'ArtBy' Valerio & The Arts Hole - Outside' the Box '

you know its beyond ironic to me that the city of Plymouth is investing in its museum and art gallery at the moment ( you know how many people there are in this city that are living in actual poverty )

not only in this disgraceful age of austerity is Derriford hospital falling to pieces and filling what could otherwise be bed/ward space with fucking sainsbury's and domino's pizza ?? but the city is building a very expensive Box to cram all of the imperialistic ideals into as grand a façade as possible as quickly and cheaply as possible ( again no hint of intended irony there )

and once again I site myself in a position of prominence to tackle some of that style of pompous arseholery  ... taking on a small home studio for 5 months in this city that keeps trying to kill me !

Art By Valerio - absolutely outside the box !!!  0% Government 0%Corporate completely independent and uncensored 100% ABV  x x x


Art By Valerio & The Arts Hole Pop up Initiative

The Arts Hole POP UP Exhibition option sprang up in an otherwise disused space around the summer of 2006 at the height of the credit crunch in a sleepy coastal backwater in south East Cornwall , some have even accredited this resourceful act as one of the clear pioneering acts f the now internationally embraced and ever popular pop up initiatives that can be found city to city the world over !

originally designed as an act of protest against soaring property prices / stagnant wages and the Iraq invasion during a so called labour government at the time …

the Arts Hole went into Collaboration with the Tiffany Gallery East Looe Cornwall in the winter of 2008 which coined a friendship that lasts to this day

2011 the arts hole urban expansion was initiated, eventually coining the name ' The Valerio Institute of Alternative Learning '

2015 the arts hole franchise expansion to the Netherlands incorporating many student protest elements

2017 the arts hole on tour - sailing exhibition of arts and design principles

2018 the arts hole upstiairs - home spun charm while I have charmingly spun home x

''siting the ever popular ' Signature Style ' that is the artists own progressively developing style, within the Cornish ' Art Scene ' at the time, this artists prominence and notoriety has only broadened during his extensive career to encapsulate a portfolio of such diversity as to truly set him apart from his contemporaries - an internationally well respected and established, broadly underground creative ''

Arts Hole pop up galleries and studios (2006) are a community orientated creative industries company - an exhibition description for the trading entity known as ' Artby Valerio ' (1998) and can always be found via the traditional online means just google ' Artby Valerio and get in touch or keep up to date with the latest pop up schedules and exhibition dates

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The Cornish ' Art Scene '

the Cornish art scene is by and large reflective of so many elements of our current state of disarray  that it is amazing to me that is it is not more openly discussed !

Once upon a time - when most people still actually worked for a living, a bunch of faces deep etched by the daily Elememts they toiled in , on a rugged and windswept yet beautiful , far lung fringe of this land, opted to wile away times not spent toiling or drinking ….. on a few renderings ! Quite often composed out of left over tins of antifoul or homemade watercolours - this for me . is where the real guts of the ' Cornish Art Scene ' began !

and Cornwall remained for many years - a bit of a nostalgic throwback for decades after this actually - Humble / Rugged / Quant / Raw and Real x

That is of course until around the late 1960's and through the seventies , at this point legislation overtook production in this country full stop !

The ' Tourist Boom ' really began to take hold as the notion of recreationalism and ' obsessive compulsive acquisition ' really became a corner stone of a once proud ' ish ' economy .  ! but the little seaside getaways were now beginning to be replaced by cheap foreign holidays instead  !

but even so rents were reasonable and a sleepy yet ratifying existence could still be eeked out here, that is of course until the artificial inflation of the property market in the greater London area began to spill its poison out into the surrounding counties and like some untended infection ran rampant!

Fringe communities stared to spring up in greater and greater numbers ! Beatniks , Poets , Artsists and Hippies of all kinds would live in and travel around this last little avenue of freedom in these far flung places of cornwall, wales and scotland… away from the ministrations of our ever expanding yet increasingly inept administrations - looking for a more low cost / creative orientated way to live …. connected to the land and environment ! and in doing so really reinvigorated the Cornish art scene with a little innovation and recourceful ness...I recall moving to the area in the early 1980's and there really was still a rebellious / salty / piractical / farmer character to the place ...

this in turn encouraged the new waves of burgeoning Bourgeoise classes from Reagan and Thatchers delapidated and economically depleted  urban areas  ….. to come and ' Find out ' what was going on in Cornwall ( after all Bo Ho communities have always been where te party is … I know these days its all been rebranded into some weird amalgamative cross over between ' High Tea ' and ' Mad max but I do still think that between the bare lightbulbs - and upcycled palette bar installation - its still easy to see the genuine article over the bank balance orientated bullshit )

so these Hipsters ( Yuppies at the time ) unable to slow the degeneration of the boroughs they invested in - began to ' invest ' in the holiday home fairytale from Margaret thatchers nonsensical ' property ladder ' voodoo … which in turn of course , drove up prices and reduced the scale of attraction, and by default the flow of paradigm contesting art and artists that had been swarming to the region

Towards the end of the 1980's the ' Art Scene ' indeed much , was in Dire straits - most of the small independent Artists Studios had closed or relocated to the far more embracing and liberally minded Artists Communities in Europe and Further afield

Compounded by this was the infiltration of the Yuppy ilk from the London Class of Economics! came up with a con !

for about a decade you could find where once there was an actual working studio - a retailer of cheap Chinese and Taiwanese ' art ' ( mass produced in factories by unnamed unknown factory workers ...en mass ! ) in every Cornish town were these cheaper distributors of even cheaper wares posing as ' Cornish art ' by ' Cornish artists '

but it was a total scam and a lot of tourists got burned with this !

Fortunately this practice became so rife as to become blatant and people actually started noticing that instead of a Cornish fishing trawler in the painting … that if you looked closely it was actually a Chinese junk … in more ways than one !

so for a short while people did actually start questioning what they wee buying !

What was left of the original lobster pot hut , independent artists studios that had managed to survive the previous decades were constantly having to fight with their audiences - offering assurances of originality ( but like buying glass in venice … it can be pretty hard to be sure )

So Larger and Larger ' Collectives ' started to form …. these days try walking from one end of cornwall to the other and you cant travel five miles without tripping over some half baked collective or other ( we actually seem to be doing exactly the same with festivals at the moment too )

Roll on to Present Day

and all of these collectives are filled with ( at least it seems to me anyway ) a load of inept early retiring civil servamts and failed hairdressers from the home counties, that like nothing more than to sit around in edinburugh woollen mill garments that are at least two sizes too big for them …. and according to their ' artists statement ' they occaisionally take fido out for a couple of hours in some light drizzle so that they can chanel all of that ' raw energy ' and inspiration through some shitty ceramics process … or the smearing of a lot of tones of beige about !

if I could get it to convey appropriately …. I would fart loudly here ! but the point is lost a little in this written medium of choice

Of Course amongst all of these menopausal women posing as actual artisans simply because they had revenue to buy a house here ( all terribly dubious you understand ) you will find the now well established and royaly endorsed whistlefish - that for legal reasons cant call themselves an actal gallery anymore x and like jimmy Saville … the less said about that the better x ( a bit like a budget Tate - a load of corporate and government assholes that don't really know much about anything but how to manipulate fools … and in turn markets )
so now instead of Taiwanese paintings filling vacant overpriced premises , you will find on every Cornish highstreet one of these mcdonalds art distributors ….

and that's the situation as she stands !!its gone from bad to worse to dire … and I don't see any sign of improvement at all …. anywhere !!

Monday Fucking Morning !!! the natural habitat for bankers , politicians, estate agents , percentage people and busy bodies of all kinds !

Fuck These People !! all day long with the open end of a rusty rake !!!

so I rented a piece of shit property from some delusional imperialist weirdos , and as always I open my home and humble studio to the public , this serves several age old purposes

1. I GET TO LIVE AND WORK PEACABLY IN AN ENVIRONMENT I HAVE TAILORED TO SUIT ME ! in doing so , I am off the streets and not rousing rebellion in any obvious or dangerous sense ! it also renders product from time … this in case the Margaret thatcher degree in commerce through agency has brainwashed you completely is the origin of all economies , a producer or practitioner takes a raw material and renders from it a product or service !! this then has commercial viability from which all other markets spring !! its the original human endeavour !!

2. through the public presentation and engagement of said product or service , audiences can be met and engaged with , topical issues brought to discussion , and resolves manifested !!

and yet in just doing what I humbly choose to do in this maddening age of the charlatan , I am often indisposed by the most rudimentary arrogances and suppositions of self importance ! indeed the organizations institutions  and individuals that are supposed to encourage and incentivise enterprise and innovation , have simply become some grotesque parasitic tick ! draining the very life blood out of the things they were set up to protect !

so I rented this thing , so I could live and work in a place ( reluctantly I might add ) where previous experiences of admin ineptitude have left a great deal to be desired ! from a collective of peculiarities and women institute type importance ! I fix up the building ( doomed anyway to some half baked planning application for yet more student accommodation that will be surplus to requirement ) fill it with art … put out a little cardboard signage for the sake of the city wide open studio events !

and lo and behold !! you cant put that there , … you cant do that , … that's not allowed …. its against the rules !!

trust me , my experiments over the past 15 years with the applicable value of the rules … and the dubious character of the individuals that would nepatistically uphold them ! has left me more than proficiently versed in the terms of conduct for my particular trade … even in administrations as obviously retarded as the ones we tend to tolerate here in this country at the moment !

so they stole my signs !! the RAOB actually went to the trouble to try to insist upon me of all people !! what the formal procedure should be!

this as anyone familiar with my particular code of conduct can imagine ….did not go so well …


and after an exaggerated tirade there and then denouncing the validity of such petty quasi little organizations I conceded to consider the formal procedure !

and this here would be the written response to the ' committee ' for appraisal …. they wanted a proposal in writing for consideration , but I figure putting this here as a matter of public record is good enough !



FAO committee memebers of the RAOB North Hill Plymouth September 10th 2018

Firstly in the interest of decorum I would offer apology for being so abrupt yesterday in dealing with your chairman and associate on the premises in the evening of Sunday 11th September 2018 , however there is some inevitability in reaction when the individual is drawn unessicarily into confrontation versus a collective during what should otherwise be a more gainful pursuit even on a sunday evening  !

once again its first thing on a Monday morning and I , instead of engaging in bespoke productions , completing elements of commissioned trade to be conducted in whats left of this sterile economy ! I am having to allocate my valuable time ( billable at about £ 2500 per week ) conceding to write my completely defensible position out for yet another ethereal council !!

over the past 15 years I seem to have managed to turn a valid political protest into a commercially viable vocation , despite recessions / elections / credit crunches / austerity and even Brexit !!

and this is in part why I cannot simply comply and adhere to imposed strictures or ' standard procedure '. As all ' standard procedure ' have seemingly become so mired in bureaucratic procedure to have rendered functionality questionable at best ! and I would just like to highlight this incident as a fine example of just that !

It is hard enough to drum up any semblance of sensible and consistent trade in this economically emaciated corner of Brexit Britain !, and yet despite many appealing offers for alternative opportunities this is where, for myriad reasons I have chosen to site myself for the temporary time being ! and it would be all the more tolerable given the opportunity to simply live and work away in peace ! …. but this is Plymouth After all !!

I will openly state that it is always my preference , when and where possible, to maintain as amiable a disposition as circumstance will allow !

so in the interest of good diplomacy , and utter transparency I will offer these points for your consideration in lieu of your ' insistence for proposal ' ( both of which demand the same level of concentration and application …. however you just managed to get my back up here about this )

POINT 1

Introductions :

the names stated on the tenancy agreement - ie the individuals co habiting the uppermost floor of the premises in question:  41 north hill Plymouth

a standard tenants agreement has been formulated agreed to and signed through appointed representative ( nova homes )

tenant 1 of European origin but legal resident and full time employee for over ten years !

tenant 2 ( me ) international artist and designer of considerable repute concerning subjects beyond the areas of assumed expertise !

POINT 2

Agency :

I personally detest this countries reliance on outsourced agency and the inherent cowardice that can be found through such squirrely mediations !!

WE LIVE UPSTAIRS FOR GOODNESS SAKE !

should you take exception or offense to an issue or have a point to be raised ! come and talk to us about it ! and we can rely on agency mediation in the event that interparty negotiation should break down or fail !

it is a sad shame that dealing with people face to face has become such an unusual practice in tis day and age !! the age of the charlatan !!

POINT 3

Atelier :

an artists Residence can by default be a legally utilisable studio space ! ……

and again by default ! can be legally used to garner custom / receive the public / promote productions and exhibit works completed and or in progress !

for which ' nominal ' and ' temporary ' ( non fixed / non permanent ) signages can be ' reasonably' employed !! ( in accordance with dimension limitations / illuminated or otherwise  specifications / siting specifications R.E emergency access and egress and the implications for health and safety practice requirements !

for the DURATION or a predetermined , temporary exhibition or open studio

POINT 4

Signages Specific :

please feel free to peruse the available legislation guidelines for

- A boards / Standees / Flags and Flyers

- public exhibitions

- public exhibitions/ events  on private land

-Temporary public notices

- Art installations in public and private spaces

I think that you will find that city wide cultural promotions will also correspond to specific exemptions and exception clauses within this area of by -law

Note 1

should the incompetent council that is supposed to be acting as commissioned custodian to this city ( who I have had the misfortune of having to deal with in court in the past ) wish to raise issues … then pleas by all means pass all related matters  to myself  !

Note 2

should any of my ' promotional materials ' contravene or inhibit an expressed event for a specific demographic , then this can be handled on a case by case basis ! , and I will be more than happy to make occasional concessions and allowances i.e  I wont display any skull or death reference materials in the event of a scheduled funeral function etc


PROPOSED COURSE OF ACTION !

Option 1

signages to be returned and left alone unless prior mediation has at least been attempted ! or concession granted ! ( as stipulated above in Note Addendum 2 )

for the short term duration of the city wide open studios throughout the autumn 2018 including ' drawn to the valley open studio and artists exhibitions / Devon Artist Network open studios event / and the Plymouth Art Weekender : including and extending to additional independent short term exhibit adjustments and scheduling

hopefully culminating in a fairly symbiotic co habitation arrangement !

alternatively …..

OPTION 2

we remain at loggerheads ! we can continue to purposefully disagree over petty recriminations !

i.e everytime I put out a sign or banner or happen to be engaging in production in the communal outside spaces ( which of course as act of production or protest I will be compelled to continue to do ) . you then counter with some insistence or confrontational habit , only serving to inflame my reactionary tendency and to inspire me to escalate the presence of said protest or production to ensure inconveniences caused !! e.g …. you don't like a little A board or some flags ! well how about ' persons unkown ' spraypainting a load of anti royal slogans and profanity all over the exterior of the dman building …. really hard to pin liabilities on persons unknown … regardless of scale of supposition !! trust me what ever you want to get your knickers in a twist about …. I have a hernia for you …. so sit down shut up and stop causing trouble !!

This would only serve to inflame discord, harbour resentments and ultimately inhibit a much needed focus for topical discussion points, a melee of free flowing creativity …. and a much needed community engaging asset … that isn't owned / sponsored / manipulated through inept government or poor policy or greedy machinations , a genuine rarity these days …. the days of the charlatan !



I hope that you will take this under consideration when considering future courses of action !!

respectfully , although not completely without disdain at this stage

Aaron ( Artby ) Valerio

Urrrgghh .... This Fucking Place !!!!

Plymouth !!

well what can be said … every time I think about writing about this cancerous hole in the ground that has been aggressively stuffed with a rough concrete fist ! …. I wince !! then I despair !! then I swear that I am leaving and never coming back ! … then I do … and the whole circle begins again !! regardless of what assholes 'in charge' … regardless of vocational pursuit / romantic interest or whatever the fucking weather is doing … this place and the people that have run it for the past few decades …. blow the proverbial fat one !!

and now they want to spend 600Million on a brand new city centre rejuvenation scheme   …. well I am sorry if I don't have a great deal of faith in the organizations that have brought us such calamities as the drakes shopping mall , the life centre , that horrible tower of Sauron they have just built to house all of the students that are no longer applying for places since they hiked the price of tuition through the roof ….. which is having a catastrophic knock on effect with all the poor suckers that git stuck with the false promise of the buy to let mortgage ….. which in turn has affected the overall rental market in the city ….

we don't have any shops left … just a few corporate coffee outlets , and a few estate agents ( all offering great incentives on buy to let …..???!! ) and the supermarkets that keep the general population drip fed on a chemical poison that will just about fuel them through some 8 hour monotony !! of course vocational monotony is all that's left … since the banks and the governments in their pockets collapsed the economies !!

unfortunately this as I am writing it … although was entitled ' Plymouth ' I think this actually represents most urban areas in the country right now !

Plymouth However really does offer a shining Salute to the foulness of the shitstorm we have inflicted on ourselves … all for the sake of another mans greed !! the age of insanity … the age of the charlatan indeed !!

so apparently the Brexit bus left the boot open … and Plymouth city council managed to make off with 600million pounds worth of that fictitious budget … and they are going to pay themselves very well … while they strategize and formulate the where and whys of stuffing another cinema / mall / student accommodation …. into what could have otherwise been a very pleasant place to live and work !!!

Pleasure / Thrills and Happiness ... and Spaceforce

I think that something that really steered me towards the arts at an early age was the individuals capacity to create a semblance , even a minor infusion of order ...into what would otherwise be mere chaos !

I think that stimuli has a great deal to do with reactionary tendency …. but the core individual / the physical and psychological capacity to endure scales of tumult .. or as I said , stimuli of any nature be that positive or negative …. and to focus the reaction through a rational and constructive process really is the main accomplishment , of all of our so called, often self professed accomplishments … that's the one that's really worth a mention !

I used t find that during times of high stress and anxiety , that to sit in a quiet space , breathing deeply and ' grounding ' myself through the meditative process of pushing lines or pigments around on a blank page or canvas was really the most PLEASURABLE experience, I could transcend any situation and through the creative process … end up with a rendering , a composed thought ! of course the inclination can very easily be the opposite .. to loose your shit and kick a door off the hinges and go ranting and raving around the place like some nut ! ( and I confess to be guilty of both behavioural attributes )many years later I took to the commercial application of this tendency ( as I have said before people will buy fucking beanie babies for Christ sake ,... so it only made sense that I should supplement my income at the time through the process ) of course then this unending recession took place and we have pretty much been living with this austerity crap ever since …. as a result many of the companies I used to work for went out of business ! and so my income supplement became my main income ….

and it was during a little gallery stint during this burgeoning economic downturn that a veteran friend of mine said something quite profound … he suggested that ' you can always work your way out of the shit '

just by doing that which comes natural … the engaging in that simple meditative process renders product ! over time , given suitable application that products quality will improve ! so you are quite literally investing in yourself when times are hard … in the Knowledge that market cycles fluctuate …so even if times are tough … keep painting ! keep writing … keep gardening, keep it going!! and you will end up with at the very least an amassed store of commodity!!!

the losing your shit option does always have an immediate release appeal !!but after more broken meta tarsals than I can re-call the rational mind says breath deeply , eat an orange , smoke a joint and drink a coffee … and plough your head into the creative process ….

now THRILLS … Thrills are as much a part of the stimuli process as any thing else, Thrills are a good thing , indeed if and when they are genuinely garnered !

Now I used to enjoy Roller Coasters .. and indeed if I find myself in the proximity I can still be inclined to find a little childlike thrill in the engagement of such whimsey! some people like booze , cocaine , sex … even shopping , and I read a study that indicated that with the scale of online interactions that we do these days that even seeing the little red notification or message icon releases the same neuro chemicals as any artificially imposed thrill !!…. me well I like to spend a Monday morning languishing !! naked with company as and when its pertinent ! casting a mental image of all the assholes in Charring Cross pouring into the city to spend hours and hours convicted in the treasonous ' business as always ' bullshit that has effectively rendered the last 30 years worth of nonsense …. other than that all I really need is a blank medium and a means of making a mark on it …. simple wants I guess ! to stand back and look at a 'completed' rendering … well that is a pleasurable thrill … and well selling ( or indeed trading a yacht for )a piece that you have laboured over …. that would be a very ratifying thrill ! …

Happiness … Happiness , well now that to me is a bit of an ethereal notion … a nice idea !! but in real terms its not very practical .. if you think of the old adage ' the devil makes work for idle hands ' ( indeed everytime that Sinbad the Sailor became ' Happy ' or ' Content ' he would lapse into periods of extreme indulgence and laziness )

I think that there is such a thing as Happiness … although its overall principle has become a little rash ( lets compare the humble seaside holiday to the garish hideousness of las vegas of walt Disney world ) and like the thrill of a roller coaster or hearing your favourite human express sentiments of love

a genuine conversation with  someone willing to listen or a gaudy semi reassuring text or tweet from some Fairweather acquaintance

there are real experiences in this world … some of them run you a little close to the bone , you can run a boat aground ! you can fall in and out of love ! climb and or fall out of a tree …. you can find the trills they would sell you for a disproportionate percentage of your labours ! in the humble .. the warm morning embrace of your lover , the walks through untainted landscapes and deserted beaches and coastlines

you could take all of that .. and instead of trying to market it on Instagram as some vague way of ratifying an otherwise completely predictable life … you could write some music about it .. write a poem … draw a picture or do a painting … design a piece of the landscape that needs improving ( and god knows if you look up from your phone for just like two minutes on a bus commute you will see what I mean )

its all in the doing .. that's where I think that Happiness lives … through comfortable and reassuring pleasures against the unpredictable ness of life   ….ratifying thrills of substance ….. and the genuine living of a very finite life !

' Space Force ' ……..!!!!!!????? so we seem to have just traded the doing , for the mere buying- ( I think if we could we would even forgo the element of choice) … I think that humanity has become so confused that we would simply consume( Pleasurable ) ( Thrills ) in Lieu of the pursuit of a genuine yet periodical ' Happiness '

but I really hope that there is still hope x

BEER ON THE BALCONY Plymouth 2018

new studio … new projects … and no rest for the wicked !! or so they say ;)

41 North Hill !!

so another piece of shit of a property to fix up !! and another set of works to kick out for public appraisal !!

its been over 5 years since I have exhibited in this city … and the notion of taking on a 6 month pop up here can only be likened to … well perhaps, voluntarily sticking your leg into a bear trap !! but I had fun doing ' the Arts Hole on Tour ' last summer so it only seems pertinent to base myself near the water .. and the boat and a quick getaway across the horizon should these less than proficient admin fascists carry on their villainous machinations

it has to be said that my previous experiences in this this suburb have left a great deal to be desired !! and since then we have had nearly a decade of austerity and ' Brexit 'in this doomed trajectory of the age of Donald Trump !

so come and do some art … have a glass of your poison ;) and lets consider ''what is to be done …..??''

because if we leave it to the ' powers that be ' I am pretty sure we will end up with more or less .. much more f the same x

Zapp It - weekly arty meet at the very groovy ' Crystal Ship Tattoo Studio ' in the city centre of Plymouth : its a complete open creative free for all and BYOB but some arty materials will be available for use ! each Monday evening !

Beer on The Balcony -weekly evening starters for ten : every Friday evening come and have a tall drink as a starters for ten and a little splash around with some arty stuff 

The Arts hole Open Studios -28th August 2018 -1st September 2018 @ the Arts Hole Upstairs - The RAOB club North Hill Plymouth 

Drawn to the Valley Open Studios -22nd-30th September 2018

Plymouth Art Weekender - 28th-30th September 2018 

for more info about upcoming events and features … get in touch ! artbyvalerio@hotmail.co.uk

The Arts Hole Upstairs - Plymouth U.K 2018

you know I am always horrified by what I find whenever I come back to the little area of the world where I grew up !! and quite often it doesn't even matter how long a period of absence! be it just a few weeks … or even a few years I always come back and just have to shake my head in disbelief !! 

.. and what is that old adage ? .. something about '' for evil to triumph all it takes is for good people to do nothing !''

So ,Plymouth!! here w are again !! and there is so much going on in the vicinity that I felt taking a slightly more permanent position that I have been used to of late , might well be the pertinent thing to do … the right thing to do !! although in all truth it does feel a little like voluntarily stuffing my leg into a bear trap !! …. but indeed needs must as the devil drives …. and in the age of May and Trump … it seems the devil drives quite hard these days ! ….. so an outside artistic perspective is probably just what's needed here …. lets see what we can stir up !! ?? 

The Arts Hole on Tour 2018 Paignton to Penzance has been a lot of fun this year … we have had some great weather to tour around in and the locations have just been wonderful in this temperate climate 

and what better ay to bridge the gap between the end of the tour and my next little stint back in Amsterdam over Christmas 2018 … than to kick up some trouble in my old stomping grounds !! 

come by to the latest little pop up studio on North Hull in Plymouth … as well as the usual brand of eccentric excellence in fine art and design ,keep an eye out for our regular open days and workshops including the now world renowned and festival featured  ' Build a Dinosaur Workshops for kids of all ages  !!  

and one of the best views in Plymouth x 

PayPal and Ebay are bullshit !!

KNOCK OUT A NAZI / TWAT A TORY / ACCOUNTABILITY IN ADMIN / LETS HAVE A FUCKIN GO SON !!!!

so I am sure that everyone is aware that the worlds economies are finished !

the high-street is dead ! which means that the consolidation of monopoly hasn't saved the corporate monster !

the property market is overpriced ( this has been engineered through administrative greed over decades )

over inflate the cost of the basic commodity , then reduce the means that people have to secure or acquire that commodity !.... over price houses and basic services whilst dismantling the employment market

and you induce a frenzy !! lots of people fighting and vying for the meagre percentages that are left in this desiccated pollution ridden lake ! ….. literally fighting each other !!!

In 2011 I recall when ever a supermarket would put out its 'yellow sticker' items .. the close to the best before foodstuffs that is sold for a fraction of the rrp ….. and even then in the early stages of this ongoing recession , I would see students literally fighting with the elderly , disabled people fighting each other for the best of what tomorrow would only be garbage …..

I saw the terrible psychological disorder that we have been reduced too , and that was just to save like a £1 on a frozen dinner ….. and that was at the beginning of this hellish tory engineered farce !

here we are in 2018 !! and the keep calm and carry on slogans obviously worked !!!

look at you all !!

now I started writing this about paypal and ebay … and the dangers of monopolization !! but really its all loosely connected in a slightly abstract way !!

so the tories and their red tory predecessors effectively encouraged this whole market collapse , now I am torn between this being a genuine administrative oversight ( in which case the administration has become so ineffective as to be essentially redundant ! )  or its a very deliberate and sinister ' master plan ' but in either case my opinion is that the while thing needs to be collapsed and re engineered to better tackle the issues that we as a global society face ! but not in accordance with the out of touch and out of date doctrines of some intergenerational entitled piece of shit !! but by actual humans !

so these evil or incompetent assholes generate this supply and demand gap !! effectively enginerring shortages !! so that demand increases !! which in turn pushes up the base price ….. but who really benefits ? the percentage people !!! the talentless lazy , uninformed , mediocrity that we have filled our whole administrations with …… expensive incompetence ….. or worse expensive totalitarianism !!

so ths is where I am going to try and round off this fractured tirade !!

so the high street is dead , the banks are finished , the institutions are a laughable joke ! so we as a demographic seek out alternatives !

the banks failed !! the only people that cant quite seem to grasp this are the bankers and the politicians themselves !! but everyone else can see it a mile off !

so we turned to the alternatives ! we looked to the paypal to replace the failed international banking circuit

we turned to ebay because rent and rates have destroyed any semblance of productivity that can be maintained with these extortionate overheads on the high street  !

now like I said I anticipated this …. you cant cruise through the last few decades like we have under the grand assumption and government backed slogan that everything will work out fine !! no it wont !!!… the people that are trying to sell you these mantras are the people that fucked you in the first place …. and now we are all just waiting for the same inevitable collapses , from the same predictable institutions that we have seen over the past 40 odd years !!

ebay have become the new council tax and paypal the new banking system !!

I wanted nothing to do with any of these systems , and for years I kept saying out loud …. why would we pay for a system of assumed function , when in the practical …. they don't function , and then they turn around and ask for a fairly large percentage … effectively for a very bad service !!

but through a little nudging I recently decided to put a few hand made products for sale online , through e bay

and great I pretty much sold 10,000 pounds worth of hand tailored , handmade , handcarved art product in less than 3 weeks !! great ! right ?

well no , not really

it has been such an arduous process that I don't think I will bother again !! you see I don't seem to be as afflicted by the ' obsessive compulsive acquisition syndrome ' that everyone seems to be suffering from …. I make bespoke items and I sell them when I need specific revenue … for specific projects ! ( and that level of self reliance came about because a few years ago … as the economy was being sabotaged , see when people have disposable income , they can choose to spend it when and where they like …. if they don't have disposable income …. then the vendors close !! the shops go out of business !! …. the economy ceases to function !!! ) so we ended up with a load of well branded shitty loan and grant applications , now I saw hundreds of potentially brilliant projects and works that were literally destroyed by this promise of elusive  monies ….. the application process itself takes weeks if not months , sometimes more !! so again it became a redundant enterprise ! ( jeff koons would be issued some grant … some  huge sum of money for a golden plated mickey mouse … and yet community arts centres were closing at an unprecedented rate ! )

so it seemed obvious …. go out of business , trying to engage in the business itself !! or go out of business with a hand full of grant applications whose validity had become equivocal to lottery tickets !!

so I did the former …. just get on with the work , and hopefully people will buy the work ….. which will facilitate the continuation of the work !! and so it did … not quite miraculously ! it took a shit load of continual effort !!

and now once again …. the administrations that are set up to facilitate these kinds of ingenuities , just drain all the life out of the thing

like I said ten grand in 3 weeks !!!

can I access my funds ?

no

can I speak to a human in the organization ?

no

can I find a means of mediation ?

no

can I even log into my paypal ??

no

can I contest the fact that you want to ' look after ' revenue generated …. even after you have taken your percentage out of the at present pending balances !!

no

can I have access to those funds that I generated through the production and retail of my own products ?.... you know so that I might reinvest that capital into materials for the new commissions ??

no

so what is it you do again ??? and why do you feel the compulsion to charge for this so called service ??

the cash in your pocket has already been earmarked by these institutions … and now even the alternatives that were set up to usurp or replace the failed institutions … have become the very things, the very same things that required an alternative to be engineered in the first place !!

you know how in animal farm , those pigs kept changing the terms and conditions of the ' service agreement '

well its a bit like ….. actually its a shit load like that !!

you want living breathing proof that this system that we currently inhabit is so completely dysfunctional …… I am it !! I am the means of production !! I turn nothings into somethings … the very basis of the original economy !! and yet I am held to ransom by these limp wristed little percentage people ….

I will finish my current obligations and ship the necessary packages …. I will begrudgingly pay the necessary percentages on transactions generated by MY WORK !! but I doubt I will be repeating the process …..

as I said the cash in your pocket is the only real democratic expression you have …. so choose wisely , or this will just go on and on , so carry on being a fucking herd animal !! keep calm and carry on …. but as I have uttered before …. you can keep this pile of horse shit because there is nothing in it for me !!! the Royal Academy?my arse !! mc vegan ?my arse !!! paypal ?? my arse !! ….. Ebay ??? …… my Arse ??

BRAND NEW RELEASE 30 MAY 2018

'' A scattered perspective '' 

2016

Original watercolour on heavy GSM 

A2 -45cm x 65cm approx. 

NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE !  

£1300 -

SOLD IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS !!!

I would much rather a genuine enemy than a fake friend ......

I would much rather a genuine enemy than a fake friend x ....

its weird this whole ' being an artist ' thing , and I honestly have to confess that I don't fully understand it myself ??!, what does it even mean ??

quite often I consider that the tendency for self expression is a genuine pointless endeavour , almost as pointless an endeavour as any menial , nonsensical artbitrary use of time ...

of course its undeniable when you look at  a little historical hindsight , that this premise has not always been the case !!

I suppose that most people think of the romanticized painter at the easel in some hidden dusty attick space , and of course this impression does hold some truth , but a fractional margin to say the least !! some people would go so far as to imagine the ' master craftsmen ', stating that ' art' cant be defined by mere medium, and that ' artistry ' in any given medium and through any chosen means, if executed with particular skill and / or flare , can all be classified as ' art '

so an artist would be an individual expressing proficiency or excellence in technique through any medium .... perhaps ??

... but why would an individual want to express anything ?? let alone ' proficiency ' in any technique ?? for something as base and arbitrary as commercial gain ? ..... perhaps !!??

I suppose in this weird and warped version of the Darwinian principle of ' survival of the fittest ' that we have brand stamped all over this strange model of capitalism that currently adhere to . surly everyone should want to be an ' artist ' to become 'proficient, to enhance their , or at least stand a chance of enhancing their commercial gains, to enhance their capitalist position in the socio hierarchies that we currently inhabit ??!!

perhaps ?? !!

Why then is it , that some humans express the tendency and others do not ?? ( although actally I should say that I absolutely agree with Picasso's notion that ' everyone is an artist as a child , but conditioning cheats some of the impulse ' that is until some tier of society fucks them up !

... and why has all of the best and most expressive and time enduring works of ' Art ' come from  
- by and large anyway - working class people .... but I digress !!


Personally after a great deal of consideration I think that I would have to conclude . that being an ' artist ' doesn't really have much to to with the rendering ..... but the initial activity , before rendering can even begin ..... the observation, an ' Artist ' is someone that ' see's the world ' !! not through any rose tints or privileged perspectives or even the filters of other peoples overbearing points of view ... they have often bucked trends ... and in many cases set of whole new ones in doing so

so these loonies, visionaries  and enlightened individuals as hindsight likes to label them ( personally I think that we are all just people ... generally until you put one in a tie ,,, this seems to exaggerate the asshole characteristics of your standard human regardless of creative aptitude  ) have always tended to stay on the peripheral fringe of their more mainstream contemporaries, and from a unique position of isolation and observation .... they render their findings !! through words or images or 3 dimensional manifestations the conclusions and notable mentionables of these observations through music , writing , images , fabrications , designs and constructions .

I think that's what makes ' Art '... Good ' Art ' . its Raw and intriguing and powerful, its its absolute brutality - indeed many have conjectured that art holds a mirror up to society , and quite often and in many ways offers insight into a given ridiculousness of that society , of its doctrines , habits and inhabitants! ... it breaks boundaries and at its best ... it can change minds ( the old adage of a picture speaks a thousand words and all that )

That's the Brilliance of it , that's the Value of it !!! and that is vitally important in every and any society !!

To Turn Raw Materials ... the very rough and crude materials of this strange and cruel world into something beautiful or useful , or even both, through personal ingenuity, tenacity, broken hearts, hungry bellies  and broken bones ... and even political oppressions !! almost any given stimuli .... but first there must always be the stimuli.

In these current and starnge days of ours, we are all supposed to be networking ( I don't really know how it happened but I liken it to the ' company prospectus ' of the 1980's and 90's ... even if the company os on the verge of going bust .... send out a glossy image and maybe we can dupe some fools into buying more shares )

but unfortunately this has led to an unbridled rise of assholes , lackeys , sycophants , nepotisms, and their minions running the world .... no one wants to ' upset ' anyone ( and no not because everyone is a ' snowflake 'or whatever ) but because it might be detrimental to some ' insider opportunity ' some business angel .... some advantage ... some job opportunity or promotion ..... well I say FUCK THAT !!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!

of course its nice to feel 'popular ' to be 'liked' .... I mean just look at the maniacal fanaticism in our modern ' social media '   its a form of social ratification of course !... but I think we have turned it into something inherently problematic ... these days we have to pander to, even be nice to these assholes.... because they have lied and manipulated that kind of prospective image into something quite influential .... we have handed over all the cards to thieves and charlatans , because before they start publicly eating our young , they had the slogan , the prospectus , the easily invested in brand and half a million followers .... now I would just like to point out that jesus had like 12 followers and look what happened there .... and he might not have even existed in the first place ??!!! ...

I might have figured out why Merlin and robin hood were living in the woods , or why the ancient 'academia' was out on the hills beyond the city limits of Athens .... and how Venice began as a REFUGEE CAMP IN A PREVIOUSLY UNINHABITED SWAMP !!!

Because every now and again humanity just goes nuts ( this is a notion I have postulated over before I:e '' if every one began to simultaneously loose their mind ... how would we know ?? '' ) History is full of examples of this ...  the destruction of the Mesoamerican tribes .....the Salem witch trails ... the massacre of the American Indians .....Slavery!!..... the rise of the third Reich ....  Israel and Palestine .... the Tory Party !! ..... weapons of mass destruction !!  ..... the ' housing ladder ' .... I even read an incident  of a documented time in Germany when an entire province seemed to have simultaneously started dancing , for no apparent reason ... for rather an extended period of time , the thing about most of these incidents were isolated by remote geographies and societal factions ... of course these days we all live in a digitally connected, easily accessed and influenced society !!! ... so as and when and if one of these little episodes occurs .... what is its pandemic potential .... the mob / the democratic consensus !! the very dangerous collective !!

so at times like this , you need a loony artist to come wandering out of the woods to trade a spell or tonic or insight ... take a wide eyed look at the majority drowning in gin or eating their own young and to quite clearly ask .... ' what the fuck are you people doing .... I leave you alone for a little while so I can get some work done , and I come back and you are literally taking photos of your breakfast.... using a pilfered oil with a heavy blood content  for your jolly holidays ..... paying 30 or even a hundred years worth of labour for somewhere to live ...... or voting for some tory that wants to sacrifice your young so the gods might bestow a more productive crop cycle ..... what the bloody hell do you think you are doing  ????

                                                         ''Tory - Saurus Blues # III''

Original handsculpted bass relief wall art by Cornish / Italian artist that occasionally lives in Amsterdam ( in political exile in these weird times ) 

no resin / no casts / no outsoucing / no child labour / 100%handmade 0%corporate