Ryan Larkin (July 31, 1943 – February 14, 2007) was a coke addict, an alcoholic, suffering from depression, living on welfare in a mission house and panhandling for spending money. He made his choices and lived with the decision not to comply with the conventional and constructed beliefs that would have him caught up in a web of consumerism. He rose to fame with the psychedelic Oscar-nominated short Walking (1968) and the acclaimed Street Music (1972), but then remained an artist, hit “rock bottom” and left a quartet of passionate, delicate and visual poems to influence artists for generations to come.