Editor’s Note: CATOE requested that his name be changed so as not to incriminate himself. The name used is one affiliated with his street art.
With spring comes a fresh canvas, a new start to create beauty.
Reflected in the mirror, this message sits opposite the sinks. It’s scrawled in blue marker on the first floor stall of the women’s bathroom in Ohio University’s Ellis Hall — over the grainy, fresh coat of off-white paint.
Last week, the campus building that houses the departments of Classics and World Religions, English and Philosophy underwent a little spring cleaning when the previously graffiti-filled stalls were painted over.
“(Facilities Management) painted all the bathrooms in Ellis from March 29 through April 6, and the bathrooms were painted in response to complaints about the graffiti,” said university spokeswoman Katie Quaranta.
Each floor’s bathroom, however, is on its way to looking the same as before, with the new paint jobs covered with the first marks of new graffiti. The words written range from tattoos of emotion to threats of more pen-scrawling to come.
Maintenance staff painted the stalls floor by floor, said Jamie Dewey, administrative assistant for the department of Classics and World Religions, who works in the building.
She said she remembers seeing a few maintenance staff workers with supplies in hand, but didn’t think much of it at the time.
“I think when someone got to writing a full page of Harry Potter, it got to be enough,” Dewey said.
Dewey has worked in Ellis Hall for almost four years now and said wall revamps happen every few years.
Once the walls fill up with enough clutter to “make your head spin,” she said, maintenance prioritizes covering up the wall art.
The graffiti hasn’t been a huge topic of conversation amongst faculty, Dewey said, but most who noticed agreed it was time. Profanity, including sex and drug slurs, began cluttering the walls located on floor two where her office sits.
And the first floor stalls became so filled with bathroom literature that not another letter could fit, she said.
“It’s just like at home when something’s new and clean,” Dewey said. “It’s just like, ‘Ah.’”
This sigh of relief is shared by Kelsey Meadows, a junior studying restaurant, hotel and tourism who has class in the building. She didn’t enjoy the vulgar words that occasionally graced the walls.
Overall, she said the idea of vandalizing bathroom stalls in college comes off as immature to her.
“No one wants to see that while peeing,” Meadows said.
However, CATOE, an OU senior who has practiced street art throughout Athens for three years, said painting over the bathroom art will most likely only spur on artists to doodle even more.
“As soon as they cover it up, that’s a blank canvas,” CATOE said. “It’s motivation to keep doing it.”
CATOE said he’s stopped workers painting over art on the streets before and told them how enticing a clean slate is for artists.
“It’s not solving anything,” CATOE said. “It’s just trying to cover up creativity and ideas.”
CATOE said he isn’t surprised bathroom artwork appeals so much to students, because in a stall, thoughts remain private and identities secret.
“That’s the whole thing about graffiti,” CATOE said. “It’s anonymous.”
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