As with any good art form, graffiti, particularly that which is found throughout the studious halls of the John D. Rockefeller Library, is a constantly evolving medium. Even as tidbits of wisdom from past Brown undergraduates are invariably rubbed away by the passage of time, freshly scrawled ones appear just as quickly on the desks and walls of the library, a discourse that unites the tired, over-caffeinated students of both past and present. While some of the older works still remain, a new wave of notable Rock graffiti has since begun to sweep the building—an artistic movement of small but revolutionary proportions. Witness the current denizens of the Rock encourage, cajole, and occasionally insult one another with the following five gems of life wisdom (which mainly focus on how studying really, really sucks).
“You can do it :),” one of the more simplistic pieces on display. The encouragement feels unoriginal (albeit genuine), and the basic style of the smiley face indicates a lack of proper artistic training. Still, more than one hard-working student has undoubtedly taken solace from this message.
“You get ’em tiger!” As with the first picture, this piece is basic in both style and substance. With that said, the use of the colloquial ’em’ rather than the standard ‘them’ speaks to an awareness for current, ‘hip’ language trends that isn’t present in the previous example.