In it for the Monet: SL Giverny

Je compris là le pouvoir fabuleux de la
peinture.

Kandinsky, On seeing a Monet, 1910

La versione italiana è in basso....

Plenty of ugly in my life recently, as I've been struggling with the Curse of Ruth. Yuck! The only upside of it was that I read Siri Woodget's blog on the subject ... what a great read. Anyhoo, you all know I love flowers (hint hint) and so I found the perfect spot to recuperate from being hit with SL's ugly stick. I went to SL Giverny, a recreation of the village in France made famous first by impressionist painter Monet and later by the many American and English painters who lived there in order to be close to the artist. There is little evidence to show Monet was impressed by his transatlantic fan base, but I was very impressed by what Kate Robbiani, Soleil Snook, and Omicron Llewellyn have made here. I met Soleil in the garden, in RL she's a professional fund raiser originally from the Pacific Northwest, a textile artist by avocation and an avid gardener currently living in Britain: here in the metaverse she's a gallic gal with the beret to prove it.

Soleil Snook: I was intrigued by the idea of using Second life to express Beauty. It is a subjective idea, but each person knows beauty when they see it, a visceral response, and the French Impressionists do that for me. I wanted to create something that was like walking in a painting, and I see gardening as a way of painting with plants. Giverny is a beautiful place in Real Life, and combines all the things I love, gardening, art, architecture and character of place. My friend and sim-sharer Kaye Robbiani built and owns Ville de Giverny, a residential sim next door. She has used some great photo representations for her replica buildings, like the historic Hotel Baudy where so many American artists stayed - and where SL residents can now stay too.

This is what the hotel looks like in SL... In the Village, Giverny Church (shown in the Italian bit) and Monet's house (in the next picture) are fairly authentic, although the inside of the house is one big room, for the sake of practicalities.
In 1883 Monet and his partner Alice Hoschedé moved into the farmhouse, seven years later, Monet was financially secure enough to be able to buy the property and, on the other side of what at that time was a farm track and is today a road busy with tourist traffic, start digging his lily pond at the end of the garden. The house has a deceptively humble appearance: among the illustrious guests who visited here were Cézanne, Rodin, Mary Cassat, and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. Monet saw out the Great War in London, and travelled extensively around Europe, but this small house on the river Epte was his home for 43 years.
Soleil Snook: We tried to terra-form in a way that captures the lie of the land around Giverny and looked to paintings by Monet for the orchard, the sea walks, fields and hay stacks. My partner Omicron Llewellyn and I have hand-drawn textures from RL photos to create something SL-consistent that draws inspiration from the actual place. To copy it verbatim wouldn't be in keeping with the spirit of art: the Giverny of Second Life is Omicron Llewellyn's and my 'impression' of Giverny. The new Bistro is of course our own, and the notes to and from Claude Monet are a whimsical touch, as is the Perbiatium Conservatory for Tropical Plants, with our own version of the Loch Ness Monster! You can see my attempt at photographing the timid wee beastie further down. Soleil has added another element linking the virtual with the real, making her Giverny experience all the richer I think. She follows the offical RL Giverny Garden Calendar as much as possible and features whatever is growing in the RL Garden of Giverny on any given month. She also plans to revamp the Monet house by adding more Japanese elements. Monet was a huge fan of Japanese art, it seems. See, you learn something new every day. I wondered what was the hardest thing to make for Giverny, and what part Soleil likes best.
Soleil Snook: Gosh, the hardest thing is to keep it fresh and beautiful with plants in their seasons. Keeping the whole place active and alive, and growing an active artisan community that is thriving. The Lily Pond is as close as I could make it to the Real one, including the rotation of plants with the seasons. Fighting Alpha issues has got to be the most frustrating thing. My favorite places in Giverny are the Lily Pond and The Perbiatium Conservatory, because they are colourful, which to me means Beautiful. I smiled, and tried to Google 'Alpha issues' - seems to be something to do with problems in getting textures transparent, but I could be wrong. I have no technical skills, as you know, hello ruthed for a week, mostly due to my unlimited pension for not reading instructions of any kind, plus the shops on the sim distracted me. I wondered aloud how important the commercial side is to Soleil's idea of the Sim Beautiful.
Soleil Snook: Giverny evolved around my first garden center in Caledon, and Kaye who combined open sims with me to create this place, owned a furniture shop. It's beauty that interests us, not financial gain. The sim is commercial, but we attract and keep merchants who are first artisans in their chosen work in SL. By supporting artists we enable them to continue to bring to Second Life the very best of what is offered. Artists in RL let alone SL can not survive on air. It's interesting to speculate on how someone like Monet would have used Second Life. If it had been around in his time, I think he'd have used it to build on what he had already created, I don't think that he would have become photo - realistic. I think he would have pushed the limits of the medium as he did in Real Life. He kept busy, and so do we, for example in October we will have the Festival Autumne de Giverny, which will be music, art, plants, clothing, a French themed celebration of the Harvest. We'll feature the sculpture of Martini Discovolante in the main square. We have Weekly Live Concerts again with Prog Folk Duo Pillowfish and guitarist Jean-Christophe Chevalier, who lives in the RL Giverny area. You can join our group on the sim, it's a subscribomatic easel and won't take a slot in your groups.

There's plenty to do at Giverny. You can row with your loved one on the Seine river, (boats supplied if that's the kind of rowing you prefer) and drive around in an Oldsmobile from the 1800's, or you can shop for plants and pretties, or pose for a picture by Monet's haystacks, or walk by the ocean, or get married in the chapel. You can play the sword game, En Garde, or simply sit by the lily pond and form an impression or two of your own.
Thirza Ember: Your Giverny is lovely. If you were able to visit a similar sim dedicated to another artist, author or musician, who would you pick and why?
Soleil Snook: My favorite American Artist is Georgia O'Keefe. She pushed all the boundaries of the time, in her art and her life. Her use of color is amazing to me. The first time I saw a real live Georgia O'Keefe painting at the Art Institute in Chicago tears came into my eyes, it was so extraordinarily beautiful. I think what Kate Miranda is doing with classical music on Cedar Island is wonderful.. She really does it for the love of Classical music and for the artists and audiences.
Next stop Cedar Island, then, for me... let's hope I manage to lose Ruth in the ether.

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Molto brutto questo periodo, in SL per me, afflitta del 'Ruthismo' avevo gran bisogno di immergermi nel Bello... e l'ho trovato presso il giardino del grande pittore impressionista Claude Monet. Non serviva prendere ancora un'altro benedetto aereo in Real - basta con i viaggi lunghi per un po' - ho potuto visitare casa sua, il suo famoso giardino pieno di giochi di prospettiva, e il bellissimo lago con le ninfee, ma non solo, anche il paesino di Giverny dove molti pittori statunitensi, discepoli di Monet, hanno stabilito una colonia; inoltre, ho potuto fare una passeggiata sulla spiaggia immaginaria dei suoi quadri, e nel frutteto della sua fantasia - il tutto grazie, naturalmente, a Second Life SL Giverny. Creazione di tre bravi builders, Kate Robbiani, Soleil Snook, e Omicron Llewellyn, Giverny in SL è arte, storia, giardinaggio, e shopping, tutti all'insegna della Bellezza.Soleil Snook: Per me la Bellezza è fondamentale, un sentimento viscerale quanto soggettivo. Ho voluto utilizzare SL per dare un senso di ciò che io trovo bello - i colori vivaci e la sensualità dell'impressionismo. Sono appassionata sia dell'arte che del giardinaggio in RL, e in SL ho cominciato da subito a creare e vendere textures di fiori e piante nella zona di Caledon, i sim che ricordano il periodo nel novecento. Da qui nasce l'idea di portare nel metaverso la casa e il lago delle ninfee di Monet. Abbiamo voluto adoperare due tecniche diverse nella land: textures fotorealistiche e altre che sono elaborate su una base autentica ma che sono disegnate a mano per adeguarsi alle esigenze e lo stile di Second Life. Se vogliamo, un'impressione della casa di Monet e dintorni, anziché una replica fedele, anche se molte strutture, come ad esempio la Chiesa, sono molto vicine alla realtà, e abbiamo seguito con la nostra terra-forming, un senso del paesaggio francese.

Ecco l'interno della casa dell'artista: come si vede, non è divisa in stanzette, come quella vera. Qui tra poco una novità, aggiungiamo dell'arte giapponese, molto amato da Monet. Il pittore visse per oltre 43 anni in questa semplice casa di campagna, ebbe come visitatori alcuni dei grandi del mondo dell'arte e della politica tra i quali Cezanne, Rodin, Mary cassat e il premier francese Georges Clemeceau. troverai che anche SL Giverny è u luogo molto ospitale e romantico. Qui puoi fare un giro in una vecchia Oldsmobile, fare lo shopping per piante e quadri, passeggiare sulla riva del mare ispirato sempre dai quadri di Monet, o osservare il laog delle ninfee. Soleil si impegna a mantenere il sim secondo le stagioni e aggiorna regolarmente sia lil laghetto che i fiori nel giardino seguendo il Giverny Garden Calendar. Ci sono molti tocchi autentici ma anche elementi fantasiosi di Soleil, ad esempio Nessie, il mostro marino di Loch Ness,vive qui, perché Soleil attualmente vive in scozia. Anche il bistro è pura loro invenzione. Non manca la musica a Giverny, si esibiscono regolarmente Pillowfish e chitarrista francese - anzi giverniano - Jean-Christophe Chevalier, basta premere sul cavaletto subscribomatic per abbonarsi al gruppo e ricevere notizie. Troverai qui anche il gioco di scherma En Garde e ci sono battelli a remi per chi vuole andare sull'acqua. nella chiesa è possibile sposarsi e difatti il posto è molto romantico, con le ninfee e i cigni, ma essendo sola, quale posto più bello di questo, sulla riva d'un mare metaversale, a contatto con le onde irrequiete quanto questa viaggiatrice. Per un attimo, ho creduto d'aver avvistato il mostro nessie... ma non ho fatto intempo a fotografarlo. Sarà stato solo una mia impressione...

Light touch: the art of Feathers Boa

As you have already realized, I've been out of SL for a little bit. Thanks for popping by the blog in my absence, and hopefully next week Thirza will be all over the metaverse... one thing I plan on seeing firsthand, as soon as I am back, is the art of Feathers Boa at her gallery on sim Esterhal. She very kindly took a few minutes out of her hectic schedule to talk to me earlier this week. Here's what happened when we talked...

She came inworld, like so many of us, at the suggestion of a friend, and at first says she didn't really get it.; she just looked around and explored. Then someone suggested she import some of her student work "and that was the beginning for me. I was hooked. I wanted to do something unique with my art though, using SL as a medium to develop my art and explore new techniques and styles."

Is this the 'real' Feathers?

Feathers Boa: When I first came to SL,I made it a challenge to recreate the 'real' me in a virtual world, with some enhancements. In RL, I am very petite, like a feather, one burst of wind and I would flutter away. So my avie is what I'd be like if I could change everything I dislike about RL me. My look is a patchwork of designers. It changes almost as much as my art does. I created the shape I have now and made two avatars which I gave away at a few of my opening shows. I made a lil robot avie which is an avatar version of the giant robot on Caerleon Art Collective. People seem to love him and I made a female robot too. He brings out the mischief in people. I also made a Living Canvas avatar where you become a work of art all framed and ready to hang on a wall. That is available at Studio 33 for free.

I wondered how she finds time for so many creative endeavours in RL and SL.

Feathers Boa: I admit I spend way too much time in SL. I love it because here I can be much BIGGER in than in RL. I am very very shy - but SL brings me out of my shell. Also, my childhood was a bit rough, foster care etc. That makes me a little fearful I guess. But in SL I can be anything I want. This freedom is intoxicating, even addictive. I have so many friends and activities that at times, it can be overwhelming. Balance is important. As freeing and powerful as SL can be for a creative person, it also can be a huge source of anxiety. The bugs and log-in issues, lag etc. can drive me crazy if I let it. I am not really a tech person. I love SL because building with primitives is very intuitive and loose. Which is also part of the frustration. The controls are weird and things behave in odd ways. Things that are easy in 3D programs outside of SL are hard inside SL. Or maybe it's my own lack of skill. That said, I am no programmer but I do manage to build and program in SL. So it is easy for a dumb creative like myself to tap into the power of SL. My friends and socializing is what keeps me sane when I wanna throw a brick at a Linden.

The building experience can be so intense and enjoyable I wondered how she reacts to her own completed art.

Feathers Boa: After I make something I have a moment where I am so relieved to have finished that I stand back and go "nice!" Then, almost immediately, I start criticizing it. But I leave it out there and let others enjoy or hate it. "Disillusionary Optics" is a defining work. It moves around you and plays from many angles. The colors are soft and fragile and I do like the texturing. Another one would be "Frigid." I was feeling trapped at that time in my life. I felt like my heart and my body was encased in cold hard ice. People seem to go "wow" when they see it because they never expect the canvas to come to life. Some of my darker works like "Illusive Dreamer" and "Into the Darkness" represent times in my life that were so hard, and yet people seem to be drawn to them. One work which is never shown now, but I have been told is very emotional: "Witch Hunt." It's a nude self portrait in 3D, I am bound to a stake with swirling imagery from the Salem witch trials behind me. As the viewer approaches, they actually cause flames to begin to burn and consume me. I showed it once or twice, but reactions were so strong that I stopped. On one side, people seemed to understand the depth of feeling and sadness, while others found it lurid and trashy. Someday I make do a whole show around this work. Who knows?
I asked Feathers about her favourite galleries inworld.
Feathers Boa: I love Crossworlds. My work is on the second and sixth floor there, and on the ground floor at Studio 33, and at NMC Campus West - The Aho museum. But my work is turning up all over the place now which is flattering, but also disconcerting. I will be somewhere and someone will say "Hey, isn't that your picture?" I seem to have been collected by a lot of people I guess...My favorite place right now for my work is Caerleon Art Collective where I have my workshop. It is great to have so many great artists-residence all around me, like Alizarin Goldflake, Aristide Despres, Banrion Constantine, Bryn Oh, Glyph Graves, four Yip, luce Laval, Nonnatus Korhonen, Pete Jiminy and Ub Yifu . The curator of the 3 sims, Georg Janick, is a professor in RL at my university U MASS. Each one is spectacular in their own way and are an inspiration for me. My siteI on the web hosts a lot of my pieces, and have my own gallery now on sim Esterhal and I will soon be hosting up and coming artists! Which makes me proud and excited.
The artist's creative process always fascinates me, I asked Feathers how she works.

Feathers Boa: It sometimes takes weeks to complete a work from concept to finished piece. Other times it takes a matter of hours, depending on the idea or the techniques I'm using. In RL I paint and draw and do some photography, in the digital world I drift like crazy between programs like Painter X, Photoshop, Gimp and 3D stuff like Vue 7, Cinema 4D, ZBrush etc. I see something and I want to try it. Or I dream something and I want to make it. Sometimes I get ideas in a flash and sometimes they build over time.I read a lot and that sometimes gives me ideas. What I see is probably the biggest thing. It could be a work of art or even some texture formed by accident on a wall in a city. Sometimes it's a fleeting glance of a person. I saw this really beautiful face in an airport one time and I went home and immediately painted her as best I could from memory.

ArtsParks is devoted to promoting the work of artists in SL, particularly creating spaces that celebrate works that inspire us from RL - letting our fellow residents glimpse perhaps for the first time the wonders that feed our creativity, by building artistic spaces, or Arts parks, to illustrate and interpret their poems, paintings, music and sculpture. Who whould Feathers celebrate?

Feathers Boa: Well there are some obvious ones: Michaelangelo, Van Gogh, Dali, Mary Cassat, all the pre-Raphaelites, Monet, Rothko. But mostly my inspiration is drawn from films. I love silent era films and German expressionism, Blade Runner, Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles. I love the work of Pablo Neruda and his poetry makes into my work all the time. If I had to pick one influence to do a tribute to, it would be him. Everything I see and feel and read makes its way into what I make. I don't know how else to put it.

In the zone(s)

It was about noon SLT when I got inworld today and did my usual double-take *what on earth am I wearing?* as I went through my pile of IMs and group messages. Moments later, I got a tp to go to Tanalois for a concert with guitarist extraordinaire rokkemasky Rolls. I'd never heard him before, boy is he good. He sang many songs in Italian, some wonderful numbers by Lucio Battisti, Fabrizio de Andre, and my personal favourite, Claudio Baglioni, and then surprised me by having an excellent diction with some Mark Knopfler, a bit of Beatles among others. If you like music from the 60's 70's and beyond, or if you think Italian music is all mandolins, you should definitely join his group which shares its name with the Rasky Club, is his usual hangout. Tonight - in Italy it was already 9 pm - he was doing an improvised after-dinner concert at the beachfront club of Aloisio Congrego and Tani Thor. Tani has made the sim lovely with both art exhibitions, a Tai Chi garden and lots of sand, so do explore while you're on sim Gemini Isle. Rokke shared with us some reminiscences of his youth, how the guitarist doesn't always get the girl, and how even if he does, his mind must always at least partly be on the safety of his instrument...

As rokke finished, I remembered that I had been planning on going over to see Votslav Hax's new sculpture garden (OK he sent me about a million reminders too, which helped me get the idea) at Pat O'Brien's - or more specifically the riverside garden just outside Pat's. Here's the TP (*oh yeah because my TP links always work*). Suddenly, it was lunchtime again! I had forgotten it was Vot's famed Sunday Brunch concert - what a treat to TP into the French Quarter and hear the dulcet tones of Prowess Rayna. She was talking about some life philosophy when I first arrived, which had me slightly puzzled, then suddenly, her fingers hit the keyboard and ...wow. As you can see from the photo down in the Italian bit, she's no wallflower; she played a number of her own composititions, really beautiful pieces. "I put a lot of my energy and my feelings, often painful feelings, into my pieces," she told us as she finished her original tune Thorny Glove. Her pain distilled into our listening pleasure.

As usual, the walls of Pat's were graced with good art, this week it's the turn of Wolk Writer whose paintings are just beautiful. You can see and buy the art inside the club, and you'll find a notecard with her biography on it just outside the building.

Outside is where I was, looking over the gaily coloured sculptures by another SL artist, White Lebed (Great Lindens above, some of these surnames are one double-entendre away from a French farce) whose work runs along the riverbank with the mossy cliffs of Gibson Island forming a pastel backdrop that set off her pieces a treat. Don't miss the show, and remember, the art at Pat's changes every two weeks. Brunch and supper, all in an hour or so? Time for some more toast, I think...Arrivata in metaverso a mezzogiorno SLT, ho avuto appena il tempo di pormi la solita domanda "ma cosa ho addosso? Non mi ricordo d'essermi vestita così ieri!!" e di leggere un po' d'IM e notice, quando mi arriva un TP per un concerto di rokkemasky Rolls. E un chittarista straordinario, ci ha fatto sentire un po' di Battisti, de Andre e Claudio Baglioni. Poi ha cantato anche in inglese, devo dire molto bene, un pezzo di Mark Knopfler io da sempre grandissima fan di Dire Straits puoi immaginare quanto mi è piaciuto. Era la prima volta che ho assistito a un concerto di rokke, non sarà l'ultima. Lui suona al suo locale Rasky Club che è anche il nome del suo gruppo in SL, abbonati per avere le sue notizie. Il concerto a Tanalois su sim Gemini Isle era una dopo-cena improvvisata sotto le stelle sulla riva del mare, sul palco costruito dalla bravissima Tani Thor. Ma la vostra Thirza non si ferma mai... Mentre ascoltavo rokkemasky, mi sono ricordata del nuovo parco d'arte sul sim French Quarter, accanto al famoso locale Pat O'Briens. Votslav Hax ha da pochi giorni inaugurato questa iniziativa, dando spazio sul prato lungo il fiume del sim a opere d'arte più grandi, le sculture che magari non possono essere esposti nell'interno del club. Arrivando col TP sulla strada davanti a Pat's ho sentito il pianoforte di un'altra artista bravissima, Prowess Rayna. Prowess ha suonato alcuni sue composizioni originali tra le quali il mio pezzo preferito Thorny Glove. Ecco l'artista in ...primo piano. Sulle pareti di Pat's c'erano i quadri d'una pittrice di grande talento, Wolk Writer è consigliabile passare presto per vedere i suoi quadri e magari comparne uno... le mostre cambiano ogni due settimane quindi non aspettare troppo a lungo. Naturalmente a New Orleans, era ora di pranzo, e infatti l'esibizione di Prowess faceva parte del concerto 'brunch' un'appuntamento da non perdere a Pat's ogni domenica verso l'ora del pranzo... ora SLT. L'idea di pranzo dopo un dopo-cena mi ha lasciato un po' confusa e molto affamata... Uscendo da Pat's, accanto all'ingresso troverai anche un note con la biografia dei vari artisti, sono interessanti perché conoscere la storia dell'arte la fa davvero vivere. Io sono uscita perché volevo vedere da vicino le sculture di White Lebed. Come vedi sono di colori sgargianti molto divertenti e vivaci, ringiovaniscono il lungofiume, mi sono piaciuti molto. Brunch, pranzo, cena, non importa quale pasto si mangia, nel metaverso l'appetito per l'arte rimane sempre appagata!