Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson, Contributor

What's in a name? Nothing really, some might say. Unless you were unwittingly named by your parents for a great African-American artist and you yourself became an outstanding artist. Or, if the nickname you were given by your wastrel 10-year-old colleagues, years later reflected the actual content and style of your art.

That's the story in the names of Robert Thompson aka 'Kibo'. This thirty-something year-old Jamaican artist, painter and businessman - the consummate communicator - was named for Robert 'Bob" Louis Thompson, one of the most renowned and youngest African-American artist, whose works flourished in the 1960s. According to the American Artists BlueBook, "An Afro-American, Bob Thompson had success in the 1960s as an artist, which led to his becoming a pivotal figure for African-American artists and for art historians."

What Robert's childhood friends did not know then, was that the name 'Kibo' was the name for the taller of the two peaks in Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa. As an adult, the style and content of Kibo's paintings were of the Africans living at the foot of this mountain. He made the connection while in art school.

But the artist's palette that was to become Robert's life has so far been splashed with stories of his own personal struggles: of his five-mile barefoot trek to Ballards Valley Primary School in St. Elizabeth as a child; as a teenager looking on in hunger and anger in art school while the rich kids threw away unfinished lunches; scrounging his art supplies from the garbage bins to use in his school work; selling empty bottles to buy more supplies, and as a young adult, losing his million-dollar company and having the guts to successfully start again.

"It was obvious that he was going to be one of the greats," says his former teacher and mentor, Hope Wheeler, retired director of studies for the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, who refined the structure and direction of his art. "Robert was a very hard worker, very focused and spiritual," she mused. "He was ready for the world, but was the world ready for him?"

He grew up in the tough neighbourhood of Eastern Kingston, born to parents Donaldo and Norma, the eldest of seven siblings. He remembers well the run-up to the 1980 elections, of waking up to the sight of dead bodies in the yard. Men killed and discarded in the name of politics. His father, from whom he got his creativity, had been shot while sitting in the backyard. This had such a profound impact on him at eight years old that on his first visit to the country, Bull Savannah, St. Elizabeth, he decided to stay.

"I fell in love with the place - there were no zinc fences, no sounds of gun shots; I remember it being so peaceful. It was like a breath of fresh air in my life, so at eight years old I told my father I am not going back to town to live."

He lived with his grand-uncle Fitz Albert Thompson (now deceased), a teacher and deacon, and a dry-cleaner by trade. A disciplinarian, he quickly laid down the rules - school and chores. But this meant earning his keep and so he opened his first bank account with money earned from selling goats. Other ventures for this budding entrepreneur included: pumping the school's water tank, a job he was given when the headmaster caught him peeping through the windows of the extra class he could not afford to attend (it gave him the chance to attend the extra lessons); opening two barbershops (at th of the American rapper MC Hammer and Shabba Ranks craze); to decorating wedding venues.

"My involvement in art came out of a simple need for survival and wanting to have my own. I remember at Norman Gardens All-Age School I use to help other students to draw and get paid in 'soldier buttons', those small hard biscuits.

"At St. Elizabeth Technical, I did not choose to study art, because I was already good at it. I did subjects like chemistry, physics and technical drawing with the dream of becoming an architect. not a strong academic student, Robert gained a distinction in both GCE O' and A' level in art.

Under the guidance of an art teacher, Mr. Linton, he entered the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Tourism poster competition and won the national first prize - three years in a row - the only student to have done so. His first win earned him a scholarship to the Jamaica School of Art, as it was called at the time, but he was too young to attend.

At 16, his poster competition win took him to New York in 1990 where he had a life-altering experience. "The day before I was to return to Jamaica I was offered a spanking new car, an apartment and a cool US$3,000 per night and a nine millimetre gun - if I would just watch a corner," he reminisced.

But, turning down the easy money offer from the drug purveyors, he returned to Jamaica, pocket poor, but decidedly richer in the decision he made. "I heard the voice of God in my head and despite the fact that I was going home to no money - I did not accept." He was now old enough to take up the scholarship offer to the School of Art.

"The scholarship was like getting a passport and visa to travel but having no money to buy the plane ticket. I could attend the school but I could not afford the art supplies which I needed.

"A lady from the Chamber of Commerce helped me to write letters to 50 different companies applying for a part-time job to help me pay for my art supplies. Only two companies responded and I chose to go with Moo Young and Butler to work with Mr. Moo Young," he recalled.

The art school was a character- forming phase in Robert's life: "I was really pissed with the way the uptown rich kids would waste time and their resources. I could not afford to buy lunch at school so my spot was under an almond tree where I would pick almonds and drink water for my lunch. I became a 'bottle police' and collected drinks bottles to sell so that I would earn the money for school. The library was my very favourite place. I read a lot and learned a lot about techniques."

Robert's tenacity and natural gift as an artist paid off as in his first year he won the Cecil Boswell Facey Foundation Scholarship and eight thousand dollars for maintaining a B+ average. He used this money to enter into the t-shirt business. "The first set of t-shirts I did were very Afro-centric. I walked with them in a scandal bag to every store uptown. Not one took them as they said they were ugly and 'too African' and finally Artique in the Mall Plaza took them. After that they just took off I eventually sold off my stock and used the money to buy my first computer.

"I chose to specialise in graphic design because I think that that is the ultimate in communication and expression." But after three years of art school, Robert felt stifled. "There were no computers and that was what was now being used in the graphic arts industry."

In 1993 at the end of his final year, he did not attend his graduation, but he put on an exhibition of his works and started his first company, Kibo International. His first client was Solid Agency, and he created a series of brightly designed posters, promoting their 'Fully Loaded' series and introduced the use of live models instead of stock photographs.

"We created a wave in the dance hall industry; we did posters, full colour flyers and small four-by-six cards. We got heavily involved in this world; I also did Sean Paul's first photo shoot. "

Robert taught himself computer graphic designs and some of his first clients included Island Outpost, Starfish Oils and Appleton. This was the turn of the millennium and th of the dot-com boom in the U.S. and his company had now grown into a million dollar, multi-media, multi-disciplinary company called Black Spider Network, as he had invested heavily into web design and live-streaming and this led him to join forces with overseas investors. He sold 40 per cent of the company to these investors but eventually walked away from this deal and as a result he lost his company.

"It was devastating for me as I had just got married, my father had recently died from cancer, I had six siblings to take care of and I had created a four-year scholarship and had this to be financed. I left Jamaica and worked between Miami and Jamaica - that is when my new Getcaught Media was born. I did web design work for companies that needed a Caribbean flavour."

After this dip in his experiences, this father of three has moved on to re-invent himself and his advertising and software development company, into a talent powerhouse. Client, Andrew Levy, head of Jamaica International Insurance Company, has high praises for the quality of Robert's work. "Robert's approach to his work is unique. He does not stick with the tried and true images; he goes outside of the box."

Through his business at Getcaught Media, Robert has hired some of the students of the School of Art and given back to the art community that he loves so much. He has been honoured as one of the most outstanding graduates in the 50-year history of the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, and now conducts guest lectures there.