Joy of Steampunk Museum

I just love steampunk stuff, and I still greatly miss Sextan Shepherd's brilliant Nemo sim, so it's always fun to go visit the Joy of Steampunk Museum, curated by Knowledge Tomorrow. This sim-wide museum contains a remarkable collection of work by many of Second Life's finest, and it's beautifully designed.

The list of creators (some no longer active in SL) is so extensive I'm sure I'm likely to have omitted someone by accident, so I hope I don't offend anyone by omission, but I've seen works by Sidney Arctor, Parrish Ashbourne, Bojax Baroque, Rebeca Bashly, Lexx Bondar-Foehammer, Fire Broono, Canolli Capalini, Chewie Cinderflame (Chewie Quixote), JonyBlade Codesmith, Jenne Dibou, Penny Dreadful (Gothicmuse), Loki Eliot, Leyla Firefly, Mick Huet, Thomus Keen, Zwagoth Klaar, Grey Kurka, Aminom Marvin, Dare Munro, Moses Mureaux, Doctor Obolensky, Oriolus Oliva, Daallinii Rae, Aisuru Rieko, Noddington Schmooz, Sextan Shepherd, Nightshade Sixpence, Spartacus (Research Projects), Amber Talamasca, էɧȝԾ (Theoretical Chemistry), Knowledge Tomorrow, Kyris Upshaw, Albus Weka, Pandora Wrigglesworth, Rip Wirefly and 3of9 (Lex Mars).

Do be sure to venture into the buildings (containing some excellent documentary photos, and also items for sale by some of the creators), and by all means into the tunnels, which lead you into a subterranean world below. Also, going on right now is the "Steam7" hunt, which takes you to some fun locations you might not otherwise spot—and you'll collect items by Albus Weka, Sextan Shepherd, Shigeko Tachikawa, Ceejay Writer, Nightshade Sixpence, Noddington Schmooz, Lexx Bondar and Rebeca Bashly. Oh, and leave a tip of course!

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.