Month: June 2020

Currently open at the Carmel Art Community, is the Carmel Summer Art Fair, organised by Martha and Robert McFarren. It features an open-air display of art along the Carmel seafront road, offering visitor the opportunity to appreciate the art on display and pop into the local beach-side shops.

The festival is interesting in that it comprises Art from Robert McFarren and his guests, and five headline artists who were in turn given the opportunity to invite – if they wished – up to two artists each whose work they appreciate, to also exhibit two pieces of their own work.

This means the overall line-up is as follows:

• Robert McFarren: CybeleMoon, Michel Bechir; John Huntsman, Tempest Rosca-Huntsman, Kisma Reidling, Secondhand Tutti, Viktor Savior, Anouk Lefavre and Pavel Stransky.
• Raging Bellls: Dhyezel Ravenhurst and Kody Meyers.
• Seiko Blessing: Micki Blessing and yours truly.
• Bliss Enchantment.
• Bubbles Song: Mara Telling and Lynx Luga.
• Nils Urqhart Aneli Abeyante and Terra Merhyem.

Given the number of artists participating, the art on display presents a broad mix of styles and approaches. The focus does lean towards landscapes, but there is still a fair and attractive mix of work.

Alongside of the art festival, the Carmel Art and Crafts features an exhibition of Alps photography by Nils Urqhart, and the garden pavilion a further exhibition by  John and Tempest Rosca-Huntsma. All of which makes for an ideal visit for any lover of art in Second Life.

As one of the invited artists, I’d like to thank Seiko for inviting me to join her at the festival; it is an honour and pleasure to be able to do so.

SLurl Details

• Carmel Summer Art Fair (McFarren, rated Adult)

Long-term Second Life resident DimiVan Ludwig – Dimi to his friends – is a man of many talents: business owner, musician and photographer. As a business owner, he created and ran the Hummingbird Café between 2006 and 2011, and is also the owner of the Duval Pub. As a musician, he was a regular performer at both, and at venues across SL, including Menorca, the first live music venue in Second Life (2005) and recently re-created in-world.

As a photographer, DimiVan works both in the physical and digital worlds, and his work from both is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Kultivate Signature Gallery.

The introduction to the exhibition notes:

He calls himself a novice, but those who have seen his photographs would say otherwise. He frames his shots with the final product in mind, editing very little in post production. He uses his Nikon d3500 to shoot real life landscapes. In Second Life, he prefers to snap portraits utilising the features provided by LUMIPro. 

On witnessing the pieces on display, I would have to agree to the first part of this statement: there is a natural framing to the pieces, whether avatar study, physical world portrait or landscape (from either realm), that presents the subject matter in singular depth that is a delight to witness and marks Dimi as having a natural eye for photography.

Presented across the three floors of the gallery space, there is also a certain thematic approach to way they have been laid out. On the lower floor, the focus is predominantly from Second Life, presenting on the one side avatar studies (although with a couple of portrait images from the physical world), and on the other Second Life landscapes. On the middle level are photos from the physical world, whilst the upper is reserved for Second Life images of a more intimate / adult nature and which should probably be regarded as NSFW.

I admit to being particularly drawn to the pictures on the mid-level. This is not to say I do not appreciate the SL photographs – I do. But there is such a depth and marvellously natural set to each of the images from the physical world, that they naturally draw the eye; in fact I’d go so far as to say that one in particular demonstrates that as well as having a flair for capturing the natural world, Dimi potentially has a keen eye for astronomical photography.

Another excellent exhibition for Kultivate, featuring a gifting artist.

SLurl Details

• Kultivate Signature Gallery (Water Haven, rated Moderate)