Ryan Larkin

Above: Chris Landreth imagines a CGI Ryan Larkin in Ryan

A friend recently sent me an e-mail with information on a Canadian artist named Ryan Larkin, who made animated short films in the 1960’s. I’d never heard of Mr. Larkin before, but found some interesting material about him on the internet. Perhaps the best place to start is Last Exit on St. Laurent Street: The Wonderfully Fucked Up World of Ryan Larkin by Chris Robinson: “In the 1960s, Ryan Larkin was a 19-year-old protégé of Norman McLaren. With McLaren’s support, Larkin was given a rare carte blanche at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and made one of the most influential animation films of all time, Walking (1968). By 1999, Larkin was living on welfare in a mission house and panhandling for spending money. How the hell did this happen?”

    In 2004, filmmaker Chris Landreth made a short film about Mr. Larkin, titled Ryan: “A gentleman panhandler. One of the pioneers of Canadian animation. Oscar nominee. Poor beggar. An artist unable to create. God observing the world. Fallen angel. Arrogant. Shy. Broken. Not destroyed.” For more on this film, click here.

    Since Mr. Landreth’s film came out, a renewed interest in Mr. Larkin has surfaced: “Now, thanks to two new fascinating bio pics that will screen at the Festival du nouveau cinéma as part of a fundraising tribute to help get Larkin off the streets, the eccentric artist is about to be thrust back into the spotlight.” So writes Raf Katigbak in his 2004 article, Luck of the draw. The result? Spare Change.

Walking (1968) by Ryan Larkin:

Syrinx (1965) by Ryan Larkin: