A one-man publicity machine, he distributes newspaper articles about himself, written in a dozen languages. "Habla usted Español?" he asks. "Italiano?" Though few New Yorkers have heard of him, Franco's paintings are all over 125th Street. Painted on the metal doors that protect the windows, his art is visible only before 10 A.M. when stores open. Franco's pictures form a gallery of images, from the glamour of ladies in furs and men in black tie to a tribute to the city's police force.

A mile downtown in Spanish Harlem, you'll find James De La Vega, another artist who is changing his neighborhood with art. In a style that is closer to Picasso's than Franco's, this Cornell graduate calls himself a "sidewalk philosopher" and writes inspirational observations on the ground. Uptown's version of the artist Barbara Kruger ("I shop therefore I am"), De La Vega is responsible for scrawling declarations like "Beauty Magazines Make My Girlfriend Feel Ugly" and "A Well-Dressed Slave" below a drawing of a faceless man wearing a tie.

The best of De La Vega's pictures is created with masking tape, which he uses to make line drawings. Already a legend in the neighborhood, he uses the tape to draw the Madonna and Child and Jesus Christ. A "wannabe communist" and, paradoxically, an aspiring entrepreneur, De La Vega owns a gallery. Given his art hero image, it is surprising that he wasn't asked to paint a portion of the Graffiti Hall of Fame that is located in a schoolyard on 106th Street at Park Avenue. "It's known throughout the world," explains Wilfredo Feliciano, a.k.a. Bio, a founding member of Tats Cru, New York's most successful group of "writers," as graffiti artists are called. "The wall was just redone by three generations of graffiti writers," Bio added.

A tribute to Hip Hop music, the outside wall was created by Bio and fellow Tats Cru founders, Hector Nazario, whose art name is "Nicer," and Sotero Ortez, a.k.a. BG183. Framed with portraits of pioneering rappers, Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa, the mural depicts a group spray-painting the walls, while others take photographs. One "b-boy," as break dancers are called, spins around on his head. The image depicts what happened in the schoolyard on the night Tats Cru painted this mural. Today, Bio isn't surprised to hear the painting has been defaced. "It always happens," he sighs. "It's not a big deal. Whenever we get a chance, we touch it up. Other graffiti writers won't do it," Bio mentioned, noting a professional courtesy.

Founded in the 1980s, Tats Cru fell into doing commercial work for companies like Coca-Cola "sort of by accident," Bio says with a laugh. "We didn't set out to be graffiti muralists. We developed it over the years." Tats Cru's hard work has paid off. "One of the most important things is being able to do what you say you can do," Bio explained. "Everything else just happens." Today Tats Cru is New York's most successful muralists. With work in London, Paris, Ireland, Canada and Mexico, they get job applicants from all over the world. With SEN2, who is originally from Puerto Rico, and "the twins" HOW and NOSM, two 26-year olds from Dusseldorf, Tats Cru has 10 employees.

Looking up at the elevated train that whips suburbanites from Connecticut to Grand Central, you wonder if they have any idea how street artists are transforming Harlem or how competition has fathered the art form. "No one will come out and say it because it's a friendly thing," Bio whispers. "But that's what the art form is about: being the best of the best," he reveals. "You've gotta represent. Everybody watching, so you have to come out with great stuff."