Tyrannosaurus Rex Mystery Solved

Finally, the mystery of the Found TRex posters has been solved. Joe points us to this Columbia Spec interview with Jason Ruff, the artist behind the project:

“I want people to step out of their normal routine and be creative, to think a little differently,” said Jason Ruff, the 28-year-old art teacher who has posted over 1500 flyers around Columbia and elsewhere in New York the last year. “Some days I’ll get up early, get some coffee, and just walk and put up a hundred [flyers] in a day,” Ruff said. Since he brings his flyers wherever he goes, Ruff said he has also posted flyers in Barcelona and Paris while chaperoning for a school trip.
Ruff said his idea was inspired by a discovery he made on 107th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway under a trash bag. “I saw the tail and I thought it was a beautifully carved leg of a table. So I grabbed it,” Ruff said of the foot-and-a-half-long toy dinosaur.

Ruff's website is pretty amusing-- he's collected fifty responses to the poster. For instance:

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jake Dobkin in Arts and Events on April 6, 2006 11:16 AM

Comments [rss]

Who cares

You people are mad over a friggin flyer? Get over it.. jeez.. OMG! A flyer! The world is over!

little pot of sauce

right, people who limit self-expression to the privacy of their own apartments are who make nyc AWESOME.

xnxox

those flyers make me MAD!! if people want to express themselves, they should do it in the privacy of their own apartments.

little pot of sauce

this guy's a dork? the people who responded are pricks and assholes? jeez, commenters, stand up, step away from your desk, stretch, and go learn how to appreciate silly things. i, for one, am thrilled that there are some people in this city who post silly flyers and that there are even more with the sense of whimsy to respond to them. you poor little babies who were inconvenienced and annoyed by FLYERS of all things! only babies have more fun than you do, probably.

Bingo

This guy is a total dork

Marc

oooooo.....

chalking

Scary

xnxox

does this guy have a permit to put up these flyers? this "fun flyering" needs to stop, if not solely because i don't appreciate people hanging around outside my apartment staring at some stupid flyer, then because it can only lead to worse things: chalking, and then graffiti.

Jsn

it's been done!

a few years ago an (SVA?) art student posted flyers around Madison Sq Park, about a missing pigeon. the picture was an indistinct snapshot of pigeons in the park, with a circle around one.

the ad's phone number lead to an answering machine, and the collection of ensuing messages was the project's ostensible result...

I'm amazed that the angry people (pigeon flyer got them too) would bother to respond to something that is sooooo obviously meant to be a bit of fun.