In 2001 a kid wrote ‘Bones’ on the side of a building, liking the lettered, colorfully textured spray design of the five-letter word. As it turns out, the kid would adopt the word as his moniker and ‘Harry Bones’ became the name of a street artist who would redefine the craft into his own very personalized and unique style.
Those who learn about Harry Bones’ mural work find a surreal mix of comic book and fantasy creatures with some gothic elements thrown in. Through crews he has participated in and various mentors who have led him, the artist Harry Bones has grown his skill and talent, with his murals now spanning the globe and continually participating in such weighty gallery openings and art events such as Art Basel Miami.
Bold Beginnings
It was artist Unerl who first introduced Harry Bones to the world of street art. They both joined up with a group called P. Crew in their teenage years to paint graffiti art murals and are the only members of that original crew who stuck with it. For Bones, he couldn’t help it. Graffiti art was in his blood.
Harry Bones artwork continued to grow from the growing exposure he had to street artists such as Power and Krane which pushed his boundaries both in the medium and the location. Seeing these artists work span the globe, Bones would leave his hometown of Sabadell, Spain to strike his own global street art career. Now, mural art lovers worldwide can view artwork by Harry Bones on the side of city buildings. This bold move turned out well for the young artist, launching him into his current success.
Crews and Collaborations
Much of Harry Bone graffiti is in collaboration with crews, a part of his graffiti art career that he greatly loves.
“P.Crew is innocence, growth, maturing, and eternal youth. We’ve been together a long time, we grew up together – as “people”, and as artists.”
As Bone’s first crew, P. Crew has become something of a personal group to him over the years. He reminisces about the times they would simply sit down and figure out how they would tackle the next mural art piece they were working on. For him, EXPOFREE in 2012-2013 was the most memorable undertaking of the group. The project involved gallery openings for 13 months featuring spray painted canvases with high profile collaborations from Noble, Emerock, Magg, Sener, Krane, Honorio, Josan y Jonasa, Enric Sant, and Once.
PCREW X ENRIC SANT // EXPOFREE #7 from P.CREW on Vimeo.
However, P. Crew has not been the only group Harry Bones has been a part of.
“As for the Future Classics, there’s an obvious bond between friends from different cities who are eager to work on a common project, and it was created with the idea of being a crew with a lot of members.”
Future Classics resembles the shift of Harry Bones artwork into the professional world and is a group comprised of many different high-profile artists, mostly letterers, from many different countries. Harry states that the amount of creative and stylistic voices present inspires his own work, and he simply loves the annual get together. It’s obvious that Harry Bones is a man who creatively benefits from the influence of others.
Understanding Harry Bones’ Graffiti Style
Looking at Harry Bones mural work style, it becomes apparent that the artist beats to a different drum. His mural art is dark, gritty, and fantastical, looking like a Mike Mignola Hellboy comic. This pop culture meets fantasy feel offers such a different vibe to the street art community, sparking interest in the new creative wizard. Bones credits the evolution of his style to a solid foundation in the fundamentals.
“Before I used to pay a lot more attention to tags and throw ups. I think that the majority of writers should start out that way, tagging in the city. It forms a part of my foundation and I can’t imagine graffiti without all that.”
Through techniques such as bombing, Harry became comfortable with graffiti art and the possibilities of what could be placed on a wall opened up immensely. He still often uses these basic techniques to begin his works.
Comfortable in the Streets
Harry Bones truly calls the streets his home. According to the artist who has been creating graffiti art for half his life, he couldn’t imagine any other ‘job’ for himself. It’s his home, where his friends are, and where he can create without barriers.
Those who view artwork by Harry Bones can feel the presence he brings to the mural. Harry Bones recognizes the change that has occurred on the streets, shifting from the letterers to the muralists. While this shift indeed favors his style, the ability to tap originality has become more limited with this explosion of and the number of other artists copying Harry Bones mural work. While sometimes this can frustrate him, Bones takes a steady approach and continues painting what he knows and loves.
Diving Deeper Into Harry Bones' Artwork
Artist Harry Bones has found many resources for creative stimulations and hopes to provide that same influence to other artists. He is against ‘postcard art’ which feature pretty pictures with no meaning. While the interpretation of his wild pieces might not be obvious at first to those who view artwork by Harry Bones, the murals represent the care and nurture of a careful creative process.
Bones wants each viewer, especially the ‘ordinary’ citizen to be affected by his mural art and touched on a personal level, even if that turns into being disgusted by the twisted graffiti art scenes. These futuristic spacy paintings were mostly birthed from the favorite films and film posters of the artist. “Everything that’s surrounds me influences me, for better or for worse. Although what has left the biggest imprint on me is cinema (above all sci-fi, western, fantasy, and black cinema) and its posters, comics (Bernet, Pope, Toppi, Moebius).”
What's Next For Harry Bones
Like any successful artist, Harry Bones always finds himself in the midst of new projects and ideas. The most interesting works that can be found by hitting up his Instagram or Facebook are the ink sketches or animated doodles he does, stimulating his creativity through these playful yet thoughtful pieces.
This exhibits the illustration side of art that Bones has been dipping into lately; however, his street murals are still center stage with many new installations going up. Walls such as “The Witch and the Toad” and “My Friends Eat Walls!! There’s no room for YOU” are just some of the murals he has tackled recently. With a relatively new and blooming career, Harry Bones will continue to delight the art world with his surreal and beautiful pieces.
Leave a comment (all fields required)