Ben Eine Quotes

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Ben Eine

Profession : Artist

Birth : August 23, 1970

I'm always travelling and spend a lot of time in airports so I know what it feels like to get a personal welcome home. I wish I got more of them.

Ben Eine

When I can, I enjoy working with local people to involve everyone in the community in changing their environment.

Ben Eine

In certain places around the world, street art is widely accepted and it is part of the urban environment.

Ben Eine

My friends were stealing cars and shoplifting. I was never into that but I was cheeky. I enjoyed making people laugh.

Ben Eine

Spraypainting a shop shutter turns an ugly, boring thing into something interesting and colourful. I think you'd have to be a pretty negative person to find fault in it.

Ben Eine

All too often, when people think about art in the U.K., they think London. There's some really great work being produced outside of the capital city and I think it is important to stop and acknowledge that.

Ben Eine

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.

Ben Eine

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.

Ben Eine

A lot of my paintings have quite negative meanings, but painted in a bright and cheerful way.

Ben Eine

It makes me really proud to be able to use my art to spread positive messages around the world.

Ben Eine

Whenever I get a job that's somewhere around America, I fly over my ex-wife and daughter and hang out with them.

Ben Eine

I got a message from Downing Street that my picture's hanging in the White House. Which is weird.

Ben Eine

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.

Ben Eine

Banksy's a very selfish, driven, paranoid artist. For good reasons.

Ben Eine

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.

Ben Eine

I did long-term re-insurance claims. Asbestos, health hazards, pollution. It was very boring. But I've got quite a mathematical brain and it paid well.

Ben Eine

I used to run away from the cops and now I stand and chat with them about my art. I'm older now and it is harder to run away from them. It would be embarrassing for an older man to get arrested by someone half your age. So I gave up running.

Ben Eine

Most people think I do street art, so I do everything for nothing. I'm an urchin who paints walls and does work for nothing. That's the first misconception about street artists, that we just paint for nothing.

Ben Eine

I don't get paid for what I do in public places. So I invest the money I earn in galleries back into doing the stuff I passionately want to do on the street.

Ben Eine

It's hard to live just by selling paintings.

Ben Eine