Animal Rummy

I met Mr. Robert Oliver Jones at Flatstock 2008 during SXSW this year when he returned from his 30 minute cigarette break and although I (along with 20 other anxious fans) was thinking about stealing his "back in 10 minutes" sign (complete with a cowboy cigarette rendition and smiley face guy with x's for eyes), I also couldn't conceal my utter dislike of the guy. I later realized that this stemmed mostly from a jealous fear...but that's neither here nor there. He looked like a starving artist (which he certainly is not) in his pilled emo sweater and black frame glasses. Robert's pieces, rightfully so, sell for more than your average college dorm poster. By the time he did return a lot of people had left so I got to talk with him about some of his work.

WOW! He had a story and a reason behind every image, every moment every weather system...they told stories...and not just cool rock star stories....stories that linked St. Andrew to the cosmos and the soul capturing Yashica camera to the faraway feeling of a city skyline. There were times when what he was saying made perfect sense...he even had a sequential order that they fell into that coincided with where the band was touring. The posters, as well as the artist, are otherwordly. Pretentious and overpriced...but of another world for sure. I wanted him to doodle on a piece of paper for me so bad but was ashamed to ask...instead, I asked him to write his website down for me, with hopes that he would scribble a bit....He folded up the paper and handed it back to me. I was anxious to look at what he wrote but just stuck it in my over-sized bag of lanyards, stickers and cd's and scurried off to buy a $10 poster at a "real" starving artists booth. Flatstock is one of the best places on earth and would have been world's cooler if my boss wasn't waiting outside to drive me to the next showcase....

Oh yeah...the brown paper bag piece of paper that Robert gave me had no doodles...but it did say www.animalrummy.com in red ink....You should check it out.