Commissioning Artwork

Lots of people get in contact with me for various reasons these days , which is great , the online world can make a great platform for collaborative concept building and data sharing, but one of the more frequently asked questions or FAQ''s if you will. Is do I undertake commissions? ......Well yes is the short answer to that. simply get in touch via the e-mail address provided or via any of the social media links and we can discuss your own personalised requirements, produced bespoke for you .....

Plymouth..........Ummm, Yes , Well......

Now Plymouth is a strange attempt at a metropolis, that in actuality is a horrible concrete carbuncle that just happens to be stuck between the land and the sea right between two beautiful counties.

If you were to stand on the edge of the docklands and look west you can see cornwall, and this is actually a view worth celebrating, of course this is a huge swathe of real estate that is currently in the ownership of the Mod or the Royal navy or Babcock or something, surrounded by housing estates of poor repute and tower blocks of poorer design. However cross the river Tamar and look back east and the view takes a spectacular downturn.

Plymouth is a city of sorts. with all of the right ingredients. A fine historical prominence, a wonderful location surrounded by water and Dartmoor National Park, its people by and large are friendly accommodating and welcoming, but I am afraid that is about the sum of it. Its a bit like having the finest delicatessen ingredients cooked by a blind rat and served in a smelly old dustbin lid!

By and large from personal experience here with the local authorities I can see why.

The majority of the authorities probably take their disproportionately high salaries and use it to buy homes out in Tavistock and outlying areas, and so give up caring that the city they were supposed to be managing smells of piss and looks like shit!

There are some positives that can be found on the up side , but not many .

The historic Barbican - or whats left of it , is a wonderful little spot on the waters edge, but little it remains to be , and it is probably getting smaller as some sorts of vermin attempt to encourage its zeal as ' Britains Ocean City ' (apparently ) by slapping additions to a grotesquely modernized marina - that I personally would not moor my own boat up in even in the event of a hurricane!

But the historic Barbican that is currently being walled in does feature some interesting little galleries and shops. Some of the older crumbling buildings do lend it its antiquated charm, Many of these old buildings have suffered some degree of renovation and modernization and unfortunately been filled with that horribly fashionable Tapas food establishments, restaurants and wine bars but amongst all that Tat ( and yes unfortunately those bloody whistling fish and Rowsbury's can be found here as well- imitation art for imitation people )

There are still good old greasy spoon type establishments and brick a brac shops , local food retailers character pubs and genuine art galleries.

Even the late Robert Lenkiewicz had his home and gallery here for some time and even completed two wonderful murals on the exterior of buildings along the main through fare featuring the portraits of numerous local characters . Unfortunately these have fallen into a shameful state of ill repair , probably due to the artists controversial position with the aforementioned local authorities. ( Indeed it is well worth looking into the artist and his works , as an artist that found the time to concern himself with so much more than the mere production of naff pretty scenes for a simplistic majority )

Works by the prominent Beryl Cook and contemporary cartoons by Brian Pollard can all be found en mass in picture framers posing as genuine galleries. Yet small independent artists studios and galleries showing a variety of contemporary living talent still survive here. Original acrylic artworks and commissions can be obtained from the white lane gallery featuring the work of celebrated Artist Sue Wills. The Kaya Gallery offer a wide range of prints and originals by local producers, and many of the small bric a brac stalls and boutiques show a better range of Plymouths historic and artistic heritage than the city museum and art gallery combined ( however do check out the latter for a fine example of contemporary classical inspired architecture! )

Architecturally though the city is a mess, most of which is blamed on the bombings during the second world war some 80 years ago , when the luftwaffe managed to miss most of the prominents military targets ( despite the acres they cover ) and instead managed to focus most of their fury on a lot of near derelict and outdated residential areas , that were quickly rebuilt into a kind of prefab commercial centre in a hideously slap dash fashion . Running through this ill repaired commercial centre is its one saving grace . Plymouth actually has a stunning botanical reef that runs all the way from the train station to the sea front and Hoe area where the infamous Smeaton Tower lighthouse resides overlooking the tinside Lido, the best part about this linear oasis is that when you are in this very narrow corridor of augmented nature, by and large you cant actually see too much of the city and what it has become!  No shortage of coffee franchises and fast food outlets. oh there's also some manner of mall or something , but any self respecting consumer would steer well clear of this!

There was some effort to create a trendy little hotspot out of some derelict barracks to the west of the city as well , but as is the case with so many of these modern developments they have taken some wonderful architecture made up of old granite edifices , thrown millions of ponds at it , and simply marketed it as ' trendy inner city living ' but its really just a mortgage trap for those with more money than sense.

The university, the leisure facilities and transport links are all stuck somewhere between the past and the future with no real style or tact in their considerations.

North hill and mutley plain with its single remaining tree are now just student accommodations and supermarkets, filling old period town houses, with more extensions than gardens and wheelie bins as far as the eye can see. destined to be tomorrows slums. but follow the route north by road out of the city to the edge of Dartmoor National Park which although offering little in the way of commerce is a far better way to spend the day upon a visit to the region.

Turning with the Tide , A New summer Project by The Hot Blooded Artist!

the Real Art News is once again going to be adressing just that....

 Downsizing ! its a funny term really , I hear it an awful lot these days , and to many it means relatively different things! to me the idea of downsizing was meant to be a means of retaining additional revenue than I otherwise could from a conventional square footage, to simply reduce the scale of outgoings on a month by month basis. so that over a scheduled time frame superfluous revenue could be channelled into larger projects.

But as we all know all to well sometimes the best laid plans can go somewhat arigh!

I was completely fed up with the conventional cost of rents in this country whether you are looking to rent from a private landlord , or even a housing association, from an estate agent that represents some buy to let scheme or even direct from a local authority , the cost of just maintaining a roof over ones head can prove to be something of a complete chore , especially when you tally in rates and the colossal escalations in the standard costs of just living .

So as some of you may know , I decided to buy myself a little boat,I am a homeowner!! thats right .No Mortgage or anything , the overall outlay for the vessel was a very small investment really by comparison of all things , not only a means of accommodation , but also a means of travel , to be able to get about from here to there relaying stock across all the relevant countries that presently represent the elusive ' Art by Valerio' 

its funny how things can come about if you just let them ,

It has been a little while since I had anything overly constructive to say here on my blog , but over the last few months, it seems that I have a multiple of angles to explore , well now I could have written a nice little piece about how to go about turning an old bus of a GRP into comfortable living accommodation so that anyone else that had the inclination could have a rough guide to read through. I could also have tackled it as a step by step guide ' how to learn to sail ' seeing as prior to this escapade I had literally no idea myself. I could document all the little places and peoples that I have come across during this beautiful summer, and what a summer it has been. 

In the spirit of following possible divine intervention,I will just be going with the flow ( although most of you will already be aware of the long term strategy I will be implementing in the new year ) 

 I have decided to retrace some of the more memorable elements of all of these things , and to try and compile it into a ' no bullshit ' mix of all of the above , I will look over the next few entries at boats, places, people , and of course Art . I will be exploring the whole of the south west here in the U.K and taking a critical look at the contemporary art scene , exploring historical context and even specific areas of historical and contemporary Architecture. hopefully as you read along you will learn things that you didn't know , about places you haven't yet had the time to visit and maybe even be afforded outlines of dialogues and characters that make this little spit of land .....just what it is, and together maybe we can figure out a mutual ' what we would like it to be '

Some people say that ' a boat is just a hole in the water to pour money into ' well I suppose that is true to some extent, but to me I can assure you it is a much smaller hole than rent or a mortgage in the farce that is known as the great british property ladder, and you get a few immediate advantages become instantly apparent , namely the views are unparalleled and ever flexible also , if in the unlikely event you find a neighbor that really gets on your tits , you are not locked in to a fixed position with them . you can just sail on up river a bit or off round the coast. 

there are a few things that could be seen as a draw back like the lack of space , or the winter temperatures here in these northern climes , but well space wise , we all have sentimental attachments to far too much crap anyway , and as far as temperature goes , well I will readdress that when the autumn starts turning to winter , but as far as I can see for now , I will remain optimistic !

so keep checking in and I will be updating the outcomes of these little travels and experiments and hopefully having a bit of fun in the process, so yo ho me hearties lets find us a trade wind p x

' The FAT ASS of the self righteous, self important Mrs middle age, middle class, mediocre. Offering opinions in a high street near you '

'The Consumer'

Probably the most dangerous Animal on Earth

After doing a public appearance at a gallery recently, I was immediately reminded of why I prefer to not !

Stop the World, I want to get off !

Now make no mistake, I do have better things to do than complain about the current state of affairs, but sometimes , sometimes it pays to express yourself exactly how you want to, but failing that I can just harmlessly rant and rave at this digital page , just to feel like I am at least getting things off of my chest! a testament to how truly powerless we are in the face of legislative doctrine, the limiting of our ability , or even knowledge of how to fight back against oppressive forces,

the local elections and the European elections , have brought up some alarming prospects, and that is even if you can use the media engine to whip the country up into an artificial frenzy and claim that we are being attacked on all sides by invisible enemies, that even then , with all of the fear and hate mongering the very best you can do is manage to convince , a puny 30 % of the eligible voting public that what is being publicly stated is more than empty rhetoric and bullshit, the party pledges of a few individuals that have become so ensconced in their own artificial reality begin to sound like adverts , POW! buy this product it will save your life , but only if you can afford it , No buy this product it will save you money, vote for me I can sort all this out , but really deep down we all know that it is all horse shit, we can buy those products and we could vote for you, but when the products end up being made of toxic chemical waste, and the candidate look and sound like vicious cobras you can understand why we might want to abstain from the whole shebang. which is largely what we are seeing the world over, people want to have the opportunity to govern themselves.

Personally when the last Labor Government took us to war with a foreign Islamic nation, I could not believe the surrealistic implications, the fact that a million people took to the streets to protest an illegal invasion being waged on our taxes and were completely ignored, showed then that democracy , real democracy is dead , and has probably been dying for a while, I think upon reflection that might have been what Hunter S Thompson was ranting and raving about. the American gonzo journalist that survived through two terms of Nixon actually bloody killed himself when George bush the second was reelected. At the time I was working in the mainstream, being suitably ( though not sufficiently ) subsidized for my ' labor ' in evil machinations. There really was nothing else to do , but resign myself to a kind of self imposed poverty, I will not act or endorse this illegal invasion anymore, I withdrew my labor , and with it I withdrew my obligation to pay taxes and therefore continue endorsing this rubbish that I do not agree with, thats ok said the government, we will raise the tax threshold to 10'000 per year wow i said what an offer , so if I can even make 10,000 in this economy that you have completely fucked , you will borrow my eligible tax and if at the end of the year I have been skint enough to warrant it , upon application I can get that money back . WOW just like banking then , basically I put my wages in on a Friday via some digital means or another. YOU  trade with it in arms and chemicals and mining until it 'clears' a few days later and then I am free to spend it on whatever taxable commodity or services I feel inclined , and then you will take at least 20% of said revenue so you can carry on bombing innocent people. No MATE i DONT THINK SO.

I tried several means of legitimate protest, petitions supplications even attempting to be able to carry on with what I would consider to be worthwhile albeit unpaid work through the formation of a charitable enterprise, which was smashed to pieces over two years by the local authority we actually set up to assist. MADNESS in every direction!thats ok I thought I knew this and these little inevitability's were about to transpire really it should be apparent to any one with even a loose grip of historical context and sociological implication, but still I feel like the lunatic ignored all the more for the fevered ravings of the impending doom that no one else seems to want to face up to. aggressively they maintain a fixed focus , on whatever it is they are doing , even if the thing they are doing is something they cannot stand for people they cannot abide, just to maintain some poor excuse of an existence.

Sigh ! these days its pretty hard to acknowledge the cold hard truth of the chasm we are all racing toward in order to be deemed as productive, by imbeciles and dangerous reptiles, the entire voting consensus has all armed themselves with surveillance equipment in an attempt to counter the surveillance of the state and its all fed into the digestive tract of the god awful internet machine brought up by companies that support and endorse the candidates that re tell us all just what we want to hear, because they know , we volunteered the blueprint of our own enslavement, and now we have to buy it back from the vendors or face the consequences, bleak isnt even the word for it,

Really I would like to remain optimistic in the face of adversity to be able to rally defensive momentum for my rights thoughts and feelings. I have resigned myself to the notion that the U.K will be one of the last strongholds for this kind of feudalistic ridiculousness, and so off to Europe I went,

Realistically I have quite simple wants when I was asked during my involvement in the occupy movement what exactly it was that I wanted to achieve , the best response I could come up with that quite simply I should like to be able to pay a little less and be able to live a little more, not a huge request or an unreasonable demand but an inherent right !! all I really want to do is be able to engage at will with the productive process, anyone familiar with my body of works will have seen the eclectic nature of my personal interests, that through some miracle I have managed to keep  financially viable ( but then the basic business model , is to literally make something out of nothing ) would it be so bad if I was able to be in an environment that was inspiring engaging stimulating beautiful and productive , to be able to live , with suitable option for human interaction and collaboration AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE !! of course not , what kind of pipe dream is that you left wing long haired liberal you. how can we justify renting you that space for residual production, when we could rent to the financial services or some other fictitious trader of phantom commodities that pay staff millions and millions to perpetuate the destruction of the views and vistas I would consider to be inspirational valuable and worthwhile all in the name of progress! it is a bit of a mess isnt it ?, the rise of conservatism across the world echoes the argument that certain parties want to keep everything the same , the same leaders the same structures and strictures the same laws and parameters the preservation of those that consider themselves to be more worthwhile than their neighboring humanity ARROGANCE in short a kind of mind numbing insulation that only affects the upper class and those who have been tricked into thinking that they are anything other than working or lower class, huge swathes of administrative systems people towing the line and maintaining the status quo assuring themselves that if only they can do what the peers request , that they too might join the ranks of the artificial dignitary  and have a shot at a sip from the golden cup of opulence. like the lottery its exploitation of the ignorant, unfortunately the ignorant dont know that they are ignorant they think that the bias opinion they were given to regurgitate is actually there own, this is a very dangerous herd animal the kind that saw fascism and far right opinion winning polls in the pre war German democracy, but no one wants to think about that now, its too depressing the idea that millions of people from across the world died to defend the rights of the individual , well thats just not profitable. unfortunately we have really nearly run out of things that can be speculated on , and prove to be profitable, land is running out , the oceans are full of poisons and very few fish, the air has more contaminants than it has oxygen, and we are continually cutting down trees for additional luxury abodes parking spaces kitchen work surfaces not even so everyone can have an entitlement to these things but so they are fooled with the impression of choice of the consumer market.

 I could go on and on , but I feel suitably sated having just rendered my thoughts even if it is through this awful internet machine,there are so many things that need to be frantically addressed , The rest of the world are at least at logger heads the dire straights of the situation and the impending doom that we all must face, is completely ignored here in the UK but for how much longer, how much longer will the silent obedient consent constrain the exercising of good old common sense. not too much longer I hope, when all of those people that are having babies realize that there is no where left for the new generation to go , all of those in education realize that there are no jobs certainly none actually worth doing, all of those in councils and police forces and military, when will you look over the back fence of your poxy suburban steel trap and realize that the monsters that stalk this land are unrelenting and they are coming for you , once you have finished being distracted by the purpose you allegedly have, look for your savings your pensions your health schemes and mortgages your childcare all of these shining slogans you were duped into buying with a lifetime of futile labor they are all empty! worthless ! what good is it that you think your house is worth X if it means your children will never be able to afford a home and have to live with you for ever, thats ok got enough space , add another generation and see what happens to your tiny residential entitlement. oh well having a go at the mentally ill really isnt my business, but when the mentally ill start making unreasonable demands and stipulations about how my time should be spent  I have to retaliate ! so I will return to sailing boats about various countries and producing drawings paintings , urban engineering and architecture engaging in the sciences I enjoy and the pursuit for knowledge that accompanies them, I will I am sure continue to write for an invisible audience and have adventures liaisons and close shaves and this will be the tumultuous life times of many until common sense returns once again if indeed it ever does .

but for the short while at least ... I am off to sail about x

At Last !!

finally a free website that even I can mange to update, regardless of position in the world, or condition of terminal, this is just the early bones mind you, ( that being said personally I felt that good old www.artbyvalerio.com got a little bit ranging , but I suppose that is the risk with such eclectic content ), and I will be adding substantial content over the next few months to both the website and the blog, so keep your horrible internet machine tuned in to ;

                      www.artsbyvalerio.webs.com

for all updates and info, and of course you can keep checking in for our tweets and facebook updates p x

' Light up the Dark '

           Original watercolour from the ' Alternatives ' Exhibition 640mm x 450mm ( A2 ) 2014

' Perfectly imbalance '

'Perfectly Imbalance ' Original watercolour draft 640mm X 450mm ( A2 ) another piece from the ' Symbols to the Sacred ' series 2014

' Knot for the likes of you or me ...'

Original watercolour 640mm x 450mm (A2) from the ' from symbols to he sacred ' series 2014

' On The Periphery '

Part of the ' Loose Impressions ' series, 2012/2013

Mixed Media 

640mm X 900mm

This piece depicting the typical style of the artist, combines several of the recurring themes to be found in parallel works, including Erotic, Palaeontological, and Mystical ,

these and other pieces available direct from the Artists studio, and various accredited retailers .