Discovering art at Motown in Second Life

Since it opened in June (see: Linden Lab and Motown: a new approach to user on-boarding in Second Life), the Motown Welcome Hub has hosted a number of events, with the most recent being a Scavenger Hunt and, for the weekend of the 2nd September, 2023, a Trivia event with music (from noon through until 14:00 SLT).

However, on new venue which may have been overlooked in the hubbub surrounding the recent Scavenger Hunt is the opening of the Motown Art Gallery, feature for it’s first (?) exhibition, the work of one of SL’s most well-known – and rightly celebrated – physical world artists, JudiLynn India, who uses the platform as a means to bring her art to a global audience, thus demonstrating one of Second Life’s great strengths in providing a reach which can at times exceed that available to us in the physical world.

The gallery is housed in a warehouse-like building on the north side of the open-air music events area within the main Motown region, and offers both an indoor display space across a main an mezzanine floor, and additional space within its back lot (which can be either reached most readily via the alleyway running between the gallery’s neighbouring beauty salon and pizza house, or in the case of JudiLynn’s exhibition, the thoughtfully-provided teleport disc on the gallery’s main floor.

I’ve been drawing since I could hold a crayon. I studied art throughout school, Commercial Art in high school and Graphic Design at Tyler School of Art/Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. I’ve always been interested in various crafts such as sewing and ceramics. I’ve also been active in music, playing piano, guitar and violin. After the turn of the century, I decided to focus my creativity on acrylic and digital painting and have totally enjoyed the ongoing journey.

– JudiLynn India

JudiLynn is perhaps best known is Second Life for her vibrant and richly layered abstract art, produced both through “wet” painting and digital means, and which might be most accurately described as intuitive art. By this I mean that rather than being based on an specific premeditated design or idea, these are pieces that are defined through the artistic process itself; the loop between mood, colour, texture and imagination all combining with what is already on the canvas or screen to inform what should come next. allow each piece to grow entirely organically to a finished state.

The result of this are pieces rich in colour and contrast and also highly fluid in their nature. They attract the eye and offer patterns and interactions which seem to ebb and flow as the eye passes over them, provoking the imagination. Sometimes motifs or patterns will become apparent which will lead JudiLynn to experiment with them across two or more pieces, resulting in small collections such as the likes of  Spiralling, Land of Fantasy, Jazzy and Fences, all of which can be found within the “backyard” section of this exhibition.

However, JudiLynn’s work covers a much broader canvas – so to speak – which encompasses portraiture, pieces exuding an impressionist sensibility and landscapes. Some of this work is again demonstrated within this exhibition through the likes of the utterly captivating Royal Elegance, Grace and Majestic pieces.

None of the pieces presented is available for sale; for those looking to make some purchases for their SL homes / appreciation, please refer to the list of galleries included in JudiLynn’s biography available through the wall panel under the stairs leading up to the mezzanine area. For those who would like to have JudiLynn’s work as part of their physical lives, do be sure to visit her website.

As noted through the use of the bracketed question mark towards the top of this article, I’ve no idea whether exhibitions at the gallery will be rotated or on what basis; frankly, I’d be very disappointed if this were not the case; the inclusion of the gallery within the Welcome Hub is an excellent means of demonstrating SL’s ability to stand as a platform for artistic expressionism in its visual forms as much as the music venue outside the gallery demonstrates its ability to be a venue for social events and entertainment (and in regard to  visual art, I would also note JudiLynn has taken care to give a subtle underlining of SL’s scope for 3D artistic expression as well). As such, and whilst recommending JudiLynn’s exhibition, I certainly hope we’ll get to see the gallery reflect all genres of 2D and 3D art popular within SL.

SLurl Details

• Motown Art Gallery (Motown, rated Moderate)