for those sticky moments!

Getting back to it now with a new charge of energy after weeks of bid writing and the other stuff.

Came across this new dimension in creating artwork, not up my street (excuse pun!) but clever nonetheless. I don't like the images, then again, working on this scale and on the provided materials, beggars can't be choosers!!

A STREET artist who paints on pieces of discarded chewing gum is back and working in Muswell Hill after a court case against him was dropped. Ben Wilson, 43, a father-of-three, of Colney Hatch Lane, Muswell Hill, specialises in tiny artworks - not much larger than a penny piece.He said of his work: "I try to encourage spontaneity and for there to be more random events. By painting on chewing gum, technically you're bypassing bureaucracy."He added: "It's taking something that's been thrown away, a thoughtless action, and turning it into something more positive."The artist was touching up a collection of works on the corner of the Broadway and Queens Avenue and residents were pleased to see him out and about.

Daniela Jovic, 25, of Hampden Road, said: "My three-year-old is a fan. She gets out her magnifying glass from her bag to see them. She still hasn't spotted these ones.

"Subject requests for the paintings - which can take up to seven hours to create - are taken from the public and he always uses gum already on the pavement."I do a lot of pictures for people that have died in car accidents," he said. "I've been arrested so often for doing dedications to people, but advertisers have a monopoly over public space. Hopefully this redresses the balance."He has worked all round the world in countries including Finland, America and Australia, and used to make impromptu sculptures in woodlands before moving onto gum art.

Mr Wilson was charged last year with resisting arrest near St Paul's Cathedral after he began work on a piece of gum. (source: Hornsey and Crouch End Journal)