Who doesn't love a good love story? We sure do! Will Porter's name may sound familiar to you as we have done a few collabs in the past using his incredible artwork on our mugs. What we admired when featuring his mug entitled "Mikaila" last year was the joy he found when describing the background story of it. We thought you may enjoy hearing a good story because after all, we could all use good news and a good love story in celebration of Valentine's Day.
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Enjoy.
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Mikaila & I first encountered each other in Winter of 2019. We shared a mutual friend whom came to an art opening I had, and subsequently invited Mikaila to a restaurant that myself and a few other artists went to after our show. While there, I was making small talk with old friends and new—taking humble bites of my food so a mouthful didn’t slow my responses. Spiced noodles, the taste of which hissed before it bit. Pasta swirled in bowls, preparing for takeoff—coiled ‘round chopsticks or plasticware. Whichever the utensil, they met the mouth all the same. Speech; muffled chuckle; vibrant smile; wood streaks a screech atop tiled floors; spatulas provided the high hats from the kitchen. The sizzle of cooking food eventual in shushing all other noise ‘cept the murmuring guests.
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Most of them still thawing out from the New York air. Warm colors, including red blush on the bullseye of brown, bronze or crème cheeks provided the only variety from the otherwise drab décor inside the restaurant. The off-white hue of the walls and floors made you miss the much better alternative in the off-white smiles varnished in oiled spit. Sparkled even, almost akin the pure white shimmer where light & diamond meet.
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Alas, Mikaila appeared. The night sky had an obvious camouflage companion in her long, black coat. So it wasn’t until her bronzed, reddish-brown skin—terra cotta at her most rounded facial features—escaped the dark backdrop of the night sky and mingled with the soft overhead lights in the restaurant, that most of us realized that a new person had entered. When she smiled, her cheeks show the fullness of knobs. Her curls black and powdered brown, swirled into uppercase S’s written in bubble letter. As if the aforementioned wasn’t enough to shift your peripheral to a full focus of her, she hosted tens of small monarch butterflies in her hair. Oranges, blacks, browns, specs of white dipped and rose in her bubble letter S curls. Heads dipped and rose toward her direction—only turning away when a movement of hers threatened to catch them watching. Needless to say, I never turned away.
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Check out his newly released mug "Mikaila".
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