I recently made my first trip to the Back Alley Gallery, operated and curated by ZED (Zee Malus), racoon extraordinaire and Racoon Emperor of No Dumpire in which the gallery is located 🙂 . I was there to view a most extraordinary art exhibition by an artist I’m ashamed to say I had not previously come across in Second Life (at least not that I’m consciously aware of doing). That artist is Tripp Foxtail, and the Exhibition is the appropriately entitled The Very Human Art of Tripp Foxtail.
And when I say the art is extraordinary – I mean precisely that; it is simply and completely captivating in both content and production.
Within Second Life, Tripp is a multi-talented individual who likes to give of his time to others. He is a Second Life mentor, a builder (and inventor – you may have heard of his sobriquet, The Mysterious Mechanic), store owner, designer of public spaces such as Traveller Station, where one might set out on many travels across Second Life, and Diver’s Station, where people can travel to and between a number undersea public spaces (just dive into the water and hit the portals!). However, in the physical world, Tripp is first and foremost and exceptionally talented illustrator-artist.
I’m a fine art illustrator, working on paper, canvas and digitally, employing a wide array of physical mediums including ink, acrylic paint, airbrush, pastel, photography and watercolour. I love experimenting with all kinds of processes like glass engraving, print making, and digital 3D Fractals.
I believe that human creativity is a sacred practice through which we may reach the numinous domain of the transcendent; therefore, AI is never used in the production of my art.
– Tripp Foxtail, describing his art
Within The Very Human Art, Tripp presents a fabulous walk through his artistry, including the likes of pen-and-ink illustrations, digital painting, fractal work, graphite drawings, pieces captured from within Second Life, and a presentation of how he has used his art in support of physical-world non-profits to help raise awareness of multiple causes.
The latter alone makes this exhibition a must see for anyone remotely interested in the power of art to communicate, featuring as it does samples of his Endangered Species Bookmark Collection created as a fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund. It also offers further insight into Tripp’s nature and desire to help, support and encourage; in addition, it further adds to this being a very personal exhibition, something which can be seen through the additional graffiti-like commentary placed by Tripp on the walls of the gallery which explain some of his work and influences, and which carry quotes from other artists which might be side to reflect Tripp’s view of his art.
But what makes this exhibition so extraordinary is in the manner of presentation of the pieces; something which Tripp calls “optique”. In the very simplest of terms, it is the subtle layers of a piece. These might come is just a pair of images (one forming the “picture” and the second appearing to have been lighted “etched” on the “glass of the picture); other might be more more deeply layers, with individual layers perhaps differing in their contrast / transparency.
At first glance, this might cause the eye to respond with a feeling that the art isn’t quite in focus. However, when the camera is moved across an image, this layer brings an immediate sense of depth and life to it, to the point where it seems tactile in nature as well as presenting a unique sense of life and motion. In this, if you have a joystick or SpaceNav or similar you use with SL, I strongly recommend you use it to swing your camera across the pieces; for those no so fortunate, use of Alt-Cam to focus in a piece and then using the camera control to slide or swing the camera across it can offer a similar result.
With a dip into Tripp’s fractal art – including nots on how he produces it – The Very Human Art is an exceptional exhibition which should be seen in order to be properly and fully appreciated. In this, I would recommend dropping in sooner rather than later, just in case. Whilst the invitation I received was posted to an in-world art group on September 20th, 2024, according to a notice at the entrance to the gallery the exhibition opened on August 31st, 2024. As exhibitions at the gallery appear to run for a month as a time, this could mean The Very Human Art is nearing the end of its time at the gallery; ergo, best to hop along now rather than miss it!
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