevertheless, I urge you, readers, to feel passion for the pulse, riot for the rhythm, and breath to the beats that move you this fourth...ha! And tomorrow let the fourth be with you ha ha! And please, enjoy the suggestions below that I have received for America's new National Anthem...

The New National Anthem:  Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, Everyday People by Sly & The Family Stone, American Pie by Don McLean, This Land is your Land by Woodie Guthrie, Wild World by Cat Stevens, Kiss by Prince, George Michael !, Dear Mr. Fantasy by Traffic, Wicked Game by Chris Issak, basically anything by Cher,  Free Your Mind by En Vogue, I'm Proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free...jk, Love's in Need of Love Today by Stevie Wonder, Rocky Top (for the volunteers) National Anthem by Radiohead, The Southern Anthem by Iron & Wine. more to come!

-Jessica for Mirth

BEAUTY

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: 

It's loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep a bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. 

-Keats

-Jessica for Mirth

WASHI WONDERS

Mirth now carries Japanese washi tape. Wa (Japanese) shi (paper) is traditionally made from the fibers of gampi tree bark, mintsumata shrub or paper mulberry but is also made using bamboo, hemp, rice and wheat.

-Jessica for Mirth