Chewing gum street art

by Elena Campus

I saw this chap for months and months, lying on the pavement, oblivious to the wind, snow or rain, and he was always painting something, but what? And above all, why?

Ben Wilson, also known as the ‘Chewing Gum Man’, as he introduces himself to me, is giving shape to the most genuine idea of art.

He takes the harsh reality of life and transforms it into something beautiful, full of meaning and worthy of admiration.

Art, he simply claims, can just be an instinctual form of self-expression and a way to make the world better by creating a profound connection between people.

He is creating a 'chewing-piece-of-art', painting on a minuscule white spot, (the ‘white spot’ being chewing gum) that was in somebody else’s mouth, discarded, and which has now regained life through his paintings.

Connecting people

During our conversation, an awful lot of people stopped to say ‘hi’, some, requesting the artist to paint a personalised chewing gum with their names on it or a message for someone special, while others just watched the artist at work, gawking in amazement at his creations.

Ben has painted around 10,000 pieces of chewing gum till date. So, it was quite natural to ask him if he had a favourite one.

He said that each one of them was special because it told the story of a person’s life.

The most romantic one for him he told me, was a ‘chewy’ wedding proposal that a guy asked him to paint in front of his girlfriend’s favourite shoe shop. It read, ‘my dearest Fi, I love you, will you marry me?’

Ben told me that she couldn’t resist such an original proposal and just had to say ‘yes’.

Trust me, you won’t be able to resist either, Ben’s chewing gum will just stick in your mind!