Urban Art Association

good link +1

Maybe he was just keeping look-out?

I dont think its that suprising either... Just that he has chosen to mention it now in the media.

I think we all know that Mr B has a trusted few that he works with on street pieces... But this is vintage rats we are talking about... The ones that people are removing when they get a chance.

I have heard that he just sits in a big pimped out Hummer at the end of the road and directs operations.

...it's just what I have heard ;-)

entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6322439.ece

“I’ve probably been arrested for graffiti between 15 and 20 times,” says Ben Eine, after a moment of quiet calculation. “Depending on if they catch you red-handed or not, they’ll either charge you with criminal damage or with being equipped to cause criminal damage. I’ve been found guilty seven times,” he explains without bravado. “I’ve paid thousands and thousands of pounds in fines. I’ve done all the community service they could possibly give me.”

He shakes a can of spray paint, making the percussive rattle that, along with the hiss of release, forms the stop-start rhythm of the next 40 minutes. He’s drawing a giant ‘P’ on the metal shutters of an East London clothes shop, the latest instalment of a four-year campaign that has seen dozens of letters of the alphabet spring up on similar shutters across the area.

I’ve never done graffiti. I’m not artistic. I’m a coward who doesn’t even want to think about being “equipped to cause criminal damage”. Last year I scratched “LUFC” in tiny writing on the edge of my own desk, which my girlfriend eventually spotted and then spent an hour laughing at how pathetic it was. In fact, though it runs contrary to cool, post-Banksy opinion, I rate most graffiti as charmless in a way that, say, bawdy public toilet limericks aren’t — it’s a little bit too self-indulgent, a bit too pleased with itself and exclusive, plus it tends to be words or phrases that don’t make any sense. There’s also the criminal damage element, too. Criminal. Damage.

Eine doesn’t need to worry about this, because what he’s doing isn't graffiti, it’s street art. With the threat of jail time looming, he started getting shop owners’ permission to paint shutters, aiming to produce works that stand up in their own right, and that anyone can enjoy. He arrives early morning with a sports bag full of £3 spray cans and latex gloves, spraying the letter outline with an eerie precision, then emptying whole cans in filling-in the black background (“don’t let the paint drip — that’s the basic rule”). The chemical fumes are great, adding to the hypnotic feel of the fast unfolding work, and early morning pedestrians first glance, then stop to watch.

“Children, especially, like watching,” he says, and a toddler and parent spend five minutes staring. Once, someone took a photo of Eine on their phone and called the police, but more often people will say: “Thanks, it’s brightened up the area.”

He finishes and leaves. A week later, it’s still on the shutter, but someone has sprayed graffiti on it. Criminal damage if ever I’ve seen it.

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Pretty good write up, fair play for EINE getting mainstream media coverage. Did cringe at "what he’s doing isn't graffiti, it’s street art". Can someone explain the difference for me?

Hint to journo: research more

Interesting stuff

The thing that always stands out to me when ever you read an Eine interview, or you talk to him is that he really thinks about the answers before he says anything.
I think that might have come from when at POW he must have been continually bombarded with questions all the time about print releases so he had to be very careful what he said ;D

Top bloke! one of the few good guys in the scene.

I have a feeling PINS has done A LOT of B's stuff as well. Word word word word word word Banksy