Soy Sauce Packets & Epiphanies: HOPE. [Shepard Fairey]

Shepard Fairey’s HOPE Original at the National Portrait Gallery
Every single person who at least tossed a cursory glace at 2008’s election campaign knows this poster.

It’s likely the first image people remember when they think of Obama, because it was reproduced in so many different ways…ways that are traditionally reserved for rock bands and underground art. This piece virtually spurred a micro-renaissance in political art, inspiring a completely separate and extremely valuable community of creative minds, unlocking the support of many that wouldn’t have cared otherwise.

On the day of Obama’s Inaguration, the National Portrait Gallery (operated by the Smithsonian) will display the original mixed media piece. I find this to be such an amazing feat, considering Fairey’s roots wheat-pasting and stencil-spraying OBEY Andre the Giant images all over Los Angeles 20 years ago. It’s even more remarkable that the Portrait Gallery normally only displays Presidential portraits at the end of their term. Now, I wouldn’t know this for sure, but it seems like something that would be unprecedented… And that is really awesome. Good work, Shep!

[usatoday via geekadelphia]

the story behind ssp&e:

so i'm not sure if you're anything like me, but being the 'off the cuff cuisine' chef that i am, i try not to let anything go to waste. you know, when you bring home some bk or mickey d's, and after consuming your poor excuse for food, have ketchup packets or sauce shots left over that you throw in the door and forget about. same goes for chinese food, and you know they always give you enough sauce to put out a fire at the pentagon with your order. you throw them in your refrigerator door and forget about them. then one day you're trying to impress some last minute guests that have decided to stay at your place for dinner and all you have in your 'gourmet' kitchen are some ramen noodles, frozen veggies and some leftover grilled chicken from last weekend's cookout. the makings of a superb, on-the-fly stirfry. but wait, OH SHIT!, how are you going to make a sauce for your stirfry with no sauce? you look in the fridge and all you see is a bottle of ketchup, french's mustard (i use the term mustard loosely when describing french's), and a jar of pickle juice. oh no, what to do, what to do. then you bust open the butter holder, that invariably has never seen a stick of butter in it's life, and VOILA! soy sauce, duck sauce, hot mustard! packets, but instant chinkychow sauce nonetheless! each one of those packets, collected over time, came from a meal, inevitably eaten over conversation, an argument or during a lone lunch of self-reflection, came from a time and place in the past. as are our lessons learned. we learn through the years how to cope, how to inspire, how to teach, and how to live. we don't always remember those lessons, as we throw condiment packets in the fridge we throw life-lessons into the back of our heads, until one day we find ourself in a situation where it becomes relevant and we pull them from the back of our minds as to not waste the advice and lessons of the past. the moral of this story, and the linking of it to my blog- our life experiences are our 'soy sauce packets,' our hidden links to our experiences of our past...

e·piph·a·ny - noun - a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. [www.dictionary.com]

the epiphanies that we experience in life, questions or situations that we find ourselves in, and don't know how to resolve, can most often be solved my raking our brains in search of a 'soy sauce packet.' an answer to a question. a solution to a problem. and so this, this blog, is simply an ever-expanding culmination of soy sauce packets in my butter box, and the epiphanies that have helped to make room for more butter in my fridge...

Soy Sauce Packets & Epiphanies

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HOPE. [Shepard Fairey]

Thursday, January 08, 2009

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