On the first day of school, our first assignment in film class was to spend ten minutes in class writing our response to the phrase “What is Art”. While we were writing, the professor had Pandora radio playing on the speakers, and a Papa John’s ad came on and went on and on and on and on about pizza. So, because that’s all I could think about, I wrote “Art is Pizza and Pizza is Art”. After ten minutes were up, the professor had everyone read aloud what they’d written, so I did. Everyone got a kick out of my answer and it started becoming a meme throughout the school. Every class, someone would bring up without fail and apply it to whatever we were talking about. Even the teachers would bring it up.
Fast forward a few weeks; our latest project was to spend 3-5 minutes telling a story/message using an unconventional medium, like a costume, something you cooked, a song you wrote, or something like that. One kid (who’s also in my art class) got up and presented his work: a beautiful detailed painting of a single piece of pepperoni pizza against a striking red background. The entire class clapped for 3 minutes and that was his presentation. We’re planning to hang his painting somewhere in the school and let future students wonder about the existential meaning behind a painting of a piece of pizza and why all the first-year-students walking by are laughing at their confusion.
So anyway, that’s how I helped start a meme at school.
the Painting
