Tag: Art 2020

Keeping busy in SL: consolidating PAC

Posted on by Inara Pey
New gallery spaces for PAC artists at Cherished Melody

Friends on Twitter know that my blogging has slowed of late as I’ve been working on a number of projects. One of these is that of some major updates on behalf of the Phoenix Artists Collaboration (PAC).

Cutting a long story short, after PAC lost the ability to use a dedicated full region, Audie Whimsy and I volunteered space for the group, Audie offering a part of her own Full region, whilst I – as the former curator of Holly Kai Park – was able to secure space for some of the group there (see Providing a home for PAC in Second Life and Phoenix Artists Collaboration: April update).

Nine of the new gallery spaces with gardens at Cherished Melody

More recently, it has become apparent this arrangement is not beneficial to the group. The whys and wherefores aren’t important; suffice it to say that thanks to Audie, we’re now able to take the step of consolidating all artists in the group into a single location once again, and we hope that this will allow us to finally kick-start art and other events more centrally, and in the knowledge we have full autonomy in managing our location.

So right now, I’m in the middle of working with Audie to expand the Cherished Melody sky platform to accommodate the 30 artists presently at Holly Kai Park. It’s work that is taking time, as Audie has worked hard to create a unique environment at Cherished Melody, and it’s important that what we do in increasing the platform’s capacity both blends in with Audie’s work without dramatically changing things – and without inconveniencing the artists already there.

We’ve still got a fair amount of work to do!

As it is, the first eight studio galleries are now in place, complete with the core landscaping and garden space (with room for 3D art displays within the garden). A second group of eight units is nearing completion, and we’re working on developing new exhibition spaces for use by members for their own exhibitions as well as group art displays.

All things being equal, the initial work should be completed before the end of August at which time we’ll start to transition the artists at Holly Kai Park over to Cherished Melody. Once that has been done, we’ll be looking to finally gets started on an active programme of activities and events, including:

  • The long-awaited start to group exhibitions.
  • Featured Artist exhibitions.
  • New teaching / learning opportunities via a new Workshop area that will include lessons being streaming into Second Life by artists and photographers.
  • Opening-out the PAC website to allow members to blog about their work, exhibitions they are a part of, etc.
Five more studios and garden under construction

Cherished Melody remains open for visits during the work, and artists already based there do not have to do anything. However, we would ask that if you do drop in,be aware that things are unsettled around the outer edges of the platform, and do please note the Under Construction signs – we don’t want to have people finding a building or garden suddenly dropping on their heads or whooshing off from under them without warning in the construction areas!

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Cica’s Monsters in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cica Ghost: Monsters
Monsters are real, ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win.

– Stephen King

This is the quote Cica Ghost uses to introduce her August 2020 build, Monsters. Occupying a Homestead region, this is another build that encompasses whimsy whilst also – perhaps – carrying a more pointed message.

Scattered across a strangely undulating landscape stand four large structures, each with two walls apiece. Were they all to be brought together, they might form a house of sorts. But as it is, they each offer a scene in a room of a dwelling: a lounge, two bedrooms and spare room devoid of furnishings on the same scale as found in the others.

Cica Ghost: Monsters

The two bedrooms are occupied by dwellers of the would-be house; one appears to be fast asleep, and other perched on the edge of her bed, feet tucked carefully up as she reads one of a number of books piled in her room. However, these people are not the focus of the build; that is reserved for the plethora of creatures to be found within and without the different rooms, and who lend their name to the installation’s title.

Bipeds, quadrupeds, tall, short, with arms (some times more than the accepted pair!) without arms, some with tails, others sans ears and one with an interesting collection of mouths, Cica’s monsters are waiting to greet and amuse those who visit.

Cica Ghost: Monsters

And yes, I do mean amuse. Such are their looks and expressions, these monsters are hardly the stuff of nightmare – a fact some of them appear to be only too aware, given their glum faces. Rather, they all like like the type of monster unlikely to bring home the screams for a certain famous corporation of Disney lore, but that would all too quickly become a play friend to any youngster they happen upon.

Those in the “living room” of the “house” seem particularly cognizant of their lack of scare factor as they form a group and drink coffee, one idly fishing off the side of the platform, all of them ignoring the entreaties of a four-footed fiend on the grass below to come play. It’s in these glum looks that it is possible to perceive that deeper element embodied in the use of the Stephen King quote: given that often the worse monsters are the ones inside of the humans they are meant to scare, is there any need for the ones we might fear as being under out beds to ever come out?

Cica Ghost: Monsters

Some, however are trying to make the best of things, playing outside and waiting to offer a smile and wave to visitors. For this reason, as much as any other, whether you choose to follow the interpretation given above or not, you should hop along to Monsters and see it for yourself. And if you take a liking to one of Cica’s little chaps, be sure to find your way to the Monster Shop in the region’s south-east corner, where you can pick one up at take it home! And when exploring, be sure to mouse-over things: as always, Cica has included assorted perches and animations for people to enjoy!

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Intentional Creativity in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Kultivate Signature Gallery: KismaKSR

Currently on display at the Kultivate Signature Gallery, curated by Johannes Huntsman, and running through until the end of August 2020, is an exhibition of art from the physical world painted by KismaKSR – or Kisma K. Stepanich-Reidling as she is known outside of Second Life.

Defining Kisma isn’t easy, as she is a woman of many talents – artist, published author, curator (notably working with Reiner Schneiber, head curator for various worldwide Biennales), gamer, therapeutic art life coach, immersive 2D / 3D artist, and currently a creativity teacher-in-training! As an artist, she works in a range of mediums including acrylics, watercolours, gouache, pastels, coloured pencils, graphite, texture paste, stencils, and more. 

I paint what I see inside. I love working in art journals, creating altered book art journals, and taking my creations from the page to the canvas… and on occasion from the canvas to the page! My creative journey is based in watercolours but has taken me into so many mediums that I believe I love acrylics the most. 

I love working in layers… lots and lots of layers, distressing paintings, vibrant colourful paintings, collage paintings and sketch paintings. I also work with encaustic wax and fibres, throwing in the making of journals and fibre weaving to create embellished covers. 

– Kisma K. Stepanich-Reidling

Kultivate Signature Gallery: KismaKSR

For her exhibition at Kultivate’s Signature gallery, Kisma presents 16 reproductions of her physical world art that fully embody her approach to her subject: all richly expressive, some offering hints of expressionism, others perhaps leaning a little towards surrealism and still others more abstracted in nature. Every piece speak of Kisma’s Intentional Creativity approach to her work: the act of being aware of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and of self, and allowing all of this to inform and shape whatever task is being undertaken – be it making a soup to writing a musical score or – as in this case – producing works of art.

These are pieces that also include subtle cultural undertones to them that can be form in form, style, colour and symbolism. These touches add further depth to Kisma’s work, infusing them with a sense of of humankind’s cultural heritage through the ages – something we tend to too easily lose sight of in the modern age of technology and bustle.

You can find out more about Kisma’s work via her website, and about Intentional Creativity at MUSEA, the Intentional Creativity Foundation.

Kultivate Signature Gallery: KismaKSR

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Claustrophobia at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Mareena Farrasco – Claustrophobia

Mareea Farrasco is a Second Life photographer whose work covers a broad range, from avatar studies to landscapes – the latter oft processed to resemble paintings – and the literal to the metaphorical, producing images that can contain within them a rich narrative or which offer the confluence of shape and form to present a simple statement or comment.

Many of these elements are presented to us through her exhibition at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, with the exception of examples of her landscape work – for reasons that will become clear. Entitled Claustrophobia, the exhibition takes as its theme the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but from an angle that perhaps has not gained the attention it deserves.

When asked to define “claustrophobia”, most people are liable to go with its more well-known meaning: an abnormal dread of being in closed or narrow spaces. However, the word has another meaning, one not so often considered and that is a feeling of discomfort or discontent caused by being in a limiting or restrictive situation or environment, and it is this second definition that Mareea focuses upon.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Mareena Farrasco – Claustrophobia

We live, these days, in a confined, pandemic universe of our own, and we are all more or less “claustrophobic”, even without suffering from this disorder in our normal, healthy lives. This exhibition is my metaphoric way to express those feelings, trying to rationalise them, in order to make them endurable.

– Mareea Farrasco, introducing Claustrophobia

Now to confess, on first seeing the 14 images presented for the exhibition, I fell into the trap of looking at them through the lens of that more popular definition of “claustrophobia”, and while there are one or two that contain elements that most certainly do convey a sense of physically restricted space and / or a sensation of the walls closing in (notably Claustrophobia (6) and Claustrophobia (7)), I initially felt the exhibit, focused as it is on studies of an individual avatar, could just as easily be called “solitude”, without any need to reference the pandemic.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Mareena Farrasco – Claustrophobia

It was only when I broadened my consideration to that second definition foe “claustrophobia” that I was struck by the manner in which Mareea has perfectly encompassed it through each of the pieces offered in this exhibit, and seamlessly linked them to offer expressions of how we have been forced into am artificial sense of “claustrophobic distancing” because of the pandemic. It doesn’t matter if we’re home alone or with family, we have been forced to artificially limit our environment and interactions to an extent that expressions of solitude are all we actually have left; circumstance demanding that as constrained as we are, we turn our thoughts inwards.

Seen it this light, all of the pieces here are subtle and evocative explorations of thoughts and feelings that reflect our desire – our longing – for more normal times. At the same time, there is perhaps a deeper aspect to be considered. Whilst physical distancing from friends, colleagues, neighbours and all might well be a requirement for all of us, many of us do at least have family with who we can at least find some release from that sense of isolation – but what of those who live alone? For them, the routine of isolation has potentially been amplified by the pandemic; through Mareea’s images, we perhaps catch a glimpse of all they face.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Mareena Farrasco – Claustrophobia

Another outstanding exhibition at Nitroglobus that should not be missed.

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Painting the Summer in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hoot Suite Gallery: Mareea Farrasco

Now open at the Hoot Suite Gallery, the boutique gallery in Bellisseria curated by Owl Dragonash, is an exhibition that reminds us that while getting out and about to enjoy the beauty of summer may not be easy because of a certain pandemic, better times will return for all of us to have the freedom to visit our favourite corner of a beach or wander through grassy meadows.

Painting the Summer is a charming exhibition of gently post-processed images by Mareea Farrasco that carries us away to that summer beach and those summer grasslands, and to coastal walks and more. views out over rolling surf to sail boats lying off the coast and geese waddling over course grass. Often framing her avatar in relaxed poses.

Hoot Suite Gallery: Mareea Farrasco

These are elegant images in their presentation and in the lightness of touch with post-processing tools, while Owl’s Hoot Suite offers the perfect cosy venue for their presentation. The exhibition will run through until August 23rd, 2020.

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The beauty of steam machines in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Kondor Art Centre: Hermes Kondor, July 2020

The Tejo Power Station, located in the Belém district of Lisbon, Portugal, is regarded as one of the most beautiful examples of Portuguese industrial architecture from the first half of the 20th century.

Occupying the site of a thermoelectric plant first built in 1909 on the banks of the Rio Tejo, the building as it is seen today was first built in 1941, and provided power to the city through until the early 1970s, undergoing expansion over that time.

Kondor Art Centre: Hermes Kondor, July 2020

Encompassing architectural styles that run from art-nouveau to classicism, the power station was declared a major Portuguese heritage centre in 1986, and in 1990 became the home of the Electricity Museum, celebrating its role in bringing electrical power to Lisbon. It is in this capacity that Hermes Kondor visited it, along with his camera, returning with photographs of the building’s machinery, some 28 of which his has placed on display at the Kondor Art Centre.

And while this may sound like a boring subject – believe me it is not. The bunkers, pressure chambers, pipes, valves and metal walkways of the station’s machinery within the museum have been lovingly restored and maintained, and Hermes has captured all of this in incredible detail.

Kondor Art Centre: Hermes Kondor, July 2020

Through an exquisite use of depth-of field, macro focus, angle, framing and light, Hermes presents these machines and their individual part as living entities. From threaded nut to valves to pressure vessels to the complexity of the larger machines, the crisp detail found within each photograph is stunningly exceptional.

Displayed within a modern skybox setting that itself has a clean industrial feel to it and that perfectly complements the art on display, this is a genuinely engaging exhibition that fully captures the history and beauty of these remarkable machines.

Kondor Art Centre: Hermes Kondor, July 2020

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