This unusual new music video by Sufjan Stevens is based on the work of the late outsider artist “Prophet” Royal Robertson and was animated by Stevens himself. Robertson, a schizophrenic who painted space landscapes, flying cars, pornographic images, angels, UFOs and love/hate tributes to his ex-wife, lived in Baldwin, Louisiana and covered his living space with his work and apocalytic Bible verses. Spinning signs outside the house warned visitors: “No bastards” (a reference to his eleven children, some who he suspected were not his), “No Divorced Whores Allowed!” and “Crazy People Stay Off Property.” Think of him as an African-American version of Reverend Howard Finster, ... a somewhat more hostile version of Howard Finster, I suppose.

Robertson died in 1997 and his art is collected by the likes of REM’s Michael Stipe and hangs in the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Sufjan Stevens’ newest album The Age of Adz (pronounced “odds”) was largely based on Royal’s work and eccentric cosmic worldview and the live concerts in support of the album feature more animated projections of Robertson’s distinctive imagery.
 

 
As seen on Exile on Moan Street