Avalon Collector's Circle

Many of us have lovely objects of art stashed away in our inventories, and they rarely get the chance to see the light of day. I extend thanks to Rowan Derryth for giving me the opportunity to share some of mine at an Avalon Collector's Circle exhibition at Avalon Art District Exhibition Hall.

The exhibition opens today, and we’ll have a little opening reception at 2 pm slt, so please stop by to join us. Featured artists include Rachel Breaker, Tyrehl Byk, Moriko Inshan, claudia222 Jewell, Ginger Lorakeet, Cherry Manga, Sextan Shepherd, Light Waves & Unreal McCoy, William Weaver and Gorgeous Yongho.

In addition to what’s on display, I toyed with setting out things by AM Radio, Soror Nishi, Scottius Polke (go right next door to see some of his things), Glyph Graves, Bryn Oh and others, but there’s only so much space in the gallery!

Sextan Shepherd’s pieces were part of his full-sim installation called Nemo, which began construction in March 2010 and closed all too soon in October of the same year. The two pieces in this exhibition were from the underground city and were found in Captain Nemo’s workshop. The textures on the wall to the back are also Sextan's. You can see some machinima I created of Nemo here.

Tyrehl Byk is a master of particles, and his open air performances aren’t to be missed. Click on this artwork, Aurora, to turn it on.

The glorious big black cat, created by Unreal McCoy and Light Waves of Rezzable, was part of the extraordinary full-sim installation Greenies, built in 2007. I have tremendously fond memories of that place.

Cherry Manga's delightful piece, Advice from a Caterpillar black and white, I believe I collected at a Mysterious Wave installation a couple years ago.

claudia222 Jewell’s piece was a gift to me a couple months ago, and was then also included as a gift to everyone at the closing of spirit at Art Screamer just a week ago (instant depreciation haha!). I had already set it out in the exhibition here, and I love its many levels of detail.

William Weaver has created a revolution in light among Second Life photographers, and I selected three images that are all quite different. The middle one is of me, taken recently at his exhibition at Art India Gallery.

Another photographer whose work I greatly admire is Gorgeous Yongho, and she provided this image expressly for this exhibition. Probably more thought of as a fashion photographer, she has a keen eye for portraiture and composition.

Moriko Inshan creates all sorts of lovely objects, and I smiled when I came across her simple but beautiful three-dimensional pieces. Of this one, she “Three-dimensional piece embellished with flexi-banners, cat silhouette and sculpted feed sacks. Post-processing of original photo, captured at Zaara sim, accomplished through hand blending, lighting and raised filter techniques.”

Ginger Lorakeet’s art invites you to become part of the art object, and this piece is among my favorite of hers. It’s simple yet delightful. (Sit on it and see what happens.)

And Rachel Breaker’s work is just plain crazy. I love things that make me laugh. I'm not sure everyone would consider this “art”—but to me everything in Second Life is art.

Enjoy. And thanks to PJ Trenton for the cool poster.

The LEA Art Sandbox

Where do starving artists go to rez their art? Why, to the LEA Art Sandbox, of course. It's an interesting place (LEA standing for the Linden Endowment for the Arts) to nose about and see who's doing what, and the artwork turns over at a fairly rapid pace. The north side of the sim is more of a true sandbox, and the south side is a Self-Curated Gallery (recently subject to some infamous sit-ins (rez-ins?) by my friend SaveMe Oh, much to the chagrin of sandbox administrators).

A lot of it's junk (just like the arts in real life!), but once in a while I spot something interesting. Most of the time the artwork is by people with whom I'm not familiar, and I enjoy seeing new things. If you'd like to rez something of your own there, go right ahead—joining the LEA Sandbox group is free and enables you to keep your objects rezzed there for a while.

Origami at LOL

I always enjoy stopping by the region LOL (and who couldn't, with a name like that?) to see what's happening. Now, on about a quarter of the sim, pallina60 Loon has created a delightful installation with origami. As pinwheels turn in the Second Life wind, cranes fly overhead, lanterns drift in the breeze and the gentle sound of water fills the air, you can enjoy, as she puts it, the “quiet and romantic Zen garden where you can spend your time in the company of those you love.” There are poseballs set out for dancing or relaxing with a companion.

If you take delight in these simple yet beautiful objects, they're yours for the having, because they can be purchased as well: flying lanters, origami pinwheels, origami butterflies, origami crane and origami boats, all very affordably. Don't miss the other fun things scattered about the sim as well!

Rachel Breaker

in•sane |inˈsān|
adjective
in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction; seriously mentally ill; rachel breaker.

Oh, I did mean that in most complimentary of ways. I love and appreciate insanity, and if you do as well you're certainly going to be a fan of Rachel Breaker (if you're not already).

I mean, let's suppose you're looking for a bazooka that shoots flowers, or a 27 prim house in the shape of a strawberry, or an absurd looking helmut with whirling parts and lots of silly sounds. Then Rachel's stuff is tailor made for you. (A big item at the moment seems to be a pair of dueling tanks, one that shoots mustard and one that shoots ketchup.)

I first encountered Rachel's work a couple years ago at Lemondrop's Forest, a delightful sim created by Lemondrop Serendipity and Photon Pink. That great place is now gone (although according to Photon could be re-rezzed at the drop of a hat if space permits), but I grabbed all sorts of goodies from Rachel's little shop there, and if you're curious you should head to her main store at in the sim Off The Wall. (Check her profile for other locations.)

Is this art? I'd say so, and I'm about to stick some of it in an exhibition I'm curating. And I love it.

The Cube Project

Ah, the lowly cube. A simple prim, we rez them and delete them without much thought. But gems in the rough they are, and lovely they can be when treated with care. Right now, twenty of the Linden Endowment for the Arts sims are covered with cubes in a sprawling artwork called The Cube Project, curated by Bryn Oh. It's a short term exhibition, only up until September 1st, so don't delay!

I can't recall a time when a singular work cut across so many regions. There's no beginning or end here—no linearity—and each sim has its own environment settings, so be sure to actually move into them rather than cam around. (And several regions need media turned on as well.)

In addition to Bryn Oh, the featured artists include Cajska Carlsson, Charlotte Bartlett, Dancoyote Antonelli, Haveit Neox, Kicca Igaly, L1Aura Loire, Lapiscean Liberty, London Junkers, Misprint Thursday, Maya Paris, Nessuno Myoo, Oberon Onmura, PatriciaAnne Daviau, Pol Jarvinen, Rag Randt, Rowan Derryth, Sea Mizin, Secret Rage, Remington Aries, Solo Mornington, Tony Resident, Tyrehl Byk, Werner Kurosawa and Xineohp Guisse.

The Great Wall of China

Amiryu Hosoi has announced that she may be forced to close down her four sims—Japan Kansai, Japan Kanto, Japan Chubu and China Sichuan—because of declines in revenue. It's never good to hear such news, especially as her firm, Hosoi Ichiba, uses its funds to keep up these sims. One which many residents have visited over the years—despite the Japanese orientation of the surrounding sims—features the Great Wall of China.

Of course, one can't build the entire Great Wall of China in a single sim, but it's a beautifully rendered place. I'm not sure one could call the sim "state of the art" these days, with the advent of mesh and more advanced builds sprouting up, but it's important to appreciate these older (and often venerated) gems. Visit the adjoining sims to see sites such as Matsumoto Castle, and be sure to visit Amiryu's shop to lend some support.

Jo Ellsmere, Pyewacket Kazyanenko and Giovanna Cerise at Split Screen

Before the month of August winds down, take time to venture over to Split Screen, curated by Dividni Shostakovich, for two exhibitions—Pardon Our Zeitgeist by Jo Ellsmere and Pyewacket Kazyanenko, and Synesthesia by Giovanna Cerise.

Pardon Our Zeitgeist, shown in the top two images, is a remarkable automated performance that repeats every 15 minutes. Using two characters, the work explores online communication and relationships, but what's really amazing to me is the level of detail in the movement that Jo and Pye were able to capture.

Synesthesia is, as one might expect, a powerfully colorful artwork. Giovanna mentions both the work of Kandinsky and Scriabin as central to the piece. Knowing the impact synesthesia had on Scriabin (and other composers, notably Messiaen), I anticipated something where sound and color were on equal footing, and found myself a bit frustrated trying to clearly hear all the local sounds in this installation. Towering above is a Promethean figure—be sure to get up all the way to the very top. If you'd like to read more about both these pieces, head over to Dividni's blog, where you'll find links to excellent reviews by Quan Lavender and arklo.

Dreaming machine #1

I've been terribly neglectful blogging about the many marvelous creations on some of the LEA sims, and now quite a few will close on the 15th to make way for new installations. One of my favorites among them is Yooma Mayo's Dreaming machine #1 on LEA 15. Yooma, who remarks that she was born on May 29th, 2007, and arrived in a sandbox on May 30th, 2007, has created a beautiful space here that towers up above the watery foundation.

As she puts it, these might be machine-like creatures or might be creature-like machines, and they inhabit a dreamy environment of contradictions. Don't miss it, and also head over to the LEA blog for a list of some of the other sim-wide art installations that will end tomorrow, several of which I've written about the past few months.

Crystall Dunes

Neva Crystall sure knows how to create a gorgeous sim, and she's opened her home for all to see, but you need to hurry—Crystall Dunes is open to the public only until August 8th. Wendy Xeno, the creator of HuMaNoiD who worked with Neva on the lovely sim Neva River, contributed the beautiful dune landscaping.

If you love water sims or beaches, this place is going to take your breath away, and it's a superb location for photography. I'll get around to posting some images on my flickr stream soon (and you can click on these to zoom in). Thanks to Neva for opening her doors and allowing us to see this enchanting little world.

Black Kite

Yesterday I stopped by Black Kite for the first time in ages, and fell in love with the place all over again. Designed and owned by black cloud (theblackcloud Oh), it's perfect for photography or wandering (black cloud's home on the northeast corner is no doubt off limits), and I love the new windlight settings here—be sure to at least be in high if not ultra graphics with your draw distance up.

It's a water sim—you can walk about anywhere or just stroll on the boardwalks. The skyline is articulated by a lone black kite flying overhead, a water tower leaning precariously on the southeast corner. Absolutely charming little structures are dotted around the sim—my favorite is the one with the mitarashi dango and tea set out to enjoy. I'll be posting some images on my flickr stream.