Art Fun For Your Blog

I know that I have not blogged in quite a while, however that is due to my computer being fried, but I am working on setting up on my computer and will be back touring Second Life Museums and Art Galleries soon!

However, I have a fun website for you!  http://www.wordle.net/ and here is an example below!

My Wordle based on my last blog entry!

It takes the words from your blog entry, the most repeated word used in your entry will be the largest so now you know that I truly think that Second Life ART GALLERIES ARE indeed BEAUTIFUL! Now you can copy it to your clip board by using snip tool (search for it under the windows icon) and you can put it into PhotoShop and put your pictures from your blog behind your wordle and then save it as a jpeg and upload it to your blog!

Have fun!

Highlight Tour of Second Life Art Galleries, Part 3

Diorama at St@rt Gold Art Sculpture Gallery

I am back on the Tour and have found a gem of an art gallery:  St@rt Gold Art Sculpture Art Gallery.  The sculptures are bold, beautiful and original.  The Guardian Angel sculpture has music that reminds me of the Greek myths of the Siren's Song luring sailors ashore to wreck upon the shoals.

There is a wide variety of artwork including scripted fractals that move, which are beautiful. Following the trend of several other galleries there are matching floor mats and pottery with the artwork on them.  The gold sculptures are shown in a room that has rich red tapestries and carpets.  They range from a drum set to saxophones.

There are beautiful underwater ruins to explore and a walk through art gallery; my favorite presentation is the diorama of the solar system set above a glowing mountain range.

The best way to tour this beautiful gallery is to set your environment to midnight.  I give this gallery two thumbs up!

Gardens as viewed from the Royal Thai Gallery

Traditional Thai Art can be found at the Royal Thai Gallery.  If you enjoy Thai art this is the place to visit!  The Thai Buddha is displayed along with elephants, nagas (snakes), and carvings of Thailand's Epic Story.

Beautiful and peaceful gardens surround the gallery and do turn on your music options at this gallery it features wonderful classical selections to enjoy to further relax.

Greystone Manor is open to the public and is a wonderfully designed and appointed mansion displaying the beautiful Thai artwork as you would see it in Real Life! A definite must see!

This Gallery is virtually lag free and I give it two thumbs up!

Taking a break at the Two Shores Gallery of Fine Art 

Two Shores Gallery of Fine Art features the digital artwork of Mathilde Vhargon.  She designs a sculpture and then takes the patterns of her sculptures and uses a fractal filter and twists and turns them into a designs them into beautiful digital paintings!

Following the "Yellow Brick Road" in Ozland

Darker, digital artwork can be found in Ozland's Visiting Artist Exhibit!  This month's artist is Relay Caedmon.  His artwork is dark and skeletons can be found hiding within. Also featured at this gallery is a monthly piece of art and you are invited to write something about it in the form of a story, poem, or essay utilizing 500-1000 words.  The written art will be read in your own voice on one of the four Wednesday's of the month!  The writing must be PG and can be written in any genre, but must be about the picture that is chosen!

This is an unusual concept and if you are passionate about artwork and writing this is the spot to explore!

Old Second Life Art

Riding the Wasp at Svarga

There is art and old art in Second Life and the old art uses the original primitives only and it also has been in Second Life for many, many years!  Svarga translates as heaven and Svarga is a haven for newbies who don't wish to hang out at clubs while the get their Second Life feet.

The Svarga, that I revisited last night, is not the exact same sim that I saw when I first came into Second Life, as that sim closed and either reopened under new management or the original sim owner didn't include it's elevator to the stars when he put the sim back up! However, my trip back "home" to Svarga was a pilgrimage of mixed emotions.  This was a happy place and to come back to it by myself made me sad!

A Sky Elf hiding in the foliage

Svarga is a great example of the art of building in SL; using only the basic building blocks to make everything that you see from the trees, rocks, flowers, ponds, and sea, this Island represents the earliest of the sim building techniques in Second Life, there are no flexiprims, no mesh, and no sculpties.

There are however, brilliant examples of architecture, textures, and imagination! There is an old time cave, damaged Stargate, SL library, mediation room, particle effects, including moving flowers, light, fire, and fireflies, statuary, and an automated ride around the sim while you are told a short story of the Island.  There is a special building which features the original set of Elven drums.  There is a well that will tell your fortune if you make a wish and toss L$25 into it!

New skyline for Svarga using the Environmental editor

Although this sim celebrates old primitives, the pictures were taken with the new environmental editor for the sky and water, making it look like a new sim!  Most of the pictures were taken at night under a very romantic moon, but some of them were taken at night, morning, and under foggy skies.

As a photographer in search of the Picture Perfect Second Life, the environmental editor is addictive to use and makes you take a lot more pictures then you ever plan on.

Svarga is a photographers paradise and this reviewer gives it two thumbs up!

Dancing in Second Life

Dance like nobody's looking is a great piece of advice and in Second Life everyone can dance!  However, the magic in our dancing can be contributed to the talented Scripters who create poseballs, dance Heads Up Displays, (HUDs), and animations.

Dancing is a bit different in then in Real Life.  In order to animate our pixels you have to have a set of commands to move that pixel body!  Those commands are supplied by scripts and stuffed into poseballs.  The avie then hops on the poseball and dances.

Dancing using my Huddles HUD

Another set of instructions are put into a HUD and attaches to your computer screen and then you can animate your own avie and up to six other avatars with dances from your HUD!  

Additionally, the dance animations are made up of a series of movements some as small as putting your hands in the air or side stepping. These movements are created in an animation software, uploaded to Second Life, where you can purchase them and put them into your HUD.

Where do you go to dance?  Why any club in Second Life have dance floors, private homes, and whenever you get Ruthed!  

Although we are only pixels you can be surprised by the romance in dancing with your sweetie!  Enjoy your perfect dance moves!

Music

Music is the oldest art form; our Mothers and Fathers sang to us and maybe to each other, and we sing to our own children, and grand kids; we pay to attend concerts, operas, and enjoy free concerts in the park.

In Second Life, the first set of musical instruments that I saw were the Elven drum and wind instruments.  The first club that newbies went to was The Edge.  We enjoy concerts, theater, and ballets. 

Mankind Tracer performance at Sweet Whispers

You can find many types of music genres in Second Life and you might enjoy them and you may not.  There are DJs and live performers, such as Mankind Tracer and so many different types of clubs: women only and men only clubs, vampire and goth clubs, furry and "other" clubs, men and women clubs, strip clubs, dungeons, and casinos; and all have music.

There are clubs catering to jazz, easy listening, pop, steampunk, goth and death metal, rock-n-roll, classical, country western, country rock, opera, house, and much more in the clubs across Second Life.

Some clubs do not care what you wear, but places like Avalon, ladies must be in ball gowns and gents in suits, tuxedos or formal dress from yesteryear!

The most famous and the oldest rock club in Second Life is "The Edge" this club welcomes newbies and oldies alike to enjoy dancing and music.  The Edge closed for a while, but it's now reopened a great place to rock out with your friends!

Mankind Tracer - Live Performance

I had the privileged of seeing Mankind Tracer perform at Sweet Whispers he has a great voice and sang easy listening tunes both popular and his own music.  The performer links into the sims radio stream and performs live, singing and in Mankind's instance playing the guitar beautifully!  Mankind takes request, but you must choose something off his playlist, which is listed at the venue!

Mankind has performed for five years in Second Life and has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 for Outstanding Contributions to Second Life.

In real life, Mankind Tracer is Seth Regan and his music can be found on his website, Itunes, Amazon.com, etc.  He is music style is mellow and romantic.  His concert would be a great place to take your sweetie for a special night out on the town!

Music is part of our Second Life and thanks to the many venues that support live performers such as Sweet Whispers, everyone can enjoy great performances!

Author's Note:  Clubs filled with lots of people, are also full of lag, but it's so worth it!

Highlight Tour of Second Life Art Galleries, Part 2.5

The floor of the first floor at Crossworld Gallery

Crossworld Gallery

The next stop on my art tour is Crossworld Gallery and it lives up to its name by having over thirteen floors of Real Life and Second Life artwork. The Second Life fantasy artwork of Gee Noel is spectacular! 

Pixivore Allen display's her RL acrylic paintings of lush, vibrant flowers painted from her travels in Asia and Africa. At first, you think that the flowers are second life, but upon closer inspection, just fabulous paintings!  Kirle Adamski is a RL artist and uses watercolor as her medium and the colors and style are vibrant, abstract and lovely!  My new fantastic discovery is Sledge Roffo his artwork is called primigary and it's absolutely beautiful!  The colors are stunning and wonderful!  His artwork is located on the fifteenth floor!

Julia Gray uses people as part of her artwork blending them in as part of the scene, these brilliant paintings can be found on the forth floor and is an absolute treat to view!  Right around the corner from Julia are fantastic paintings of jungle animals in vibrant colors and majesty by Gamini Ratnavira.

The gallery itself is made up of floating spheres above the sim. The floors are styled differently giving them a distinct flavor to match the paintings and their artists.  One portion of the floor is clear allowing you a glimpse of that is below!  (My favorite type of floor!)

Art of Destiny, Crossworld Gallery

In my personal opinion, no art gallery is truly complete without beautiful, relaxing gardens.  My visitation to the Art of Destiny gardens were wonderful!  Your TP'ed facing two huge replicas of the "Lord of the Rings" statues on either side of the stream and so begins a great time of taking Picture Perfect Second Life photos!

Crossworld Gallery has a variety of artists using many different mediums such as:  oil, acrylic, watercolor, digital media, 3D, scripted/interactive, ink and pencil, stained glass, and photography to name a few.   There is also a wide use of styles such as:  contemporary, abstract, post-modern impressionism to list make a very short list.  This Gallery is not to be missed and get two thumbs up!

Author's Note:  This is a gallery virtually lag free!

Another Note from the Author:  This gallery closed on January 3, 2012.

The Art of Machinima

The art of Machinima (pronounced ma-She-na-ma) is the art of making videos in a virtual world.  There has been some famous movie makers who have played around with Second Life Machinima such as the creators of CSI:  NY, which turned out to be quite the let down, for the Second Life fans and players, as it was only a 60-second clip along with a very corny story line, however, there are people in Second Life who are passionate about movie making in a virtual world.

The Machinima Film Studio

There is a huge movie studio on Charmed Island, called The Machinima Film Studios. The landmark takes you to a beautiful forest with picturesque bridges and mountains and streams.  At first you don't even see the mountains as the forest has several levels, the forest floor with the pretty flowers, then the scrubs and small trees are nestled in between these huge sky-scraping trees and then suddenly you look and see the snow-capped mountains!

It's a photographer's paradise!  After you take all the pictures that you can, you teleport to the main studio which has sets from a Bandstand to the Wild West, horror to fairyland.

Even after viewing these sets, I wanted to know how to go about taking a video.  I went to the Second Life wiki and Torley Linden did not disappoint.  She has a library of videos for the Machinima beginner.  She gives you tips and tricks to make your videos wonderfully convincing!

Italian set

There are groups in Second Life who shoot Second Life reality TV clips!  They are very funny!  One is set in a trailer park there is mystery and intrigue around every corner!

Whatever you wish to do with your Machinima clips, remember that like with everything in Second Life there are copyright laws that need to be respected, other then that have fun making your virtual films!