and I said then that I was going to go for a bit of a walk about ... Amsterdam for 5 years then maybe Venice for 5 years , just opening little galleries and doing little workshops and sailing about ... but the original premise was for little ' Kajon ' a fine little vessel from Waterlooville ... which actually served its part very well, and was sold for a profit after quite a lot of modifications over a year .
ha ha ... so I said that I was leaving for about 5 - 10 years ... I figured it wold take at least two elections to get any semblance of sense again ..... and after that well I would either be able to just live and work peaceably or ....well I guess I would just have to come home and start a civil war ... in either instance I can see a great big pirate type ship to be a very useful asset !!
so over the summer of 2017 we are going to haul this monster 60 foot wooden vessel out of the water , we are going to completely repair and resurface the hull ...replacing any damaged and rotten timbers, we give the interior a complete overhaul and install a functioning office space and accommodation for 6 with full amenities and creature comforts ... maybe even a bath if we can muster the time ... once we have her back in the water I am going to wedge it into a sand bar in a beautiful wooded estuary valley ... and amid the berths on board and a few tipi's in the woods I am going to turn this poor neglected thing into a fantastic living breathing twin masted sailing vessel .... so this is going to be the base of our Art B & B project in cornwall for next summer ..... with my particular focus being on traditional joinery and ship building techniques ...for obvious reasons ! but still maintaining all the usual range in courses from traditional illustration and painting techniques to permaculture for urban spaces ....
so get in touch and come and check out whats going on and where x
places are limited for this week long getaway in the wilderness of the Cornish landscape, with fires on the shore at night to early morning tides and sunrises but the programme will be ongoing throughout the summer from april 2017 - September 2017 with prices starting from 135 euro per person per week including full instruction in basic use of traditional handtools and woodworking techniques as well as live demonstrations of the ongoing ' pirate ship ' conversion project , with onsite expert tuition and an environment that could easily elude you into thinking more treasure Island than Truro
Help us to offer a wider a range of classes to a wider audience by donating to our crowdwise online campaign :https://www.crowdrise.com/dashboard/artbyvalerio/help-us-to-build-a-pirate-ship
or alternatively for our Amsterdam based project https://www.gofundme.com/artbyvalerio
update: April 2017.
Hooray!! the mast and rigging are up ! although the state of the economy and brexit and the rise of the right wing have been working against the progress of any project , especially one such as my little ongoing concerns x and people like the Guardian National Newspaper and online voluntary based donation programs for things like ' another angry voice ' are all vying for whatever junk change donations people have got left on the hip ( inspite of keeping a little robin hood crowd funding campaign live, I hardly ever have the time to promote these online begging techniques !) ..... it seems its a bit tricky to deter the genuinely determined ..... this summer is going to be a mad little series of barely funded excursions , to maintain the virtual and physical presence of my own little unbranded brand across the crumbling derelict that was once the united kingdom and of course across the remains of mainland Europe to keep emphasising that kids should be protesting student fees , and the general commercialization of the conventional academic paradigm, the poor quality and provision of social programs including housing - health care... anti gentrification campaigns ..... actually I cant think of many things at the moment that aren't worth shaking some inbred tory entitled bitch or even worse a salary secure mook that would perpetrate the insidious mantras of that ilk .... indeed everywhere I look there is a reason to stick your heels in the ground turn to an oppressive force and state with absolute conviction '' Fuck Off ''
so regardless of how much facebook and the like tend to keep my little profiles on the fringe ( because I refuse to pay for advertising and agency ), no matter how often I go online and find some upper middle class asshole has basically trawled through my online content and managed to carve some diluted article out of it and pandered it as their own work .... for a fee no doubt ..... this work just keeps going ( born on the principle of passion not profit ) the pirate ship project was a drastic reappraisal of what a person without a safety net might accomplish when circumstances almost induce actual death !! and now I am turning this gut wrenching set of experiences into a means to inspire the creative types to really embrace the creative tendency ..... if you are still sat in front of a screen ...or trying to turn some incessant debt into some form of conventional education ! ... if you think that thereasa may or boris Johnson are a safe pair of hands , and are compelled to work in some zero tax minimum wage corporation to pay over inflated property prices..... then eventually I will be coming to get you too ...... because this shit just wont do , and its gone on far too long now !!
big love to all the groovers, the movers, the shakers .... the real art makers, that I developed this mad series of eccentricities to invigorate and inspire ... and why I still feel justified to call it Real Art News ..... because pretty paintings and a nice portfolio are all well and good ..... but there is much more afoot than trying to get some pastey white bread soulless corporate creep to buy into your work ... so that you too can go and file your self on the edge of a world gone quite mad !
when potential customers come and say ' oh I work for .... the bank / the financial services / nike / coca cola / the council or the government .... instead of falling over myself to pander to their custom ... I still say '' that isn't something to brag about these days !! '' and suggest that they go and do something useful instead .... and then I will suggest that they buy a painting to look at while they mull it over x
this is how ' The Hirondelle ' looked when I first acquired her ....a little bit of a sorry state ..... latest pictures of refurbishment coming soon x x x ...there is still a long ways to go so do keep pledging your donations and buying art and commissioning designs .....as it all really does help to keep the community aspect / and free education options available to all x x x keep in touch and as always watch this space for fine examples of what actual creativity should look like x x x
Artby Valerio : Highlighting the Mediocrity of my Contemporaries one project at a time ( mostly )
ABV100%
