Artist Stuart Hampton teams up with pop artist Johnny Zerox to spread peace and love in a psychedelic Rolls Royce

Date published: 02 July 2023

Artist Stuart Hampton, from Darnhill, Heywood, is continuing to make waves in the art world with his latest venture after teaming up with notable pop artist Johnny Zerox.

They have joined forces to try and recreate Andy Warhol’s famed New York pop art studio The Factory right here in the UK.

Based near Carmarthen in Wales, they currently are using a giant converted chapel known as 'The Velvet Chapel' as an arts studio and have a psychedelic painted Rolls Royce which they intend to use to go on a 'Magical Mystery Tour' around the UK, promoting peace, love and creativity by 'turning on, tuning in and dropping out!'

The Rolls Royce is painted in a similar style to that of John Lennon’s 1965 Phantom V and Janis Joplin’s 1965 Porsche Cabriolet, a homage to the psychedelic flower-power, peace and love movement of the era.

Stuart said: “We hope to bring colour, excitement, joy, playfulness and messages of peace and love to people as we drive around on our magical mystery tour. We plan to fill the car full of instruments, musicians and performers, and take to the streets all around the UK.

“Jonny Zerox has a concept known as 'Artivism' which is what we will be doing, it’s like activism, but more playful and creative; we also intend to inspire people to get involved with us!

“Luckily, we share the same taste in art styles, so we are very much on the same vibe. We live life day by day and are very much 'the real thing' as we live and breathe art and music.

“Our cause is building up interest and we now have quite a good network of creatives involved with us.”

The arts duo, now known as Zerox2, are heavily inspired by the hippie 'peace and love' movement and have started a project known as 'Life Saving Distractions' bombarding the internet with colourful, inspiring and uplifting content across social media and online.

Using a fusion of traditional and modern techniques, the arts duo – who met and ‘clicked’ when Stuart was playing his gong to a hall of people mediating –  intend to bring joy into the world and provide distractions that aim to excite and uplift the human spirit.

They have been enjoying working alongside fellow artists and musicians including Gaiea Sanskrit and Abhishek Borkar and have managed to land a partnership to produce artworks using original Jim Morrison material to be sold on a new Malaysian crypto art platform, Ordzaar.

They said: “After everything we have all been through with lockdowns, and cost of living we just want to spread some peace, joy, creativity and love in the world and show people that life is for living, so let’s forget our troubles and try and have some fun.”

Zerox2 also hope to eventually get an arts collective going and set up a community where people can live and work together creatively and become a beacon for 'heartfelt authentic creative living'. 

Stuart added: “Our arts collective is based in Wales at the moment, but our reach will be international due to the wonders of modern technology and the internet. We are also working with TV director Kevin Allen, formulating an idea to create a cosmic version of the Jools Holland Show but based in the chapel.”