Thought Paper #2

Eva Dunn

Art 195

Professor Stacy Asher

September 14, 2012

Soup: A Hot Meal or More…?

            Walking down Masonic Avenue toward Fulton, I noticed a small piece of graffiti on the ground near the 43 bus stop.  “Soup,” it said, above a small cup with steam coming out from the top.  It’s fairly small and simple, no bigger than my size 7 and a half feet, but it’s a sign that catches my attention every time I walk to the grocery store, or Starbucks, or the Panhandle.  And although it is small and it’s meaning is totally lost to me, the small cartoon-like piece of art makes my day just a little bit brighter every time I walk over it.

            And it makes me wonder, what was the artist’s intention of spray-painting this on the ground?  It couldn’t have been to simply make a college student’s day minutely better when she walks to get a “passion iced tea lemonade with sweetener” at Starbucks or more dish soap at ‘Lucky’s after a long day.  And he (or she) probably didn’t intend for a Thought Paper to be written on his simple work of art.  I suppose the artist intended for everyone walking down Masonic (on the right side toward Fulton) to see his or her “Soup” art.  Well, upon further inspection, I notice that the picture is a tad worn and faded, as if many feet have stepped on it in the time it has been here in the city of San Francisco, on Masonic Avenue.  How many people have stopped to notice the small piece of art?  How many people have taken the time to observe, admire, and think about “Soup?”  Probably quite a few.

            Not only am I figuratively reading my landscape by noticing signs around me and analyzing the intended audience, I am also literally “reading” my landscape when I read the word “soup” on the ground.  What does soup mean in this context?  I could assume it means a warm, liquid meal… or I could look up “soup” on Urbandictionary.com, a website where users give insight to the definitions of slang terms.  However, when I actually search for the slang definition of the word “soup,” I get all sorts of meanings ranging from greetings to appearance to sex to drugs.  So, instead of looking at an unreliable source where the public can post definitions and explanations of things, I decided to go to a much more reliable source: Wikipedia.  Okay, I know that Wikipedia does not exactly have the reputation of being a “credible source,” but it is never a bad place to start.  From the Wikipedia page for “Soup,” I learn that the word soup has several different meanings in the slang world.  Out of the fifteen different variations of the word “soup” used in different contexts, there were three terms that particularly stood out: “pea soup,” “soup legs,” and “to soup something up.”

            “Pea soup” is another phrase for dense fog, “soup legs” refers to the feeling athletes get when they are overly exhausted, and “to soup something up” means to improve something or increase the power of something.  Taken in context, the “soup” on the street could possibly refer to the foggy climate of San Francisco, particularly at The University of San Francisco.  However, taking into account the location of the graffiti, on the street outside USF’s baseball field, it could also refer to the baseball athletes’ “soup legs.”  Finally, it could refer to the fact that the artist “souped up” the sidewalk from plain concrete to a work of art.  Although people can speculate all they want of the meaning of the graffiti on the ground, nobody will ever know what the work of art stands for, who drew it, and how long it has been on the sidewalk.  Although the graffiti could not have been on the sidewalk for many years, USF has been at its current location for over a century.

            Over 100 years ago occurred the 1906 earthquake that destroyed San Francisco and forced the relocation of The University of San Francisco to its current residence.  According to The University of San Francisco’s website, the university acquired it’s current land in 1909 and started remodeling the school in 1914.  Sometimes I wonder what it was like back when the school was so new, rebuilt after the devastating earthquake.  After exploring the different graffiti around campus and the surrounding neighborhood, I wonder if there was any form of street art near the school 100 years ago, or if the word “soup” meant anything else other than the typical “hot meal.”  What other things were implemented around the school that could make a college student smile on his or her way to the grocery?

            Every time I walk down Masonic Avenue, I make a point to notice the miniature piece of graffiti on the ground that says, “Soup.”  Maybe next time you will, too.