Ben Eine Quotes
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David Cameron has given one of my paintings to President Obama. It's quite mad, really. But it's OK. It's not the kind of recognition I seek or get every day, but Cameron seems quite a positive kind of guy and Obama's a dude. I would probably have had issues if it had been for Bush.
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It's hard to live just by selling paintings.
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For me, it's mostly about having stuff on the street. You're walking down the street, you do it every day, and suddenly there's something that wasn't there yesterday: something bright and cheerful and different. It might stay there for a year; maybe it will disappear.
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I was brought up in south London and I started out in the world of graffiti when I was about 14 because I wanted to be part of that hooded tracksuit gang thing.
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I remember finding this book, which showed a New York subway train that had been covered in so much graffiti you couldn't recognise it was a train. I thought, ‘I want to do that… how do you do that?'
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A friend of mine back in 1989 did an illegal rave in Vauxhall. He got Keith Haring to come along and tag the side of the wall. My friend cut it out of the wall and he kept it under his bed for 20 years. Then a few years ago he asks me if I want to buy it... so I spent £12,000 on a Keith Haring.
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You just have to be clever about who you work with. Had I done Gap or H&M, there's no way Louis Vuitton would have wanted to work with me. So you hold out for the big ones.
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Anyone can lose their home and find their life is turned upside down.
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When I first got into graffiti I thought it was going to change the world. But when, 20-years-later, it still hadn't, I got bored of the self-imposed rules.
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In certain places around the world, street art is widely accepted and it is part of the urban environment.
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You can't be a punk all your life.
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The whole world is covered in graffiti. No one cares. It's just part of urban noise.
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My friends were stealing cars and shoplifting. I was never into that but I was cheeky. I enjoyed making people laugh.
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The art that I do is for the people. It is about engaging a new audience who wouldn't necessarily go to art galleries and museums and painting on the street is the best way to do that.
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I haven't studied art and I haven't studied typography, but I've still gone out and done it.
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I'm a bit too old for anarchy. If I was younger I might be more political but I'm married with kids and I've got a mortgage.
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I respect Virgin Atlantic's brave and challenging attitude and the way it goes against the grain, so I jumped at the chance to be part of the first ever Gallery in the Air.
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I got a message from Downing Street that my picture's hanging in the White House. Which is weird.
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Whenever I go anywhere in the world to do a show I try to paint something in the street as well.
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I love to paint and beautify the most unexpected of places - I've painted everything from doorways to trains but have always wanted to do something really huge and different.
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An airplane cabin isn't the first place people think of when they choose an exhibition space, but I'm all for doing things differently.
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Painting on the ground was a cool challenge because you can't just stand back and see what you're doing.
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When I can, I enjoy working with local people to involve everyone in the community in changing their environment.
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My philosophy through all my work, be it on canvas or on the street, is about pushing boundaries and not going with the flow because everyone else is doing something a certain way.