Happy to Serve

This Ana Inciardi mini print places two immediately recognizable objects side by side: a blue tennis racket lying flat with a tennis ball resting on its strings, and a blue New York deli coffee cup sitting upright against the racket's handle. The cup bears the familiar Greek-key border and the phrase "We Are Happy to Serve You," rendered in the warm gold lettering that has appeared on those iconic paper cups for decades. The entire composition is rendered in shades of blue with touches of gold, giving it a clean, graphic quality that reads clearly even at small scale. The "We Are Happy to Serve You" cup, introduced by the Sherri Cup Company in the 1960s, became one of the most recognized pieces of disposable packaging in New York City. It is so embedded in the city's street culture that it has been the subject of museum exhibitions and cultural commentary. The tennis racket layers in a second meaning, turning the word "serve" into a visual pun that the title announces outright. This print sits comfortably among her New York prints, drawing on the same affection for local objects and city life that runs through that part of her catalog. Collectors who gravitate toward her New York subjects respond to the way she treats familiar, everyday objects as worthy of the same care she brings to more traditional subjects. The tennis and coffee cup combination also gives it some crossover appeal, and it pairs naturally with her other food and city prints for collectors assembling a New York-themed grouping.