But am just punch drunk ... What the fuck just happened !?
I think it was supposed to be our anniversary in a day or two ... Jeezus .....
A vague mashing mix of the ongoing adventures and previous portfolio developments of this elusive yet prolific International Artist,
But am just punch drunk ... What the fuck just happened !?
I think it was supposed to be our anniversary in a day or two ... Jeezus .....
It's a strange year this year of the water rabbit ...
Plans laid down , dashed to pieces and subsequent re drafts and contingency put into action , only to have to be honed and revised add lib in accordance with the temperament of the tide ...
Such is my experience with the old saying " the best laid plans of mice and men can often go awry " that I have sort of found a stoic comfort in being constantly on the road
The rolling stone gathers no moss ....but these days I'm quite partial to a bit of moss ,I have been wrestling internally for a decade about how unwelcome I have been made to feel in this my native land - only by the bureaucrats and the adminz , the political and the management classes .... but the more I have travelled around the more it appears to me that the favouritism that is granted by ' the mate from the council ' is indicative , not of proficiency in any given discipline ...well other than filling in funding applications and kissing ass
It's been due to this seemingly corrupt little landscape that over the past ten years and more I've wandered from country to country ... Looking for the perfect place to be ..the ideal location to sit and hide while the whole world eats itself
But , whilst in this nomadic pilgrimage, I have bumped into so many souls , fellow travellers and static natives alike ...I have previously written about the many campfire reflections with the children of the world's countries and customs - each of us searching for our place in this burgeoning international community of wreckheads and lost souls
I drew the conclusion a long while ago , that what all this direction less , rudder less near idealistic and hedonistic pursuit is futile ...
Paradise lost isn't out there ...and all of us of various ages all running away from the injustices of our own countries is just nuts , looking for an ideal out there somewhere , in a hammock , soaked in rum on some beach somewhere with room service and a soundtrack of your choice ?? Is that really what we are all looking for ??
Personally I doubt it , I've tried excessive indulgence of many kinds .... The inevitability is always a hangover , of one form or another ...
And yet , as great as travel is for a person ... certainly as beneficial a pursuit as reading - but that is to say , that if you spend all of your time reading mills and boon novels then you probably aren't going to be as well rounded an individual as someone with a more diverse reading habit
The same is true of travel , trust me ...if you go somewhere , somewhere you don't even speak the language and you have a credit card and a plane ticket home - ok you might have a nice time , enjoy the weather and some time off - go to that same place without the return flight home , or the credit card for emergencies ....or either , you'll have a wholly different experience, sure it might be challenging ...but it will certainly render the more rounded individual at the end of it.
There is a common reflection that is batted around by the well seasoned traveller though ...and it's sling the lines of - the problem with travelling extensively is you start to loose a sense that you belong in a single place , that any one place can encapsulate ' home ' - because there are so many beautiful places and beautiful people out there in the world , even in comfortable surroundings you nostalgically ling for the smell of the jungle , the smell of the sea , the smell of the desert ....so you are always in a mild state of longing
So to turn another phrase ...you get the travelling bug , and so the whole conundrum begins again
It's nice to travel - but it's nice to belong too
It's with this in mind that this little reflection came to fruition ...
The spoils of war are going to yield a permanent rural retreat in South West Devon - this off-grid smallholding will be the u.k base of operations from this summer
All of the cargo containers and scattered pop up enterprises will be in house in our beautiful and bespoke education facility in Devon
At the same time - all of our scattered interests throughout Europe and North Africa will also be condensed into our brand new 3 floors bespoke arts facility in Nieuwmarkt Amsterdam !
Going back to the schedule of 3 weeks of the month sailing / farming in the u.k
One week of the month in Amsterdam
Plus the touring schedule ....
So keep an eye on this ...it might be, once again, quite extraordinary xx
Dated 02/03/2023
That's excellent that you recall the situation
That's fair enough ... It was a disasterously executed situation that has been expertly mishandled
I was just wondering , seeing as you ended up under Tara Wilkinson's management, and having offered testament to suggest that you are on a friend's basis with Tudor Evans
Given the basis off my experiences with both PATH and Tudor Evans
You might have been able to offer some notion of insight , perhaps would want to divulge anything at this stage
This is going to be a colossal legal proceeding and I absolutely begrudge having to go through it , but there are wrongs that must be set right
I have had a message exchange with Nabs .....however if he does remain in position after being temporarily suspended for using again
It was John Hamblyn that backed up Clare Stevens at on courses erroneous allegations against ' controversial ' visuals within the art room
John has been given a million pound building ...despite his valliant efforts to do everything via zoom
So there is a gross misjustice here
Yes I know ...Tara is travelling
Lee reece sold all his properties and moved to Thailand ....
Its all a bit of a mess isn't it
That's quite alright though
I do appreciate you offering your insight at this stage
As I say this is going to be an arduous task to whittle out some interesting individuals within some very serious public service positions
I hope that you and your affiliates can find scope to offer this oversight your support
Well ...
It's an interesting old tale ..cross party and interdepartmental which is a hell of a lot of a little single concerned citizen to do all on there lonesome ....especially being subject to the trauma involved ...personally
I am calling for a public enquiry into organizations Mal administrations that resulted in deaths , unlawful evictions , assaults but security services , frustrated environmental health complaints - the absolute degree of demonstrable stress that I went through for others behalf during the lockdowns
I am accusing a collusive air of hostilities and disdain against my absolutely correct appraisals of ongoing situations as they stood at the time could possibly have been garnered from a previous legal battle with the council , on a professional or private altercation in the passed which resulted in catastrophic administrative failings and required parliamentary oversight in the end ( expertly valuable consultation )
I would appreciate cooperation from all parties for both the professional conduct and personal conduct of less meritable individuals
Out of curiousity, who might you or I speak to ?
Ha ha ha ....oh dear I have no end of droning complaint I assure you ...it's become rather time consuming , it might have turned me into a bitter old crank
So I am seeking allies of course , but I have a shocking mistrust 😆
Well Tudor was requested to intervene in the original dispute way back in 2013 ...
Its since those considerations at the time that I feel somewhat .... purposefully overlooked shall we say
Every authoritative insistance that I have colourfully contested since , in every instance quite justifiably so ...seems to have compounded this attitude of disdain and avoidance
It seems quite remarkable that parallel projects of mediocre management seem to be excessively supported , while my own work - be that designing buildings - painting pictures - rendering syllabus for charities - running mining extractions for precious metals - or building dinosaurs - or it seems involved in litigations ( the average value for the aforementioned tends to be valued at around £180 per hour - regardless of activity - and can be easily demonstrated ) remain in seeming contempt despite my apparently ' whispered ' notoriety for the works that I have been engaged in anytime I try to do anything in this city
Sorry , there is a lit if ground to cover x
....or it seems engaged in litigations
I would be very happy to hear his thoughts ,
Plymouth city council are I believe still on notice for pending legal action after the esculative complaints procedure during the lockdowns
I am in the process of petitioning for summons so a friendly conversation might be prudent before we all have to give testimony ..
Sent 04/03/2023
Good Evening Richard
Please do excuse the late hour - but it's just the nature of my day
I am sure you are aware that I am raising multiple complaints against , well this entire network of cross party interdepartmental Facebook friends and henparty networks
Because , well let's be fair ...there's a couple of organisations under your current remit that have taken the abundant and demonstrable piss here
So I'm coming in to bat
You may consider this my official complaint ( dumbfounded as you may well feign to be )
I don't have a great deal I'd entertain ... But if you were looking settle out of court
It would probably be better for all parties given the current state of the city and it's tenuous condition
I can just get on with what I do back over in the Netherlands and elsewhere , and just leave you to whatever the hell it is that you think your doing
Regards
Aaron ( Artby ) Valerio
Good Evening Tudor
We have been in contact before and I am relatively ' prolific ' I think at this stage
I just wanted to make contact as a courtesy really
Who knows how many strange and ethereal administrators run through the murky depths of Plymouth city council's darkened corridors
But I think I've spoken to mist of them , I've sent that Bingley guy a version of my official complaint ( I'm doing this in an unorthodox fashion - but most of my exchanges with this funny little organisation and it's subsidiaries and cross party , interdepartmental network of Facebook friends )
I'm chucking all of my experiences with your organization into a job lot , rounding it up into a formal complaint - but there's not really much room to manoeuvre I feel
In 2013 my official complaint was in hindsight obviously quashed ...that cost me a lot of time , money and even a marriage in the end , over a couple of grand you were trying to squeeze me for in business rates
I have easy grounds to believe the social network that would frequent the RAOB social club on north hill would be able to verify one way or another - what raised the frustrations with the community arts project that was being run at the time ....
And now , oncourse south west , in collusion with Shekinah regrettably decided to illegitimately dismiss me from both a teacher training qualification and vocational placement ( that I had written - no less )
I am sure most of this is well within your sphere of leadership and influence , so I'm confident that you are perfectly aware of the miscellaneous
In closing I will just add , it may be worth reflecting in hindsight - what contributions and contracts might have been rendered had I just been left to get on with a little painting / building dinosaurs / urban farming - rer ruralization, if amid the travels that I was consequently forced to take I hadn't proven ...that in almost any city in the world I can have an easier time than I can in my home town of Plymouth
Regards Aaron ( Artby ) Valerio
The Original Arts Hole and the lockdown years -
The Original Arts Hole - Tree house 2.0
So I got back from Amsterdam in the Friday ( which was already in partial lockdown already - and some of the looks we were getting as we sat there in the floor of the airport eating our sandwiches was already a terrified and judgemental look )
On the Monday that great far sack of belligerent wind issued the national instruments for the lockdown
Now at this time , my girlfriend was living in temporary accomodation due to a housing dispute with her former tenency that had effectively rendered her as ' homeless '
I was living in a remarkable set of circumstances -
As I'm sure I've previously mentioned I acquired a yacht through barter to act as a housing option and logistics and delivery option for the ever diminishing trade here in the UK , it's a small vessel, a little 30" GRP but just enough for a fall back position when needed
A friend of mine was working as a tutor for a local charity and training provider delivering construction skills courses for the probation and rehabilitation services in the city and suggested that I pop along to volunteer a day or two
So this I did willingly , of course that's again where things just sort of doing out of control, it's a good thing I do keep such a stringent set of records ( indeed these days everytime I have a meeting with one of these government departments you need to be recording the whole time like some kind of conspiracy theory crazy that lives in a bunker .... I am reflecting on the caricature in eighties and nineties media representations of course
So I'm offered a flat ,
Im offered a roommate ...a live in recovering alcoholic that is only supposed to be with me for a few weeks while he is building routines and getting back into the swing of things ( actually he was a lovely guy and despite us being stuck together for most of and certainly the height of the pandemic - we did become friends )
The building we are staying in was in a dire state of repair and comprised 3 flats over 3 floors , in a converted mid terrace thing in a deplorable part of town ( remember I do still have and am spending my weekends down in a wooded tidal estuary - I'm not a big fan of company at the best of times ) the building itself was in such a dire state of repair that quite honestly it was just squalor
The tenant in the ground floor , an elderly couple of wavering disposition , the woman Joyce actually died of sepsis a part of the reason that I instigated the official environmental health complaint against the landlord , the charity managing the property and the local council , after Joyce died the partner Adrian was really in a bad way - drinking heavily and going down hill , a matter that I assure you was not left unreported ....
The tenant in the top floor was a Albanian street dealer - who was just a constant pain in the arse ...
So there's me ...a volunteer a couple of days a week with a local teaching outfit , suddenly looking after a grown man prone to bouts of alcoholism and withdrawal
The guy on the ground floor is audibly loosing his shit in a palpably melancholic state
Every time the guy upstairs plays his music at 3 am or has a shower which then runs down the walls of your living room ...
My girlfriend is in a state of apparent and incendiary distress , under threat of eviction for not paying her water rates to the homeless charity that is providing her temporary accomodation , as a result is being rather quarrelsome
I'm writing a syllabus for the training provider that I have been volunteering for in the hope that under my own little project -operation reintegration into this crazy ass society , I might find a little point of gainful employment to hide in while the economy keeps collapsing
They didn't have a position - straight off ....so I actually opted to render one
Then we go into lockdown ....
And everything went thermo nuclear - imagine if you will , my experiences during this time- I assure you there are a volume of emails and recorded evidence to testament those dark years , so I'll not labour over it in this little rant
But the pint I am so circuitously getting around to making is
How do you keep your shit together under such circumstances -
Quite honestly, gardening and painting made quite the difference amid that little forced social dynamic.
The middle flat of the 3 we had no ground floor access , but we did have a fire escape , it was no mean feat acquiring all of the plants and things that were needed but over a very short time , just so I could feel like I was sitting in a treehouse while I was having my little cigarettes amongst all of that insanity , maintaining what I could of my chill , before the next drama erupted
I know everyone suffered during those years ...some , more than others
So a scoff at the idea of mindfulness courses being delivered in seminar style , of positivity practices online via zoom and all the rest of it ....
Its amazing what a person can do , and yet receive zero credit for .... I have become very much accustomed to being completely unappreciated in my time , for some people that would be enough to deter any further course of action
But when you have some how managed to turn what most would consider to be a mild ADHD condition into a viable vocation ....then what's a little PTSD in the mix