The Arts Hole -'' Going -Nowhere Inn ''- Plymouth

          Boris Johnsons Halloween Brexit Extravaganza @ the Nowhere Inn - Plymouth 

Art and Shibari , Cheese and Wine … Body Painting and the mad ravings of - The Arts Hole international Pop up Initiative …… come and say hi during the day for something unusual 12 - 16;30 

                              Thurs 31st October @ The Nowhere Inn - Plymouth

             Followed by an evening Of Live music and lively banter and rough sketch rebellion

                                                             WATCH THIS SPACE X

This is basically why I don't commercialise the things I do these days ...as I've previously noted

I am having a thought Here Barbosa .....

….

an unending ' work ' in progress ;)

Back once again for another winter in my ' home ' town of Plymouth … and my goodness its pretty grey around here !!! no matter how many plastic Elephants you stuff into the city scape … so just thought I would have a smash at teaching a few guys how to have a go at ' the good stuff ' ;) 

Another ' Watch This Space ' moment

So a little over 13 years ago the weird series of erraticism's I was cobbling together as a ' portfolio ' of creative projects - informally amalgamated into the trading ' brand ' - The Arts Hole …. a pioneering enterprise that was part of a movement that later became the now exceptionally popular ' pop up ' enterprise model

and from those unusual and humble origins we have / I have been from pillar to post... from pall mall to Parkview … all for the sake of ' Art ' and it has taken me far and wide, high and low and back again...

from that little pop up art gallery - the various incantations that have followed an awful lot of work has been done! art galleries , artwork , showcases , one man arts festivals . dinosaurs , festivals , exhibitions, art b&b, pirate ships , festivals , shibari demonstrations , bodypainting , sailboats , mountain climbing , hallucinogens , festivals, construction projects , political protest and court cases ... and way more cities than I can recount in one go......

…. and so it goes on

The Arts Hole International Pop up Initiative -  will be everywhere from spring 2020 -

I am working with some amazing individuals and organizations at the moment and it looks like we will run our own independent ' trade route ' from Scandinavia to Morocco and all the way across the Mediterranean Sea to the Greek Islands


so Artby Valerio and The Arts hole International pop up Initiative will be running a series of consecutive ' touring ' Art B&B - Artists Vacations and Exhibition options all year round - from quite a lot of locations

Oslo Norway -Arctic Light Northern Lights Artists Retreat

Amsterdam - Netherlands Togetherness / mindfulness / Retreat / Workshops /

Rouen France  -Permaculture Courses

LondonU.K : -Togetherness / mindfulness / Retreat

North Wales U.K- Arts Scenery Retreat

Cornwall U.K -Artists Retreat / Mindfulness / Permaculture Courses/ Herbalism /Sailing

Porto Portugal -Artists Retreat / Mindfulness? Meditation / Yoga

Essaouira Morocco -Artists Retreat / Off Grid Architectural Flagship / Mindfulness / Togetherness / Permaculture / Sailing / Workshops / Seminars / Festivals/ Film Studio/Music Studio/ Dinosaurs

Catania Sicily -Artists Retreat / Musicians Retreat / Mindfulness / Meditation / Sailing / Workshops / Short Courses

Crete Greece - Artists Retreat / Musicians Hub /Mindfulness / Conscious Living / Permaculture / Off Grid Living / Meditation / Sailing / Workshops / Short Courses / Meditation / Yoga

so basically I will set sail from Norway at the end of august after a month long stint with the Art B&B there , I will then sail down in month long intervals ( running these little enterprise /arts studios ) … all the way round to Crete

quite an art pilgrimage!! I will rest up in Crete for a few months before commencing the whole thing ad infinitum

and this is so green … you could smoke it

all of our materials are upcycled / recycled … all of the sites have circumvented the conventional routes of ' commerce ' - all of our boats have been derelict or abandoned at least once in their lives

and I literally sail everywhere … no fuel / no duty to any government to pay / non polluting … not to mention all of our acquired sites are being ecologically aligned to the original design of Artby Valerio's own  original green star house

so keep an eye on this space ! :)

and of course and as always …. as the old adage goes if you would like to know more about any of our / my ongoing projects / endeavours / adventures …. get in touch x x x

Tobaccooooooooo an epilogue

I love to smoke ….. I really enjoy it !!  especially with coffee …. and urrgghh if the tobacco that accompanies that coffee has a little hashish in it even bloody better !!

but even without the marijuana , a coffee and a cigarette is such an enjoyable experience that I will even carry the compulsion to roll cigarette after cigarette until the coffee cup is empty !

so deciding to quit is no mean feat !

Tobacco , its actually quite a satisfying word to say actually ….. it conjures images in my minds eye of zippo lighters , bourbon whiskey , james dean rebels and neon flashing pub signs with familiar brandings such as ' Budweiser ' and ' Marlboro ' ( seems heavily geared towards the send up of the Americans international image lol )

wafting smoke on warm summer breezes , post coital languishing smokes  - a warming companion on a chilly frost edged morning with steaming cups of hot coffee

the psychology associated with the stuff is incredible

I used to love to smoke tobacco , a rich smooth Virginian tobacco - ah but alas , just like coca cola and the walt Disney company its a veneer, a psychological addiction to an artificial sense of familiarity - the comfort of the familiar - the smell of freshly baked bread, the scent and embrace of a loved one after a prolonged estrangement ! and of course the appeal of excess !

unfortunately in the age of artificially imposed austerity ….. excess has become somewhat grotesque !

If I had a big bag of weed , I would be inclined to smoke it and render my time frame all the more leisurely than it might otherwise be …

and to some extent the same is true of tobacco - to prolong a smoke break from a shift structured day , by indulging in that extra cigarette !!

but the trick psychology and the factual actuality are indeed very different things …..

in truth - lungfuls of stale ashtray tasting cancer in the small hors of the morning - a dry mouth - an increased heart rate - artificial anxiety personified !

yellow fingered , musty clothed chain smoking …… forever seeking suitable sating satisfaction in the next cigarette or the cigarette after

small spaces , choking yellow stained walls

and damp fingers cant roll in the rain ! and the rain holds the exhaust scent to my clothes !

fewer and fewer smoking areas and more and more non smoking areas … even in bars now , no longer  a suitable companion with a beer anyway !

porked , fucked and percentaged by an exchequer full of shit !

for 21 years on the hour every hour when and where possible …. a few per hour for a row ! or a stressful transition

twice the price you would pay on the continent !

to spend money on a commodity you cant even eat - that actually supresses your appetite ! doesn't even get you high - if you like that sort of thing !

to emphatically consume ! or be doomed to eternal want and rationing - perpetually impatient for the next fix

coffee too I am sure - but one thing at a time !

I will miss it I am sure , and at the same time … I wont !

I have started the long process of offering farewell to this long standing friend ! and I am substituting the habit for dried lavender flowers actually !! and actually it seems to be working ! although a friend suggested that I might become addicted to the action of smoking as opposed to the actual nicotine - but I will always have a penchant for joints - and so long as no percentage is being taxed by a phoney exchequer !! I could live with that !

I cant smoke an e cigarette seeing as the industry that is required in the production of these things - is nearly as bad if not worse than the tobacco industry itself

surly if every smoker switched to an e cigarette it would warrant the electrical consumption worthy of damming some remote valley somewhere … but if every one started smoking lavender ?? well there would just be more lavender about , and I am sure the bee's wouldn't mind that at all


so as fond as I have been made to feel for you you hideous poison of magnate conglomerates … I shall bid you adieu x

but I suppose I will remain a ' smoker ' for now …….

Boris Johnsons Brexit Britain in Donald Trump's age of the Charlatan

holy fucking hell guys …. really what can be said ?

to say that we have gone from bad to worse over the past 15 years would be a complete understatement …. well it would be a fake news dilution of such a dire state of affairs as to actually warrant the name ….. PROPAGANDA!!! a thousand years of the british judicial system was already dubious enough !! but where the hell is this age of the charlatan actually destined to go ?

just a few more roughed out sketches from the continuum that is '' 101 Reasons to Choose a Vocation in the creative Industries '' from Art by Valerio's - The Arts Hole on Tour 2019 - Brexit Refugee Special edition series :(

'' you know when the new world order have just burned down one of the oldest and most notorious  cathedrals in Paris just to offer distraction from my little travelling circus of side show art freaks ….it would be easy to assume that perhaps there are evil machinations at work ….. then when the billionaire boat builder from your neck of the woods actually pledges fortunes to re build the thing - instead of tackling any of the social and or urban decay in the city of Plymouth - the Place that actually builds these horrible plastic made, pollutant spouting pieces of shit that they pay cheap foreign labour minimum wage to manufacture … well this is beyond a fucking piss take now !! '' 

'' I didn't get into this little line of work ( basic means of humble survival from my own trade and wares ) to encourage controversy … but it just seems to follow me around … and now there seem to be windmills as far as the eye can see in this arse hole corner of boris johnsons Brexit Britain in Donald trumps age of the charlatan - so whether you are some French billionaire that mass produces plastic pollutants for the sea as recreational vehicles for the financially affluent yet morally bankrupt human scum that have ' evolved ' out of this age of the charlatan or just some faceless drone from the rank and file that have allowed this to happen …. you can rest assured - I am your fucking Nemesis !! ''- ABV101% - The Arts Hole On Tour - The Brexit Refugee - outside 'the box' ( Plymouths over priced display box for hogwash imperialist culture - and against' the grain ' my former in laws enterprise in mass producing signages out of rare woods for the advertising of sufficiently heated cheap meat - whose reliance on American tech and materials has actually put more signwriters out of business than they actually produced signs …… fuck this country and the hideous monopoly's it perpetrates …. this is the new imperialism - stick your nationalism and your bunting up your arse !!!''

'' you see this is a bit like the Ip Man story …. all I would like to do is get on with my humble little trade that  through hard work and tenacity I have already managed to turn a little talent into a well honed skill - and as such just want to get on with my work and maybe even take on the odd student  - but the damn Japanese invade - or some half baked untalented intergenerational hack style hoodlums cant handle it because you shine a light on their utter scale of mediocrity - then what can you do , but live the time you have been given and fight the battles that present themselves… as Tom Petty once put it '' you can standme up at the gates of hell but I wont back down '' or something to that effect !!

'' I have spent the best part of two decades defending a fiercly independent position -developing ' the arts hole catalogue and ' product ranges ' which is now valued at a considerable value I guess … - ( of course I give most of my ' profit  ( if you can even call it that ) ' away willingly- property just costs too much for me to pander to any of that - I don't have a penchant for champagne , fast cars or holidays to Bali ) 

the problem with this age of the Charlatan is simply that !! its the age of the Charlatan !! full of art . gov initiatives and zero social housing programmes ….. any one with any moral fibre can attest to it 

around this part of the world … they will give you a budget if you fall in line at the water hole …. but fuck these reptiles and the whole art . gov horse shit that goes with it ''

but a word of warning to the Geoffrey Cox assholes of the world - the Boris Johnsosn - the thereasa mays- the camerons - the blairs the bushes the Reagans - the thatchers  the Donald trumps the national trusts - the councils and sub committees and the rank and file of morons that hold the hole thing together - we are coming to get you . mark my words !! 

ABV101%

Great British Politics VS Artby Valerio / Artby Valerio VS Great British Politics

we were once a prosperous little island …. allegedly ? , of sorts ?

of course imperialism and the unauthorised acquisition of other peoples land and property … and in some cases even peoples had a great deal to do with it  !! but of course we prefer not to talk about that bit too much !

the basic idea for the accomplished running and governance of this little island nation has always been somewhat disputable to say the least would certainly be fair ! but hindsight written under the shadow of a blood drenched flag … has allowed a level of illusion to be portrayed ….

I don't want to get to much into the nitty gritty of the written and unwritten histories of the past thousand years  of this weird little island …

so I will focus on what I know and at least … what I have witnessed

Thatcher !! Fucking Thatcher !! its the mantra I was brought up with … and despite what anyone with a Tory agenda and stock portfolio might say to the contrary, it is fair to say that what that woman did was incredibly divisive at least … and utterly shambolic with a fascist edge, to acknowledge and credit the worst !

It seems that before I was born we had a war or two .. left the place in a bit of a bad way ! but due to efficaciousness in productivity and administration … managed to rally what decimated resources we had left and built the thing up again … well that's the ' banner headline ' of it any way ! stiff upper lip and all that!

of course by the time I came along Thatcher thought that millions of people running an economy on a produce geared model was doomed !! for that I give her credit ! Indeed the Land fills of the world are full of excess rubbish from a billion lifetimes …. so it is true that you cant have a whole country running around in a frenzied state of competitive production … all stuck in the convention of a 40 hour week …. the world just cant handle that scale of production !! especially with our industrialised means

it makes sense to reduce the output !! Collapsing the whole arm of production in your domestic economy might have gone a bit far …. the idea that we can outsource everything to some cheaper labour in some cheaper economy was never going to work out ?

unfortunately , it went mental as these things always do …. it went so mental that we have ended up here ….

from war torn nations with a self reliant agriculture and manufacture , but community trade spirited ideologies …. to the age of Brexit , of Donald !!outsourced to death working on smaller and smaller percentages being carved up by bigger and bigger parties … for larger and larger fee's

so Ronald Reagan and Thatcher told everyone that they didn't need to build a house … they could just buy one, so long as the percentages were paid to the government and the agents of course …

and once you have brought a house … why not buy a second one ?

why not take earnings from a local housing initiative within your local community … and in the landlordism attitude, go on holiday !!  and complain that the highstreet in your own community is failing ??

why not open a mcdonalds franchise? then open a second ?…. take another vacation ?

buy some shares in Nike or some weaponised tech ?? …. take another vacation ?

ever since we have had a plethora of assholes !!!

( well to be honest I don't actually recall either Clinton or Major being anything on the scale of the monsters that came before or after )

so to bring us up to date in May of 2019

David Cameron said we were all in it together when he tricked the lib dems into co ownership of the management position they were elected for  … after getting shot of Gordon browns partial inheritance of tony Blairs war mongering ' Labour Party '.....???

then he fucked a pig and blew two referendums , before leaving the dinner lady in charge ….

the dinner lady has been careening us all towards a cliff edge in her menopausal dementia while reciting the notion of ' strong and stable ' and ' Brexit means Brexit '

the referendum seems undeliverable , as do most of the campaign promises ?

and now it seems that Michael Gove and Boris Johnson are going to duke it out for leadership !!! the farmers have all gone bankrupt because it turns out you cant ' produce ' for a living let alone a profit in this age of the percentage people … the age of the charlatan !!

we have run out of fish … the air is in a terrible state …. Brexit and economic desolation looms …

and what are the prospects ?? where is the organized opposition ??

fucking Bleak to say the least !! a thousand years of the British judicial system …. don't make me laugh !!

who's in charge here ?? I demand to speak to your supervisor !!

you want the pig fucker that's no longer in charge … or that mad old woman that has done a runner , and is in fact no longer in charge??

any of the subsequent minions that hold rank and file in this fucking transvestite horse pantomime we call government ??

get to fuck :)


jeezus effing wept !!

.....Maids !! 2019

I am forever packing up and un packing studio spaces these days …. in this un-ending 'tour' in this life of imposed and perpetual transience …. 

and quite often at the end of a little studio stint I am left over with a few old half tubes of paint … I used to throw them all into a bag and carry them onto the next pop up studio … but that can get really heavy after a few miles in the sun , a bit like carrying excess water ! 

so instead these days I tend to spend a few days just throwing paint around … using up all the little bits and pieces … all of the colours that are usually left off the palette , and just render a few ' larger sketches ' 

its a great opportunity to really play around with different techniques, sources of inspiration  and mediums... after all variety as they say is the spice of life x 

Online Customer Base ... and the Elusive Single Bi Fem x

A Quarter of a Million Viewers in the past 5 years !!

I actually started the blog way back in 2011 just as -Art By Valerio's- The Arts Hole …. was evolving into '' the Valerio Institute for Alternative Learning ''

but due to the damaging nature of the recourse with our local authority .. I spent very little time with it ! and I think in the first five years of it going live .. I maybe got 1000 hits

then around 2014 … just before '' The Arts Hole On Tour - Why Knot / Why Not ? - pop up experiment in the Netherlands I started to use it a little more frequently as a means of adding testimony to the bizarre mix of adventures I get away with under the single guise of ' Art '

and Low and behold here we are just 5 years on from the ' measurable date ' and abso -bloody -lutley  … a Quarter of A million viewers … not just views ! but actual virtual I.D / I.P related engagements …

I recall a time when myself and my first wife were having a passing curiousity about some of the new online ' networking ' options

and we would spend a little bit of time online and in the chatrooms of various fetish / kink / swinger sites …

and the blog to me , well pretty much all of this online interaction stuff … facebook especially … has a kind of obsessive sense to it … I know lots of people are now advocating the harm that it actually does do … and this I suppose would be my testament in accord !

you see you can sit there in front of the screen … with the promise that your ideal audience is just the other side of it … just a mere click away !

so you put in some time, you write up some schpeel …. and take a few complimentary photo's …

then you cast the line

and wait with a mix of anxiety , trepidation and excitement for one of those elusive , single , bi fe males to wander into the chatrooms

and of course they do …. thousands of them , its quite unbelievable , and most of them are fucking sensational !!

little digital exchanges begin and the odd titillating mention of a possible meet ….

and then low and behold … flash of light and whisp of smoke and gone !! oh well no matter … the place is brimming with them on with the chase …

carrot chasing donkey much ?? after a while you just start to have fun with it … well we did anyway !! we were fortunate enough to fulfil a fantasy or two … but very little of that came from any of our premeditated online encounters … a couple sure , but back then we were both pretty leen and fit .. quite a catch ? lol

but I do think in the back of my mind about the people that didn't manage to get a meet …..

from what I understand it reductive circles of desperation/ boredom and depression  have driven millions  from the chatrooms of tinder into the marginal fringe of Grinder … and then what ? then where do they go ?

and online marketing is much the same !!

don't get me wrong … maybe I have garnered an actual sale out of that audience of a quarter of a million …. but there is no way to be sure … especially if you are as uninterested in these digital interactions as me ….

but if I stand out on a street corner on a busy sunny day with a few renderings … 9 times out of ten I will be able to sell a little daub or two … for sure someone will buy me a beer and have a chat …. maybe I will even bump into that elusive bi fem ( not that I am even looking these days )…. but of course I'm not Dead either …..

the point is kids …. all this online stuff is all well and good ! but its a bit like your c.v


no one really wants to look at it … but its handy to have in case any one asks

don't get to wrapped up in all this ethereal make-believe or you will find you will have amassed far more wasted time than you have customers

pay for a sponsored add ?? become a suggested post ?? ….. ppffftt Nah man your all right ;)

a barrage of magnum opus' Art By Valerio's - The Arts Hole 2019

Magnum Opus 1 ( Organization )
 The Arts Hole - international POP UP initiative - independent Art Gallery and Design Studio

 Magnum Opus 2 ( Signature Style ' Artwork ' )
another of life's little choices

Magnum Opus 3 ( evaluation of botanical varietals as understood under censorship at the time )
the genes on the buds go round and round

Magnum Opus 4 ( Signature Style 'Art work - sub headed portfolio )
the orgy ball

Magnum Opus 5( published illustrative style )
101 reasons to choose a vocation in the creative industries

Magnum Opus 6 ( re evaluation of earlier botanical classifications study )
the world wide weed atlas

Magnum Opus 7 (Deliberate '' un branding '' in the age of the Donald Trump )
'' Branding ''

Magnum Opus 8 ( Optimum spatial allocations for human habitation options )
the Green Star House

Magnum Opus 9 ( Optimum spatial considerations for human habitation environmental integrations )
Re Ruralisation

keep your eyes peeled for the next little thing up my sleeve ;)  ……

The Arts Hole - The Fuck Off Manifesto 2019 #ABV101%

full outline coming soon x

A Union for the Otherwise Un - unionized ?

around 2005/2006 it just seemed to me that every one was going nuts !! George bush and tony blair had just invaded the middle east …. it seems to ensure that everuone had the means to ' keep calm and carry on ' as was the mantra for the day …..

and keeping calm and carrying on basically entailed ensuring that an already bloated civil service could all carry on taking the couple of holidays per year they become accustomed too ….. for me it was quite enough … and the birth of ' The Arts Hole - international POP UP initiative '

you cant paint that here !

you cant sell those here !

you need a liscence !

you need to declare !

you need to abide … you need to adhere … you need to comply … you need permission ...


you need to
you need to

you need

you need

turns out after vigerous field testing … most of these busy body ,would be do gooders  are totally misinformed !!…they are the Nazi's of their own little prison states … they all need to live in the ordered notion that they need to comply … to adhere … to abide ….

but it turns out that ,.... this is the age of the charlatan , the age of ( then Tony Blair ) Donald Trump and Tereasa may's Brexit - of David Cameron's big society ….

it turns out it does not mean shit !!

not one single shit ladies and gentlemen … its the age of the charlatan and it seems you can pretty much argue the point of validity against these so called authorities in charge on every point !! and we should  - and have been able to ever since they started electing themselves into positions of influence - and started trying to ' administer ' you and me … for the sake of some greater good ideology bullshit !!

a greater good that usually see's them getting the better share of wine and the comfier bed

the church have done it

the corporations have done it

the militaries have done it

the governments have done it

the royals have done it

… as previously mentioned … jeezus hell wept … Donald Fucking Trump has done it

just convinced a lot of people that in the same Brexit ideology … if you keep sending the cheques … eventually your mail order unicorn will arrive !! you will win the lottery and be welcomed to Valhalla with an assortment of brand name prizes ….. if you just keep calm and carry on … keep playing the game !!

well, no, sorry luv.... ( not meaning to be sexist there at all  as actually in certain districts in the u.k it would be a common , generic term for current company - regardless of sex )

not happening

here I happen to sit ! completely by chance ….

I am happy enough to get on with and engage in a valid means of passing the day … but do not go so far as to concede that to include selling insurance, snake oil or working for government !

the validity I seek is through the act of rendering and the pursuance of proficiency within that task at hand so that the culminative result of both practice and theory might merit such a state of adulteration as to be ' artistic '

the validity I seek can not be imposed , bestowed , merited , declared upon or impeded by any other man , committee , government or king … without prior consent and accord

I aim to move humbly and without violence against persons , creatures or environment  in my aims and activities to better understand myself and my contemporaries … and our places in this tapestry of mystery , but will aim to maintain integral defence for that which I hold dear, so long as that which I hold dear does not impose loss on another

beyond all of that you can pretty much … Fuck Off !!

take your weird insistences for conformity …. and jog on pal