It feels, she says, a little odd. Kind of like stepping back through a time portal. Nothing much has changed really; yes, there's mesh (which games have had for years) but it seems like Second Life has stood still. Kind of like seeing an old friend that never seems to age. So what has she been up to while away? Feathers Boa: I've been doing art and graphics for games. Everything from casual games for smart phones and tablets to console games. I am working on a game right now that is all sketches that look like a talented child drew them colored with different color torn paper and crayons. I am animating these to make sprites and it is totally unique looking. It's the most fun I've had at work in a long time. I hope to do some more of that here.
And by 'here' she means here in SL, where, after her three years' hiatus, she's jumped in with three different interventions in about as many months. She contributed some pieces for a show over at LEA, and that was something of a catalyst.
In 975, the mind of many a Wessex nobleman was exercised by the increasing wealth and influence of the Benedictine monasteries and a quarrel between the great lords Aelfthere and Aethelwine. Civil War was in the air. St Dunstan, who had been himself a monk and later Abbot of Glastonbury and was now Archbishop of Canterbury, had allied himself closely with Edgar of Wessex and indeed it was Dunstan who devised the coronation ceremony (still essentially used to this day) full of mystical imperialism, which moved other monarchs of Britain to pledge allegiance to Edgar, King of the West Saxons. The achievement was short-lived. After only two years Edgar died, leaving his teenage son Edward (born, some say, of an illicit relationship with Aethelflaed, the 'White Duck', cloistered away in the nunnery at nearby Shaftesbury) to take the throne.
The succession was anathema to Edward's stepmother Aelfthrith who naturally favored her own boy, Ethelred, later to prove himself 'Unready' (meaning 'without good advice'). For the next three years Aelfthrith plotted Edward's downfall. And so it was that in 975 AD after a reign of little more than a thousand days, King Edward, not yet seventeen, was lured under mysterious circumstances to the castle at Corfe, a Saxon word meaning 'gap', and there met his death.
Iono Allen makes machinima. He gained fame as a noob, with A Question Of Honour, in which long-time friend and colleague Larkworthy Antfarm also appears. It was shortlisted for an exhibition at MOMA, no less. The cinematic power of the film's unspoken story is even more remarkable since Allen had never made machinima before coming into Second Life. You will find 44 original uploads on his YouTube channel, with his latest short, Passion, notably available in full only on Vimeo, but more of that later.
Second Life Machinima is not fan-mod or art-mod, to borrow Rebecca Cannon's terms; it doesn't sit with the taxonomy of mainstream machinima with its professionally built sets and scripted or meta-scripted quests. It's quite easy to make a slick looking short when you have a game like Halo as a backdrop, and quite another thing with the homegrown props and lag of Second Life.
...the fatality of the big Clock playing with our lives
Cherry Manga
For those of us who have had to deal with problems of the mind, from depression, to brain tumors, to senility, questions of what is real or unreal, what constitutes the real self are deep and substantial questions.
It is a shame that discussion in SL about what shapes and what truly represents the self has been largely hijacked by vapid women and pervy men (often with matching Lolas Tangas). For those of us who deal on a daily basis with mental problems from depression to cancer to alzheimer's via a host of other conditions, physical and psychic, such piffle is annoying, unhelpful. Yet the need to communicate these howlingly large questions remain. What are we, if not our memories? Which of our many states of mind is the true one? Does such a thing exist?
This laptop has LL3, Exodus, Kokua, Cool, Phoenix, Imprudence, and Singularity. Imprudence was such a great viewer for visiting open sim, very stable, comfortingly familiar UI, but of course like Phoenix, it can't see mesh. Anyone who loved Imprudence naturally gravitated to Kokua, but that bloody UI is exhausting.
The art group Coppelia turns one this week, and they are celebrating the anniversary with an art show from 6-8pm SLT on Friday 28th February.
Art groups are quite fascinating. Not the big message-board ones, but the guild type, where everyone's an artist. Some are free-for alls, with a mix of genuine innovators and wannabes whose talent is mostly for gallery politics. Then there are the B-List cooperatives where nobody is very good but nobody minds, because dancing and gossip are regularly available. At odds with the B-list are the pretentious collectives for 'premier artists', the kind of elitist BS that third rate academics love. You can see where they are coming from - all of us want to escape from mediocrity, but as the Anglo-Saxon proverb says, 'He that
Noke Yuitza had some good news. Even in IM, her merry enthusiasm was infectious. It was the perfect melding of SL and real life. The birth of a new life. It is a very beautiful story, let me tell you it because it is attached in a certain way to this installation. They met in one of my classes some years ago here in SL; they are from different countries, Germany and Sweden, and I introduced them. I met them in RL too. They started to going out in RL and now they are together and with a baby!!
Earlier this summer,with her install 'Destruction', Asmita Duranaya challenged artists and builders to come up with a modern fable.
The result, or at least the top of the iceberg, from a creative point of view, was unveiled last night at Space4Art in the form of the winning entry, 'Fleeting Captivities' by Lilia Artis and Haveit Neox.
This lovely construct is a 3D interpretation of their charming morality tale which exudes all the best values of Second Life, impossible climactic conditions, bridges over infinity, and unexpected friendships in the face of adversity. It's a must read, and if you do nothing else, TP over to and pick up a copy. But no, hang around a little longer on the sim, and try out Asmita's Destruction word-game-with-a-message. Looks like sinister fun.
Center stage is the build by Haveit and Lilia, who took their tale and fitted it into quite literally a 'space for art'. last night was the dance-filled vernissage, and Lilia read the story out in both German and English. She has a clear, bright delightful reading voice. It was like a sort of bizarro crap mariner event, put it that way.
I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
All those... moments will be lost... in time, like tears... in rain.
Time to die."
'Roy Batty', Blade Runner
Noke Yuiza has been busy in SL. You may have seen her latest build, showcased at the Brera sim, and you won't be blamed if you think that she's all about the stage. It comes as no surprise to find that in her real life she has been both dancer and choreographer, and, perhaps most significantly, as a set painter in the theater. You probably saw her interesting take on Hoffmann's The Sandman, hosted at Arte Libera a while back.
Noke's build takes to new heights the extreme conflation of real and virtual realities that's been the hallmark of Imparafacile Runo's work in SL / RL. Impa, as you know, has been running learning and cultural schemes in SL for ages. His group Libriamo Tutti is pure reality overlap. His able and talented team organize meetings where a RL audience, meeting in libraries in towns across Lombardy, can listen, see and participate alongside SL residents in literary evenings where books are discussed, read aloud, explained, and generally celebrated. Impa's longstanding friendship with Professor Giampiero Moioli of Milan's Brera Academy of Art, and a close collaboration with Simba Schumann, led to a recent RL seminar in which students were able to make a virtual field trip to three installations on the Brera sim. Each build is based on a literary work close to the artist's heart.
Sounds like you poor bastards stuck in SL have been having a bad week. Sorry to hear it. You really should try Open Sim. It's like Cloud Party only without the lameness and the capitalist imperative.
woo. Cloud Party. I may have to sit down.
Judging time for Machinima UWA!!
Funky, impossible, varied, sumptuous, distubing, crafty, vivacious, studied, memorable. Those are the ingredients one yearns for. And there's plenty of it this year - yum!!!
Having just watched all 51 entries, how to choose a top 10?
Everyone starts out with full marks. You lose points for the following no-no's:
What does this film convey to someone who's unfamiliar with SL? We may be used to the sight of cheesy avatars, cheapo clothes and clunky poses but it really doesn't fit the theme here: the excellence that places like UWA foster. Nor does a low frame rate, and crackly or corny audio content. Luckily, the quality is really high, this year. No points for ma-cringe-ma.
The ideal machinima makes its point in 3 minutes or less. The ones that are 10, 15 or even 30 minutes long are acts of clueless arrogance. Brevity is the soul of wisdom. Because, whatever you write in the comments, people are just going to skip ahead through your exaggeratedly soulful headshots.
Voice overs are bad, unless you're a poet with a lovely voice. Hypatia and Karima both come out brilliantly, while most of the others sound like middle aged school teachers. Unwise. Those penguins are plain annoying for content and quality. Kill them.
If you've not arrested our attention in the first 5 seconds, you didn't do it right. Don't ask your friends, you know they're going to lie to you. This batch of beauties include many that have you riveted from the start, not always an easy task with such an ethereal subject matter.
Big fancy logos followed by low production values are self defeating. You're not Lion's Gate or Pixar, and your ludicrous logo invites us to draw an unflattering comparison.
Quotable quotes that stay on the screen forever lose their thrust. (OK, most of them are ghastly truisms that lost their thrust before appearing on the screen.) The average person can read 5-6 words a second. In the aeons it takes for your quote to fade off the screen, the audience thinking: 'Should'a spent less time coming up with that fancy logo at the beginning, and more time in the editing suite.'
Machinima that are just about you, and not about the theme, get a zero, also, I'm creeped out by child avatars in any context, and Papyrus font.
There are dozens of judges in this competition, and as happened last year, my top 10 won't make a dent in the actual final result. So this is a suggestion of what you should see, if you don't have the 7 hours necessary to watch them all through to the bitter end.
Bear in mind, THERE'S A CASH PRIZE FOR THE MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC whose top 10 is closest to the Judge's overall list. So this should at least get you started!!
Don't forget to turn up at the UWA on August 6th at 6am SLT to see which, if any, get the big prize. I hope it's you. Tutsy Navarathna 's The Last Syllable of Recorded Time Tikaf Viper's Run Ram Arrow Inglewood's ? Lala Larix's The 3rd Eye and not really 'on theme' in a spiritual way, but the best businesslike,lively tour through the whole thing, capturing the spirit of the event in every way, is this little number by jjccc:
Art in Second Life may be undergoing some stress testing these days - no money means no art sims, unless you want to be swallowed alive by LEA, it seems. But never fear! Maya Paris is here to cheer and inspire us all to be more tickled pink and jazzy in our January outlook.
I've been transatlanticking this week, which has kept me busy, but not too busy to see this wonderfully dark and musical exhibit - with lots of freebies, of course, and costumes. What would a Paris build be without them? Snowbody Cortes took these lovely pictures.
Unlike good hair and good shoes, most top-flight art in SL is free. That doesn't mean you shouldn't help pay for it. There are lots of ways you can contribute to artists - Maya, for example, supports her work by selling beautiful fans - so show the Linden love to artists, as you do to the Musicians, dressmakers and cobblers all. It's time we all paid to play, don't you think? Le cactus is the Santa Barbara College venue for Maya's new work, but don't miss the Casino de Paris mini-version, on Virtual Montmartre, one of the richest sims in the Life. (Nish Mip's umbrella shop is there!)
You don't have to throw a banana on your head but if you did, just this once, don't you think it might be a laugh?
Looks like Wizzy 's having fun...
Turn up the volume,and get dancing. The music of Josephine Baker and Valaida Snow is guaranteed to delight, and you can't put your back out in vitrual worlds - so just let go. You'll be glad you did.
In four years of observing the artier parts of SL, despite the vast differences in ability, style, politics and approach of the artists here, it seems fair to say that the 99% put themselves first. There's spectacular variety - everything from screaming egotism, to strategic caution, to friendly reciprocity both inworld and in me-fest blogs- but self is the underlying theme. It's the way of the world, and fair enough, but every now and again it's nice to meet somebody in the 1%, a capable and talented artist who is keeping it real; who, quietly and without fanfare for herself, works to promote art in Second Life.
That's FreeWee Ling.
What's in a name: Freewee is not chinese, and people often conflate it to Freewing, which she rather likes, but you have to look at the whole name, the big picture, to understand. it says a lot about her. There's a lot to like. Here's her story FreeWee Ling: When I first came to SL, I was just bouncing around, experiencing everything. It was a bit of sensory overload, and way too much angst, at first. I decided I needed new friends, creatives doing positive things. I did a search for artists communities, and the first thing that came up alphabetically was Artemisia. I came here and met Zephyre Zabelin. She was a wonderfully creative and generous person, who people who interested her and invited them to live here. She gave me a really nice parcel with about 2K prims. I was blown away; I know how much it costs. We became good friends, and, when she had to leave SL for personal reasons, she gave me the sim. Of course then I had to figure out how to pay for it. I had a gallery here with changing exhibitions, and a core group of residents who helped pay the tier. I just charged them my cost. Eventually that all just couldn't be sustained anymore. I'm not good at recruiting, and people were having to leave for various reasons. So now it's just me and fiona Blaylock. Fiona rents half the sim and I'm spread out over the other half.
Her extensive lab is laid out on multiple levels. Little here is what she considers 'finished' - art is always a work in progress. In that spirit of moving with the times, she recently got hold of one of the LEA sims; it's a 5 month 'lease' with the possibility of renewal. Characteristically, she's not taken it on for herself, but rather, with a project in mind to support art in general. Freewee has documented all850+ entries from the last year, taking a phenomenal 443 pictures of the October round alone.
FreeWee Ling: I thought it was important to record what was done. Art is so ephemeral here. We need something to look back on and laugh at how seriously we took it all. My art? lol.. I don't really call it art. It's more experimentation. That's why I call this my laboratory. I've always had an affinity for all the arts. I grew up visiting art museums and going to concerts and plays and dance performances. I work professionally in support of arts and cultural organizations. Mostly using technology. I don't have that great physical dexterity. I can't be a musician, so I became a musicologist in RL. With art, it's the same thing. I have a good eye, but not such a good hand. So I use technology to help me.
FreeWee Ling: The avocado It was a gestalt of several things I was working on learning back then. I usually do my own scripting. I'm not an expert, but I can usually figure out how to do what I want.Particles, animated textures. Sound triggers. There are sensors in the floor. When you walk around they trigger the lightning and thunder. It;s fairly simple looking, but it used a lot of different skills. It was a good learning experience. I like the glowing portal. So that's a good example of an early piece.
FreeWee Ling: The hardest things I've made don't exist anymore. I led a team of about 20 artists in the Caerleon group in a collaborative project, and I built a rather large museum building for that, which I demolished at the end of the show. There's a cool video of the demolition on my website. It was spectacular, and led to my UWA full sim installation all about creative demolition, called Angry Gods.
The ambitious and complex Angry Gods build was an intense, and intensely satisfying experience. The sim was only available for a month, and it took her two weeks to put together the installation, the result of weeks of prep work. To work so very hard, only to have the install on show for two weeks really drove home the ephemeral nature of SL.
FreeWee Ling: Taking things down is the hard part. I do a lot of documentation. At UWA, I've taken nearly 3K photographs of the entries there over the last year.
This is her contribution to the Caerleon show ARCANA. Each artist got one of the cards from the pack, or 'Major Arcana', and FreeWee chose to turn her assignment, The Magician, into a diorama, with poses and a camera controller to frame the image, meaning that visitors can become part of the artwork. It was a great success and she has had lots of people send her photos of self inside the build. Avatar as art is, of course, central to her work and there's a whole wall of reminders at the Lab. As for dioramas...
FreeWee Ling: This one is probably one of my faves. From my series of pulp fiction book covers and vintage ads. I made the outfit and the pose and everything,. I also have a wearable version of the spaceman,, heehee.I have a whole series. Oh they're all based on real illustrations. Part of what makes all this experimental is that I'm often playing with ideas from other artists. Much of my stuff is derivative. I can often tell you specifically who influenced what. You should see my Barbarella!
I did!
Collaboration is key, for FreeWee, and she's grateful for the opportunities that have come her way. FreeWee Ling: Thanks to Sabrinaa Nightfire, I was brought in on the Interactive collaboration led by Artistide Despres, and the Caerleon group . Then I was working on the Identity Museum project with Sabrinaa, who was the team leader for that. When she became ill, it fell to me to complete it. It was a huge project and Sabrinaa would have done it much better. It was really a tribute to her. One thing led to another. FreeWee Ling: I had submitted work several times last year to the UWA competition. I would always hang around the gallery and look at the stuff seriously, and I'd engage JayJay in conversations about it. I have pretty strong opinions, but I can usually back them up. Although JayJay doesn't have an art background, and had not, at that time, spent so much time looking at things in SL, I really respected that he was willing to engage and learn, and he does have a good sense about things. He came to see the Caerleon museum. We had over 2K unique visitors to that show. Some time later, when Quadrapop decided she didn't want to be curator at UWA anymore, JayJay asked me if I'd be willing to do it. The timing was perfect. Working for UWA was not only a really cool job, but it allowed me to keep my sim. I was on the verge of losing Artemisia, and was looking for someone to take it over. I've been really blessed and honored to work with so many amazing artists there.
If you've voted at UWA recently, you'll have noticed the more streamlined voting system, which has been a great leap forward both for the general public, and behind the scenes. FreeWee Ling: The old system was a horror story. It was insanely difficult to keep up. By some miracle GeeJAnn Blackadder showed up and offered us a system she was developing as a commercial product. At no cost to us. We were her beta testers. And it was amazing. She made several changes that we wanted early on and it has worked flawlessly for us. I'm a strong supporter of the People's Choice process to get people to come engage in the art. I sponsored the awards during the first year out of my own pocket on behalf of the Artemisia community. It's been a great opportunity. I had a paper about it published in a Russian conference proceeding. And JayJay is looking into finding a publisher for the complete exhibition catalog of all 858 entries.
FreeWee with winning art: Daco Monday's fata danzante in the foreground.
In a way, she's UWA's 'fairy godmother', helping make it all happen behind the scenes, together with her boss Jayjay Zifanwe. Living on almost exactly on opposite sides of the world, 12 hours apart, works better than you'd think, as they both manage to be online around 9-12 morning and evening. That's handy because there's a lot to discuss, as you can imagine, with so many different things going on at any given time. FreeWee Ling: What happens every month is JayJay takes the pieces from the deposit box and puts things out, and I make adjustments. The November round had 99 entries, many of them were large, and the gallery was packed to the gills. After the awards each month, the winners get transferred over here to the Winthrop sim Winners Platforms. So most of this stuff has accumulated over the last year. But since the Grand Finale round has a separate category for nonscripted, I made this floor for that.
Iono Allen and UWA's JayJay Zifanwe
Having been on the jury for this year'sUWA Machinima competition, I got a little taste of how much work FreeWee must have to do. Just watching all the videos and keeping track of the best ones took time. The winning machinima didn't make my top 10, there was such variety and originality. As the crowd faded away at the grand Prizegiving ceremony, I asked these two handsome devils what FreeWee's work means for the art community. Iono Allen: It is very simple: without people like her, or Jayjay and others, who take from their time to organize things, SL wouldn't be what it is. I know I would not come anymore, a big lot of my machinimas have their source directly or indirectly at the UWA so - without these people? no machinimas! or at least, or not so much. Jayjay Zifanwe: FreeWee has been absolutely amazing. The time and thought she gives to each of the artworks is unmatched. The UWA 3D Open Art Challenge wouldnt be what it is without her. She is the 'silent sentinel'... who made it all happen !
FreeWee Ling: The future for FreeWee? Well, the UWA monthly challenges are over, but I still have the gallery. I'm planning to have some theme shows, I'll be announcing something for December. But I think the future is going to be mobile. Gridhopping. I like physics. The other grids are not good for the kind of work I do.They're supposed to be getting a hot physics engine in Inworldz. When they do it could be a game changer. I'm expecting virtual and real worlds to start merging. Augmented reality - I'll see you on the street with an overlay of your avatar. We won't be tied to our desktops or to any single grid. I like to think big :)
She's seen more avatars than probably anyone you know. This coming Tuesday, Gracie Kendal celebrates her 1000+ Avatar project with a big party at her studio on sim Coyote. It'll be an opportunity to both play and pay - if you purchase her book this week, there's a good chance you'll have it in time for Xmas. That's a lot of avies under the tree! Gracie's already in festive mode, with her baubled antlers. I had to ask - how does she feel about being a published author? Gracie Kendal: Haha stressed! No, it's been cool. As an artist, it is hard work getting your work out there. and this book is really a work of art rather than a written manuscript. It is mostly pictures, and there is a limited audience, so that is tough.
Marketing one's work is an art form too, and the new media have made it even harder to get the right balance between overkill and not saying enough. Does she feel like she's getting it right?
Well, I'm among the 99% who come into SL and then remember they don't have a mesh-enabled viewer and, at the end of an already long day, don't really have the time or inclination to go faffing about downloading Firestorm or (Lord help us) Viewer 3 - actually, wait, I do have Viewer 3, but no amount of wild horses or wicked art is going to make me open SL in that finger-fumbling, screen-blocking, fake-namery piece of shite.
Which is a bit ironic, as Eupalinos Ugajin's build at Split Screen is a meditation on the whole Occupy and 99% thingy. You miss out on the video, but you can get away with a normal viewer for most of the install, and it's a lot of fun. Keep the notecard open, you'll want to refer to it later. Here's the artist with Bryn Oh, and Split Screen owner and part time grouch, Dividni Shostakovich.
Eupa has a brilliantly weird avie, and isn't having any of it, with the whole 'I'm a fancy-ass artist' bs - this is all just an extension of long hours playing with Lego. Love it. I got this lucky action shot of Bryn trying out the rideable blocks being fired noisily into the atmosphere. Her avatar blended so well into the build I thought she was a bot to start with!
Ask Fiona Leitner what her pictures 'are', and she'll probably say something cryptic, like 'it's a square'. She's not being funny; unlike those dullards who paste a five-paragraph 'explanatory' notecard to their oeuvres, she realizes that the true experience of art is a lot like the experience of a good meal. You need to be left to sample and digest it on your own, without the cook hanging over you, describing what he was thinking about while he diced the chives. It's your meal now, and a yummy one at that.
She's a graphic artist in RL, and also an excellent cook. Fiona saw other people making art and selling it in shows, and thought it would be a fun way to make a little cash by making something people can enjoy. This one makes me think of Michelangelo through a blender: a sort of Sistine Chapel Smoothie.
Last Thursday was the first opening of the new artistic season at Piramide, the Italian gallery based on the Indire sim, and overseen by gallerista and fearsome firework maker, Lion Igaly. The gallery is bigger than ever this year (thanks LL for bigger prims!) and Lion has made that extra leeway work for him.
Lion Igaly: It's a fairly united group, we've been together for several years now; mostly Italians, but we also have the Italo-american Nino Vichan, from New York, who's been with the group since the beginning of 2010. His work is very nice, and has real feeling to it.
I liked this one, his other piece about pregnant women in jail is a bit alarming, but you can't help admire the attention to detail. He's among the eleven artists belonging to the Orions Tale group, chosen to contribute works - a total of twentyone pieces, including art by nessuno Myoo, who has two pieces...
... the intricately made (if unsnappily named)In the game of life we are as leaves in the wind...
... and the charming The Angel of Electric Waves.
Collaborator and cpf Kicca Igaly has her microscope on show, it was originally built for a Cancer Research event.
It's a lot like the effort made to inspire the art students from Milan's Brera Academy last year, over on Imparafacile Island. Nothing here is made using original sculpties, and the scripts are all off-the-peg, and you mightn't be blamed for thinking you could run most of this stuff up yourself, given a couple more hours of leisure during the working day. But that's kind of the point. It's no coincidence that those trees you see in the distance mark the edge of the Indire sandbox, where many of these artists rezzed their first prims.
Lion Igaly: I chose the works that seem most appropriate to the mission of Piramide. They're all artistic builds made entirely in Second Life; we sometimes have photographers, although this year there are none. I'm particularly interested in showing the public what it's possible to make, using the means available to everyone in this virtual world. I want to show the people working in the sand box next door what we're doing in terms of artistic scope, to encourage them to take up a career in art here in SL.
In the end, for sheer fun value, it's got to be Aloisio Congrejo's Flying inside colors. Walk into it and see what happens.
That 'avatar identity' stuff is largely pretentious twaddle, but I always think you can tell quite a bit from somebody's eyes. Writer and collector Maeve Eiren's are a limpid green, and speak of sometimes melancholy thoughtfulness wrapped in glassy strength.
You may remember her Celtic-themed sim, Skellig Medb, a storytelling land; when the sim had served its purpose she left the mainland, washing up on the 'focused and sane' shores of the Avalon Art region, where she enjoys the sense of community, the good services, and the people. Here at her parcel, Croi Amhain she has a glassy greenhouse in a leafy suburb. It's a different life, and she enjoys interacting with people on neighbouring parcels, and speaks with enthusiasm of the new project which will allow Avalon rsidents to show their private art collections in the Town Hall. Rowan Derryth's the chick with more info about that.
I never come to Avalon, so I was a bit laggy, but a few minutes fixed that. And the textures are worth the wait. Maeve has arranged the plants in a very conventional setting - a Victorian-style conservatory, complete with sprinkler system. Even though, of course,
It made Newbab a little mad, but, well, that's not cucumber-grade serious.
It's my first and last notice in the group. And before you say (although strangely, nobody is saying this) that it's harsh and unfair on poor old Chuck, firstly because he's far from being the only offender, and secondly because he did send out an apology, via ... Group Notice, I know all that. And sure, other names spring to mind; Vaneeesa somebody or other, a person called Monroe, who I think is a gallery owner, then of course, there's the spamalicious
Forget the lameassitude of Retrospectives, Predictions, and Top Ten Lists, and do something original.
Visit Little Rock.
It's new sim for a new year. NitroglycerinE artists Natsha Lemton and Loki Glas are working on a new environment. It's a sky-borne install which will be a big departure from the previous, oceanic incarnations of the Jardin deséphémères.
The full glory of the finished sim may not be ready yet, but you can still see plenty of Gallic glamour from this loving and creative couple; make an early visit to the ground level Gallery where Nat is putting out some of her best bits of 2D art. Among the 220 pieces that will eventually be on display, there are pictures - not portraits, exactly, but abstract 'histoires' inspired by ten of the people who have been most influential in her Second Life. We went to look at the one of Loki.
It's warm, dark, calm, and attractive, like the man himself, yet, this isn't the one Nat likes best; that honour is reserved for this piece of gorgeous greenery.
This is for Koad Sewell, whose beautiful sim Natsha admires very much. And the peacock theme? Is that a comment on Koad's personality? Both Loki and Nat laughed, and admitted he's something of a peacock, but in the best possible sense. The ten subjects haven't come to see the show yet, so some interesting reactions may await. Itinerant artist and herringmonger Scottius Polke, and cheetah aficionado Roy Scharfberg joined us to admire the pieces. Roy Scharfberg: I love to come here and look at Nat's art. It clears my mind and inspires me.
Lemton's art is bright without being overwhelming; canvasses move through fresh and vibrant colours in a way that is both striking and harmonious. It's been a labour of love, and the works on show have taken Natsha about a year to put together, between making the alphas and the regular textures; that's a lot of time swallowed up in the process of making art, but Loki wouldn't want it any other way. Loki Glas: We don't get a lot of time for playing and dancing in Second Life, but when I look at Nat's art, it is worth it!
Snowbody Cortes took these lovely pictures.
Le cactus is the Santa Barbara College venue for Maya's new work, but don't miss the Casino de Paris mini-version, on Virtual Montmartre, one of the richest sims in the Life. (Nish Mip's umbrella shop is there!)
One thing led to another.
I liked this one, his other piece about pregnant women in jail is a bit alarming, but you can't help admire the attention to detail. He's among the eleven artists belonging to the Orions Tale group, chosen to contribute works - a total of twentyone pieces, including art by nessuno Myoo, who has two pieces...
... the intricately made (if unsnappily named) In the game of life we are as leaves in the wind...
... and the charming The Angel of Electric Waves. 
In the end, for sheer fun value, it's got to be Aloisio Congrejo's Flying inside colors. Walk into it and see what happens. 
It's my first and last notice in the group. And before you say (although strangely, nobody is saying this) that it's harsh and unfair on poor old Chuck, firstly because he's far from being the only offender, and secondly because he did send out an apology, via ... Group Notice, I know all that. And sure, other names spring to mind; Vaneeesa somebody or other, a person called Monroe, who I think is a gallery owner, then of course, there's the spamalicious
