Mona Lisa à la Graffiti

Above: a 1995 Harry Lyrico print included within Jeff Ferrell's book Tearing Down the Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy:

Jeff Ferrell writes about the inclusion of the Lyrico image:

"Harry's 'Mona Lisa' piece illustrates a short discussion in the book about Harry and Bob Waldmire, another brilliant pen and ink artist and dedicated wanderer (RIP to them both), and is part of that chapter's larger fantasy of reworking the old Towering Inferno (Denco graffiti writer hangout – now the Flour Mill Lofts) into a sort of anarchist urban cultural utopia." 

 

Above: The abandoned Longmont Flour Mill in Denver (now the Flour Mill Lofts), a onetime haunt of Harry (HL86) and the graffiti crew The Syndicate. (Image: History Colorado.)

The Business Of Prints

 

 (Image courtesy of Jeff Ferrell.)

 

Subterranean Ambition Cartoon Strip

 

From the Denver arts publication Icon, January 1989:

Denver People's Fair Program Guides 1985 & 1986

 

 

 

 

A Pink Car Nation

 

 "A Pink Car Nation" by "Harry Lyrico" (Larry Hubbell), copyright 2000 (...& 2001).

Yowza

 (Image courtesy of Steve Cruz.)

Evad Recalls Harry & The Syndicate

When David Franklin was a teenager, he belonged to one of the top graffiti crews in Denver: the Syndicate. Franklin – who went by the handle Evad – interacted with and learned techniques from other Syndicate members such as Eye Six, Voodoo, and the crew's leader, Rasta 68. But his greatest tutor was an older participant, HL86, which was the nom de spraycan of the artist known as Harry Lyrico.

 Syndicate crew. HL86 (Harry Lyrico) on the bottom right.

“I loved Harry,” Franklin writes. “He was really good to me when I was a kid hanging out with the Syndicate.  He seemed to believe in my work like no one else at that time.  He was my first art mentor.  I wish he knew that his belief in me [had resulted in a] good art career.”

Today, Franklin is an accomplished artist based in Washington State, who sometimes incorporates indigenous Pacific Northwest motifs into his sculptures and public art. On his resume, Franklin lists one of his influences as Harry Lyrico. Franklin still has some of the stencils that he and Harry conceived together, as well as some additional work by Harry. Here, he shares a few items from his “small collection of Harry's work.”

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  “The Malcom X pen-and-ink sketch is a commission Harry did for my brother, Bryan Franklin.”

 

“The Betty Boop and clown, and the clutch TV camera, were for a collaborative piece we worked on called 'The Gene Mingo Show.'”

"The clock was for the set of 'The Gene Mingo Show.'"

 "A stencil Harry drew and I cut out. It is all money imagery: dollars,pyramids, buffalo, eye.”

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Franklin writes, “Harry was the classy gentleman – with witty and cutting insights – that he looks like in photos of him. He had his own old-school fashion style – wool overcoats and sport coats.  He was, also, at times, a soul unleashed: wild, crazed, focused, manic, and stubborn, as well as very easy to like.  To live the life he lived, he wielded an urban wizardry to survive and to create.”

And the ultimate lesson that he learned from Harry Lyrico?

“Keep it simple and strong,” says Franklin.

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David Franklin: “A stencil portrait I did of Harry in 1990.”

POINT (1990 - 1991)

Illustrations for POINT, an early '90s arts publication in Denver:

Cover for POINT (v2n1Winter 1991) by Harry Lyrico.

 

From POINT (v2 n2) by Harry Lyrico.

 

 From POINT (v2 n2 winter 1991) by Harry Lyrico.

 From POINT (v1 n2) by Harry Lyrico.

Courtesy of Victor Proulx. 

Dead Flowers

His Shoes Are His Canvas

Harry Lyrico circa early 2000s (back when the OK hand gesture still meant "OK").

Winter Home

Courtesy of T. Motley.

...More About Clothes Continued...

Spotted by El Hombre in Astoria, Queens.

Space

 

Dames

 

Goodbye To Harry Lyrico

Friends, acquaintances, fellow artists, relatives, collaborators and the merely curious -- they all attended the "Goodbye to Harry Lyrico" event at the gallery Pirate: Contemporary Art on 2/2/19. People exchanged stories about the at times good-natured and other times combative Harry Lyrico. Tamales and sandwiches, beer and wine were consumed. The art of Larry Hubbell/Harry Lyrico graced the walls. It was a memorable send-off for an unforgettable and legendary, Denver presence.

And ye shall know him by the quality of those who joined together on his behalf: SusanV. and Reed Weimer (who both shared their collections of Harry's art), Chandler Romeo, W. Eric Davidson, Maggie Kyle, Kaet Reeves, Joe Higgins, Victor Proulx, Susy Johnson, Jean B. Smith, Jerry Simpson, Gregory Daurer, Thomas Scharfenberg, Mark Sink, Richard Florence, Stan Yan, Bob Conway, Matt O'Neill, Grant Williams, and, of course, Pirate's own Phil Bender, among others.

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Detail from work.

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 Dragon and dinosaur.

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 Rocky Mountain News spoof: "We're Number Three: Denver is ranked behind New York and Los Angeles in American witchcraft. Celebrating sorcerers are seen at the solar fountain downtown."

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Chandler Romeo and Reed Weimer stand beside Harry's portrait of them.

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Battle skulls.

Joe Higgins, SusanV, Susy Johnson, Jean B. Smith,  and Jerry Simpson stand beside Harry's skull imagery.

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 Entering Denver. 

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Cheesman Park.

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Richard Florence next to shrine containing James C. Kelly's early '80s portrait of Harry.

 Harry Lyrico by James C. Kelly of Mad Lab Studio.

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 Mark Sink Poloroid of Harry as part of shrine.

 

 Harry Lyrico by Mark Sink, 1992.

 

 Matt O'Neill, Mark Sink, and Thomas Scharfenberg.

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 Kosmic Kat.

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Jungle scene.

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Victor Proulx reads Harry's essay "Form And Intertia" from the publication Point.

 

"Form and Inertia."

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Publisher Bob Conway (Phantasy Press) holds a copy of his publication White Boy Goes to Hell by Harry Lyrico.  

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Leaving Denver with a little less magic, Goodbye to Harry Lyrico. 

(Note the little green people in foreground of illustration.)

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Let the celebration continue!