REAPPROPRIATION

Upon reorganizing the objects at Mirth, newfound meaning emerged in the gold things, the wooden things, the colorful things and the white space behind them... 

When a thing is assigned new meaning, is it considered an act of reappropriation? What does it mean to reappropriate an image, word or object? 

-Jessica for Mirth

SOMETHING NICE: A VIEW FROM THE FRONT DESK AT MIRTH

A sampling of quotes from today's shoppers:

"She has all these little dishes of herbs in her kitchen.  I think it's perfect. [Whispers] Also, she's right outside!"
-Purchased a pair of gold pebble dishes, plus two gold coffee spoons, for her friend; perfect, indeed!

"It's their anniversary.  I wanted to do something nice for them."
-Bought an arrangement of roses and sunflowers for a couple staying at the Paisano.  Sweet gift for a sweet occasion.

"Sometimes you just need a glass of water in the middle of the night."
-Picked up a clear Canvas carafe; convenient and elegant.

"We live down the street from this guy!"
-Discovered a rosemary-caramel-chocolate bar made in Austin, TX.

A sunny, friendly day here at the store.

-Claire for Mirth

BLOSSOM

Suddenly I realized
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

-James Wright, "A Blessing"

Yesterday evening's rain shower included claps of thunder, a scattering of hail, and beautiful bolts of lightning. Those of us at Chinati watched a dark storm sweep its way west, including a funnel cloud that touched down just long enough to stir up the desert, then disappeared as quickly as it came--interesting weather following Jessica's musings on thirst.  It was enough to make the irises and herbs stand up a little straighter this morning, thanks to a good drink. The fabric above is from a gorgeous Indian sari here at Mirth, and it made me think of the blooms here in the unpredictable desert, all the more beautiful because they survive.

-Claire for Mirth

THIRST

Spring in the high desert is dusty and desiccant. The rising temperatures and ruthless Texas sun remind us to remain hydrated. The beautiful bedside carafes and tumblers pictured above are the perfect cure to nighttime dehydration or any other occasion of unquenched thirst.

Speaking of which, a thirst for knowledge should never be quenched. I recently discovered the town of Marfa was founded in the 1880's as a railroad water stop. To imagine, landlocked for miles, Marfa's soul purpose was to provide trains with water is simply wondrous. Today, people still visit the town to rest and replenish, but more frequently to learn. 

Let me leave you with a excerpt from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. 

"As regards figures of speech, he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. For often imagining words had a more definite meaning than often was the case, he wanted to know exactly what was meant by the ones he heard most frequently used, such as blue blood, the glass of fashion, the day of reckoning, to give a free hand, to be absolutely floored and so forth..."

-Jessica for Mirth

MY GRANDMOTHER'S LOVE LETTERS

There is even room enough
For the letters of my mother’s mother,
Elizabeth,
That have been pressed so long
Into a corner of the roof
That they are brown and soft,
And liable to melt as snow.
--from My Grandma's Love Letters by Hart Crane

The Academy of American Poets is celebrating National Poetry Month with a special section on letter writing and how it has informed the work and lives of poets.  Inspired by these "epistolary poems," I took a closer look at some of the beautiful materials Mirth has for penning, or penciling, your thoughts.  This gorgeous letterpress book, Blackwing pencil (beloved utensil of many famous writers), and red inkwell sharpener inspires me to spend more time writing letters by hand.  Isn't it lovely to get an actual letter in the mail?  In an actual envelope?  There is "room enough" in the day for writing to our loved ones, and Mirth has the materials to help you pen beautiful thoughts.

-Claire for Mirth

SUPER NORMAL

Our first customer of the day suggested that Mirth reminded him of a book he read a few years ago; some online research revealed that Super Normal: Sensations of the Ordinary by designers Naoto Fukasawa & Jasper Morrison is a book for exploring daily objects in which Fukasawa and Morrison quest for supreme normality in the utilitarian. This normality is measured by the empirical and defined by two categories including absence and ambivalence.

Below is an excerpt from Ms. Silvanna Annichiarico, Director of Triennale Design Museum Milan, that expounds upon Fukasawa's and Morrison's central thesis.

Absence: The Super Normal object can be defined by something that is not present. Or something it doesn't have. Style, identity, originality, remarkableness. Anything that can be seen as excellence, or as an unmistakably connotative brand, is incompatible with the status of the Super Normal object. Indeed, its pre-eminent quality consists in the capacity to conceal its features until they become virtually invisible. Ambivalence: however much we dwell on the category proposed by Fukasawa and Morrison, it is very hard to understand, fundamentally, whether Super Normal is an oxymoron (super versus normal) or an absolute superlative (the greatest degree of normality possible, "normality" in its ontological form, its quintessential perfection). The objects selected by Fukasawa and Morrison are, indeed, all oxymoronic and superlative: they push the norm to the boundaries of the possible and at the same time introject a sort of paradoxical coincidentia oppositorum. By making them so "normal" they aren't normal any more, they become both "normal" and "exceptional" at the same time. So exceptional they seem normal. In other words, they are not perceived or perceivable as exceptional. At least, that is, until they are noticed and co-opted by the auctoritas of Morrison and Fukasawa. It is only at this point that the Super Normal object reveals the paradox embedded in its genetic code: at the very instant it is perceived, catalogued, and exhibited as such, Super Normal transcends itself.

Annichiarico's insights into Super Normal are intriguing and poignant (if not superfluous). Expressed simply, the work and thought that has gone into the objects we treasure and utilize on a daily basis is quite extraordinary!

-Jessica for Mirth