Upcoming .....onto the river Fal , Falmouth, Truro and yonder

The Arts Hole On Tour / The Arts Hole Afloat ....invading the south west coast in 2017 keep an eye! if you take a little scroll down the right hand column you will find a few examples of the architectural and design elements of this exhibition, and if you take a little scroll down the left hand column you will find a few examples of the ' signature paintings ' all intermingled with a few of the published cartoons and sketchbook pages now known as ' 101 reasons to choose a vocation in the creative industries ' ... or ' 101 Reasons...'  for short, as well as a few little behind the scenes photos, old reviews and other little bits and pieces!! Keep up with the ongoing ODDyssey by following the usual digital representations that everyone seems to waste a hell of a lot of time on these days x x x

Falmouth early May 2017

Truro Early May 2017

Penzance Mid May 2017

St Ives End of May 2017

and then,a little time off?? or carry on with this pursuit of yonder ? ..... decisions ,decisions ....

... a quick stop in Fowey !!

Fowey and Polruan sit either side of a rather meandering estuary

these are strange places .... Fowey is really rather nice and they are connected by a rather quant little ferry ...

but for me Polruan would be for Fowey what Torpoint is for Plymouth .... kind of a strange underfunded suburb of its counterpart ....

it always seems rather overcast and grey when I am in Polruan ... and yet I always manage to catch Fowey in the sunshine ...

It does have to be remarked upon though .... the last time I passed through here was actually about 8 years ago .... there are definitely some places that are harder hit than others by these ever stranger days ! and I am sure that there used to be a lot more local art around here than there is these days !

Mevagissey

this is another wonderful little Cornish village typicality

there is just enough character left here to induce the feeling of being in the 17th century ....

the art scene here is rather bustling and the little markets and stalls that can often be found are a wonderful little eclectic mix but as with so many things down in these counties ... maybe a little isolated ! there are several community initiatives in outlying areas around here but if things carry on the way they have the last decade or so ... ??

unfortunately I have not really had much time to indulge in the local tourist feeling at all of the stops on this little floating/ rambling tour , but I will definitely be coming back this way to explore a little more ... apparently there is even an aquarium ... but that will have to wait for another time x

Polperro ...

Polperro is wonderful, I like it that you cant even auto correct the name of the place too

Polperro is a smaller version of looe , and indeed they are joined by a breath-taking coast path that is still one of my favourite little hikes in this whole crazy world.

hundreds of pubs for a population of less than a thousand or something ... and on a sunny day you could easily be fooled that you are somewhere abroad  ... just enough of a mix in its few little shops of local hardwares and arts and crafts to still feel like a ' Real ' place ....

indeed I get the feel that this is where all the normal people moved to when looe started to sell out to the London and Birmingham lot , and I think that pretty sums up its history in general ... I will come back to this again as well as there really is some lovely little colloquial nuances on this little span of coast that are worthy of a mention

Historically speaking this is a fascinating little bit of coast, legends of ghosts, giants and smugglers .... Benedictine monks  , Lamana with a possible twist on Arthurian Legend  , and even a biblical reference ....  aesthetically its rough, rugged and just beautiful !

Looe

ha ha ha .....well, this is I suppose what I would call my 'home town' but I guess that is because this was the place that I spent most of my time ' growing up '

I always know that no matter how old I get ... I can walk into a bar in Looe and there will be someone sat on a bar stool that I new from school .... its got a tired old familiarity to it , that I both love and abhor ... when I go back I have a lovely little nostalgic glow ... but enjoy the notion that I do not have to stay !

The arts scene here has always been in a bizarre perpetual decline really, the Tiffany Gallery ( which is actually the Artby Valerio H.Q U.K ) has been here for over 30 years, but then there are still those horrid whistlefish chain galleries that have taken the Cornish artistic heritage to the bone in so many of these coastal towns ! indeed a few years ago I instigated the 'invest in real art campaign' , to attempt to highlight the issue ..... but the public seem to have come to expect from their art, the same that they have come to accept from their governance .... and the results are dire !!!

Even the well renowned Artist Benjamin Maille was removed from painting a street scene in situ by the local police ?? I think Looe wanted to be a bit like Salcombe ...but it seems that Roche beat them to it : )

it has become kind of a strange place in many respects ...but like I say it for me it will always feel a little like coming home !  

Plymouth ...ha ha ha ... oh dear !

Plymouth again !!

its still quite easy to see why the mayflower set sail ...

I have written a few little home truths about this sorry little place, ( see previous posts entitled : Plymouth ) as over the years I have come to know this place inside and out its geography , its history , its politics , its people , and I have kind of developed a mind acceptance of it as it is ... this is not a good thing !!! but from previous experience of trying to do anything here I know that the whole thing is futile !! it is the place most like London outside of London that I have ever come across ....the scale of arrogance ... does not reflect the scale of actual assets x

like when I sigh and shrug my shoulders and simply say to my self ' Donald Trump ' ... I kind of do the same thing here ... I see some grotesque urban decay with some governemtn logo and mantra sprawled all over it .. dripping with unintended irony ... and I simply shrug and say ' Plymouth '

( I was using the cornsh side of the tamar to fix up one of these little boats so I had to traverse Plymouth quite a few times, so I will add to this post with additional imagery and condescension a little later )

bt suffice to say for now .... the river is a nightmare ... full of naval activity swelling and aggravating the tides as they go off to bomb .. or offer support to bomb some peasants in some desert some where ... there is a ' Sutton harbour ' but its a plastic overpriced / overlooked by lego condo blocks hell ..... quite honestly the best bit about the whole city as I have said before .. is quite simply that it sits within easy reach of Dartmoor National Park and the Sea .... but what successive groups of bureaucrats have managed to do with the rest is pretty bad !!

update as promised :

uurrrggghh Plymouth .... well what else can I say about Plymouth ?? it looks like some impression of a poorly managed former communist block country, I do tend to spend as much of my time on the ground in these places when I am here ...... and they say that a picture can convey a thousand words ....

this is the outskirts of the place .... and from a distance it really can look quite appealing ... on a sunny day ... especially if you look at it from the Cornish side of the river, but take a little deeper glance of the city itself .. from within the inner confines

there is of course plenty of these weird filing cabinets for the socially and mentally challenged , but these things are apparent the world over ... anywhere there is a little spit of water , the developers have lined with these rather expensive cells for the perpetually deranged .... this kind of isolating urban planning I have attempted to sympathize with in several locations ... but as the band aid over the would conceals the gaping bloody monstrous truth of the affliction , so do these weird little plastic hubs conceal the true face of a place behind some mass produced corporate engineered , Margaret thatcher inspired, overpriced hotel room with a minor extension .... a bargain ( ahem ) for a domicile option .....

as you continue east ... and head deeper into the urbanised concrete carbuncle you will find the earlier drafts that led to this kind of housing option becoming acceptable to those who just don't know any better ....

Union Street used to be a rather busy little social hub ,.... when I was attending college here this was the place that had the largest concentration of club venues and social options a great little burb the whole street would bustle with revellers and drinkers and food and drink and traffic .... now maybe penalised because of its name .... is nothing more than an empty shell of poorly dilapidated buildings and reclaimed furniture stores ....

the access from here to the main central commercial hub in the city used to be lined with a variety of small and large businesses alike ... the multi story carpark although a concrete carbuncle, used to at least have a integrated coating of climbing vines and foliage .... but I suppose that ruralisation that requires zero maintenance must be too expensive for the city .... so instead of leaving it alone ... they went to the expense of actually removing this mild aesthetically pleasing covering  

and of course the city would love you to believe that business is booming ... and what better way to demonstrate than to get some weird sinister corporation known only as ' the student housing company ' to build a replica of the tower of Babylon ... of course this isn't earmarked for any of the actual inhabitants of the cities communities ... this is for the thousands of students that have been completely priced out of the education system that now costs tens of thousands to even attend .... and lets not get too dragged down in the question of whether the sub par education available is even worth paying for in the first place

the above two shots really encompass the urban excess that has saturated this city, the original designers of this at least envisaged a tree lined street with gardens and inter related green spaces .... now of course its just car parking/ pot holes and heroin needles

the train station that welcomes the would be flood of new blood ....is as busy as ever ... but with rail fares being what they are ... and some fascist turnstile system that is sure to put the actual human employee out of business .... it really is like ' hey do you remember those prophetic movies and medias from the 1980's of big grey slums ....filled with a desperate populace ' yeah well we decided to do that .... of course that was before the strange propaganda campaign of the friends sitcom and the like ... encouraged a whole generation that is o.k to live this way ... because you can go for coffee and shit .....

bleak just isn't the word for it .... unfortunately this seems to have not only become the acceptable paradigm for so many of our urban spaces across the whole country .... but it is actually spreading further afield ... not only that ... but people are still literally queuing up to acquire the debt ( from a banking sector that not only caused one of the worst economic crashes of all time but are still charging all of us for that privilege ) to become permanently responsible for their own little bit of it ..... and not that they will then go out and regenerate and rejuvenate the landscape they have become invested in to the tune of 175,000 ... no they will fill one of the tiny rooms that over look a roundabout full of potholes with the biggest screen they can find ... so that they can slowly monoxide themselves with bad air quality while staring at the latest wall sized advert offering reassurances that .... if you just buy a new kitchen or sofa ... everything will be fine

I used to proclaim that we are all doomed .... and I used to say it in a kind of half serious tongue in cheek mockery ..... but I think that it might not be too far from the truth ....

millions of years of evolution and this is where we are people !! I have spent a large part of my adult life attempting to demonstrate an alternative version of this .... I have engaged in the politics and planning policy in a trying attempt to at least partially avoid the catastrophe that has become our modern civilisation ... especially with demonstrations such as this low ebb ... and worse !! and it has seemed to be completely futile .... I think that says more about the demographic though than the distributor ..... well at least I hope it does x x x

in the words of the fictitious character professor Farnsworth from the animated series futurama ....'' I don't want to live on this planet anymore ''

I know its terrible to be maon a place without being able to offer a viable alternative ... and the thing is I have attempted to offer some manner of council ...for the so called council, for a number of urban initiatives and have exhibited extensively throughout the city and surrounding areas a series of viabilities concerning urban planning and re ruralisation implementation techniques .... as well as a range of socially interactive options that have proven to be a valuable asset within the city , most cites , and indeed this city in particular ......all hope is not yet lost , if we can just shift the gears of their thinking to embrace the absolutely necessary change to enable the constituents of these emaciated urban areas the opportunity to engage with their environments , in a collaborative and worthwhile move in the inner city development drive .

where ever I may Roam !! by land or sea or foam ....

Totnes ,

well I have written about Totnes before, ( see previous posts ) and upon my recent visit I was totally reminded as to why I really enjoy this place !! its got a real Glastonbury vibe ... here you will find a mini culture of offbeat alternatives which is just wonderful .... here there seems to be a whole community of people living in vans and boats and great big crumbly shared commune type living options ... here the percentage of the population that really didn't want to take part in the perpetual insanity of the 21st century , bought some wellies , grew some dreadlocks , opened a little market stall selling rocks and crystals ... and just sort of said .. ' Nah Man '

a great selection of independent arts and artists and down on the river it feels like a little Amsterdam in a Cornish valley, which really is absolutely no bad thing ..... in a stunning little setting

these Rural counties that I call home really are some of the last beautiful places on this little Island, and over the years I have been fortunate to be able to know them intimately .... these are my hills ... and not through some weird tory type ideology of private ownership .... but through an inherited kinship, and intimacy .... I know every vein of strata here ... I know every coast and estuary ...and every plant and animal that reside amongst them !! and likewise I suppose with the habitable spaces and urban sprawls that encroach on them every day ! its a method I have been insistent on my whole life really you don't really know a place unless you have traversed it by foot .... of course over the years I have managed to revisit old haunts with boats and motorcycles ... and yes even on horse back, and I tell you that there really aren't enough places left where these are viable means anymore ...

but cornwall and devon ' the lands of myths and legends ' should remain just that .... and not some holiday home, temporarily inhabited version of londons back yard

Salcombe

hhhmm well Salcombe is beautiful .... I really think that as far as presentation goes .. it couldn't be prettier .. during the summer this lovely little spot has all the touches of Dartmouth but feels just a little more continental ... even Caribbean... the estuary littered with little boats and tiny little sets of dwellings a few stretches of some really white sanded little bays ....

unfortunately the tourist board have really done a number on this place ... I suppose its a bit like Aspen these days ... there are all of the right ingredients .... but the soul of the place has been harnessed and sold ... to the absolutely soulless!! .... really don't pull into the mariner here ... or you will be flooded with lots of ' Yar ' and ' Lovey ' these is where the worst of the London ilk have filled the community with people that don't actually live there .... a bit like the Solent ... just a bit further away from the grey bits of the country !

this is a total tragedy... surrounding the millionaires boats and houses you can find little crumbling Cornish slate buildings with the roofs all wonderfully lopsided and decrepit... but you kind of feel that instead of being full of old buoys and fishing nets ... they are just a back drop ... like at an amusement park .....

farewell and adieu to you fair cornish maidens .... farewell and adieu you ladies and maids ....

so if you have read any of my previous little rants and raves you will probably know that for the last little while I have been living in some bizarre kind of exile ....

I don't really fully understand the rhyme or reason ( although over the last couple of years at least , it can easily be summed up in the simple term ' upper middle class chicks ' ).. and as for the ramifications ... I suppose that is why a do this little blog ... its a way of reckoning that little internal dialogue ... unbroken , unbridled , and largely unedited ....

and this current level of transience has once again become an interesting little adventure in its own right !

but because of a bizarre set of doctrines / circumstances / and seemingly random occurrences I find my self with a little boat  ( my own fall back position . come hell. high water or women scorned ) ... floating about and limited by the winds, tides and fates aligned to the both them

so I got this little ship ... as a last minute contingency ( actually I got a couple of them now ) and the objective was to hold a few little public appearances and exhibitions while rummaging up enough cash from the poverty and austerity impoverished general public to be able to fix up my little u.k bases of operation ( now a consignment of vessels: suitable fall back positions , should I ever need them ... and life experience has certainly demonstrated that I do ) while trying to address a few key issues, and hopefully spark a little debate regarding issues that have become recurring themes in both my art and design portfolios over the years ...and ontop of fixing up my humble little u.k stakes ... hopefully garner enough extra cash to be able to get my main base of operations set back up over on mainland Europe !!

so I got this little boat and I am sailing around the westcountry doing a few little bits and pieces ... as any sailer will know .. this is a bit of a temperamental lee shore !! and the winds and the tides can often leave you at the mercy of an ever fluctuating timetable

but roughly speaking .... I started this little tour in Dartmouth

which is a lovely little spot I became quite familiar with while I was fixing up my fist little westerly back in 2014 ... (jeez that was only 3 years ago ..... astonishing !! no wonder I am going grey !) and I loved the place .... absolutely stunning seaside town surrounded by rolling hills and woodland, and absolutely brimming with crumbling historical intrigue .... there is some Naval College up on the hill ( actually the one my grandfather attended ! ) but that is all a bit ' establishment ' and ' prestigious ' to be worthy of a proper mention. the harbour is a great little spot albeit a little over priced ... some of the visitor moorings up river can be found and bargained over a little ... of course I will always opt for the bilge keel thse days because it means that you can just find a little gap somewhere and just slide right up onto the mud with out having to concern with a harbour or mooring fee !!

there are a few of the little shops and restaurants that havent signed into the ' stein '  postcard option for millionaires alone! and the town bustles with its own characters and locals and little markets and even a few independent hardware stores ( this is always a good sign for me that there is a strong local population that still do a little of their own laborious tasks, and aren't just outsourcing everything )

and although the annual yacht regatta , draws a few of the usual upper class weirdos ... there are far more waders and wellies than there are little deck shoes ... so again its got a great vibe !!

unfortunately there are the dreaded whistle fish here ( see previous posts regarding the corporate takeover of the westcountry's artistic heritage ) and a few other of those corporate shitholes that dress themselves up as cutesy, cozy, home made , ' hand written ' signage's to make it all look more authentic ....completely artificial boutiques .... but morons ill always fall for the obvious !!

the old steam train that runs along the opposite side ( kingswear ?? I think ) of the valley is just a lovely little scene as well !!

Artby, Designby, Adventureby........... Rebellion By ....

Artby Valerio x