Snapshots from Finny Yates’ Avatar Morphs show

Finny’s show is in high gear, and Jordan Morgenrote was kind enough to take some snapshots of Finny’s incredible display.

This first shot is a great illustration of how Finny took the wide open space of Oyster Bay and built a beautiful display room within the gallery.  What the picture doesn’t show is how Finny made the exteriors of the room transparent – so visitors don’t get the sense of the display until they are in the middle of the room:

This next piece shows a couple steps in the process that Finny uses when making the avatar morph textures.  The stylized photos like that seen below are excellent pieces in their own right!

Space constraints forced Finny to think creatively, using the floating, rotating, multi-sided displays to VERY good effect:

All of the morphs, as you know, are based upon Second Life photo portraits taken by Finny.  A late addition to the show was the collection of Madcow Cosmos morphs, which reveal some fascinating results.  Make sure to move your camera up to the rotating displays to see them!

Live-blogging: Origin Rang, classical pianist

I’m standing in an SL field watching an avi playing piano. I was drawn to the concert by this:

I perform the classc and something piano live.

This is the trial for me in second life.

I can not speak English good at all.

However, I think that music is common to the world.

Please come to hear my live by all means.

I hope that visited People get the new friend.

From Origin [Rang].

I’ve never heard of Origin Rang. Origin is apparently Japanese, if I make the correct inferences from his profile. He’s been in SL for exactly 1 month.

I can tell you, though, that Origin is one of the finest classical pianists that I’ve ever heard — SL or RL. And I never would have heard this had it not been for Second Life. I am constantly amazed at the breadth and depth of artistic capacity in Second Life…be it through image or sound.

What a gift, what an amazing gift. I’m so lucky that I dropped in. WOW.

Finny Yates’ Avatar Textures – Opens this weekend, Open House on Tuesday

Finny Yates wrote today to tell me that her Avatar Texture show is open!

In addition to her upper gallery display of avatar photos and textures (check out the Madcow Cosmos cube – too cool!), Finny’s also applied many of the textures to prims, like the “vase” in the picture. What a wonderful application!

The show will run through next weekend, and Finny plans an Open House on May 27 (Tuesday night) at 6PM SLT at Oyster Bay. We’ll have music, art and lots of fun…please join us!

Great new Cheen Pitney show @ Lauk’s Nest

Cheen Pitney and Lauk’s Nest host Lukas Mensing have an artistic coup on their hands – a show featuring a ton of Cheen’s latest works! Here’s an example:

There is the occasional classic Pitney piece mixed in – I recall seeing the Lipanzer horse that Cheen displayed at Oyster Bay’s grand opening – but the vast majority is Cheen’s private commissioned work…which makes this show even more impressive. The eagle pictured above…a stock market bull…the Statue of Justice….and MUCH more.  Simply put, Mensing and Pitney have one amazing collection of work on their hands.

And then there’s Lauk’s Nest. Take the art out of the place and you still have one of the most lush, beautiful locations in Second Life. Originally created by Laukosargas Svarog, this site is now maintained by Mensing, who has chosen to emphasize art within the gorgeous surroundings. Svarog made a unique ecosystem, with plants, animal life and more. The textures are lavish and perfectly match the scene. Second Life builders should aspire to make places so well done.

Every reader should take in the majesty of Lauk’s Nest (one of Philip Rosedale’s favorite places in SL) and see what Cheen has been up to recently. It’s time very well spent!

Seeker Gray on elros’ Tubular Gallery

Seeker Gray (pictured) discovered elros Tuominen through elros’ display at Oyster Bay and offers this wonderful review of elros’ Tubular Gallery. Besides an opportunity to praise one of Second Life’s top bloggers and link to his site, this entry is notable to Oyster Bay and me for three reasons:

First, elros is one of our amazing group of artists whose work fills the Oyster Bay sculpture gallery space. Touching on Seeker’s theme, elros’ work is not just “art” but GOOD art. In a brief period, Oyster Bay has gone from being a place begging for artists to show works to a place where artists WANT to be. I tell you that not as a way to make my hat size larger but instead to reinforce the message that this place is indeed special, a place where you can know that a visit to Oyster Bay is an opportunity to admire the highest quality SL-generated artwork that we can find. elros’ work is indeed good, and worthy of Seeker’s comments. And Oyster Bay is proud to bring you his work, just as we are proud to bring you ALL of the artists and pieces on display.

Next, Seeker’s blog entry was a shining example of one of the overarching visions for Oyster Bay – not to be a gallery as an end-all, be-all – but instead to act as a portal for the unitiated into the amazing world of Second Life art. Nearly every nameplate at Oyster Bay has a notecard with artist biographical information (some with commentary on the pieces on display); some offer landmarks to the artists’ personal galleries. If Oyster Bay can inspire you to explore deeper into an artists’ work, or investigate another few galleries’ offerings…then it’s performing one of its key goals.

Lastly, elros is a great guy with a passion for the visceral, emotional experiences of life – virtual and otherwise. I strongly encourage everyone to look him up and talk to him about his art. If you’re lucky enough to get on his friends list, you’ll get a wonderful surprise from elros every day. Suffice it to say that there’s much more to elros than just sculptures!

Cheen Pitney’s latest: Organic

When not building amazing commissioned pieces like the massive entryway at Lucifer’s nightclub, the towering Christopher Columbus statue at Barcelona marketplace or the statue of Justice at Justice Island, Cheen Pitney has quietly built an impressive collection of more abstract pieces.  He was kind enough to display his newest piece, Organic, at Oyster Bay in the upper gallery.

The piece is a kinetic work, with 12 prims of undulating pieces surging throughout the sphere.  It subtly draws the eye while not distracting.  Another fantastic piece from one of SL’s premier sculptors – demonstrating that he won’t rest on his laurels and will keep exploring the possibilities of SL-generated artwork…for which we all will benefit.

What’s on deck?

Back to Oyster Bay….

I’ve been asked what is next up at Oyster Bay after the Madcow Cosmos show. First, I think it’s important to recognize that each show is its own creature (or in the case of Madcows, creatures!). One show doesn’t necessarily build upon another, but instead needs to be taken as its own intense investigation of the work of a given artist.

So it’s with more than a little excitement that I announce that Second Life’s Finny Yates will be showing Oyster Bay’s first-ever exhibition of “flat” art images in our main gallery space.

Finny’s work, as you can see from the piece pictured in this post, is quite distinctive – made even moreso when the viewer learns that the pieces on display are actually Second Life avatar photos morphed through deft use of Corel’s Painter 8.0 software into beautiful abstract textures. Finny promises a host of examples of this “avatar texture” style, complete with original photos of the avatars as well as intermediate renderings so the viewer can better appreciate the transformations. This is some very impressive work.

Some may ask, why is a sculpture facility getting into “flat” artwork? The answer is simple – We’ve never shied away from it at Oyster Bay, but we’ve never made it our centerpiece either. A stroll through our Cafe shows works for sale by Marisela Bouchard, Isolde Flamand and DJ Doubledown Tandino. And our Market is a mini-gallery to itself, with works by Alberto Solomon, Daedelus Young, AutoPilotPatty Poppy, Gracie Kendal and (yes) Finny Yates.

Finny’s work however, represents that which I hope to best promote in Second Life – that of works using Second Life as a medium. Starting with images from Second Life, Finny massages the works in ways that we could not have otherwise conceived – just as SL sculptors work with prims, scripts and textures to achieve beautiful results. That, in its essence, is what Second Arts and Oyster Bay is really about…using Second Life as the medium to create great works. Expect much more sculpture work, but don’t be surprised to see SL photography or other SL-inspired art at Oyster Bay.

Things that make me wonder about Second Life

Quite a scene. A wonderful looking location in the “Plush” sims, designed by SL’s resident zillionaire, Anshe Chung. Great design and layout, wonderful textures….all in all, a fantastic build. Really makes you feel comfortable.

But where are the stores? Where are the people? I was the only person in this sim. There was one in an adjoining sim. There were no stores that I could find in this sim, except for the obligatory Anshe Chung property sales/rental superstore. Just a bunch of empty storefronts (with some trash littered in).

This is a wonderful illustration of what I find all too often in Second Life. As a Second Life society, we are fantastic at building structures but not so great at building community. Why is that? What does that say about us, or about SL? Is there a place for honest-to-goodness community building in Second Life? Is there a need? If there is a place, and a need, how do we get there?

I continue to wrestle with these thoughts as I consider the present and future of Oyster Bay. I’d be interested in what others have to say, as I see no quick and easy answers.

The Goddess & The Banana

One of the joys of having a place like Oyster Bay is watching it act like a magnet for such creative people.  Among the many is Yxes Delacroix, whom I met during the Madcow show.  Among her other ventures, Yxes has a regular podcast, “The Goddess and Banana,” with business associate Banana Stein.  I’m still a bit of a newbie in the world of podcasts – honestly, they take a LOT of time to listen to – but it’s clear that this podcast is REALLY well done.  High production values (Skype is REALLY clear – I had no idea), original music….amazing.  And Yxes and Banana have a friendly, conversational tone that makes the show a pleasure to listen to.  (For the uninitiated, the site advertises the podcast as a “classy adult” show – but I haven’t heard anything that I wouldn’t hear on primetime television in the show that I listened to.)

This podcast, like other SL-inspired audio and video – not to mention the countless forum boards, blogs, etc. – is a fascinating testament to the cultural power of Second Life.  I’m just amazed at the depth and breadth of immersion in Second Life.  It really is another world.    If you stumbled upon this blog and haven’t tried SL, give it a try.  Basic accounts are free!

Sculpties for everyone!

Hats off to Second Life Insider for posting this great “Tools of the Trade – Sculpties” entry on their blog.  I had no idea that there were so many options for developing them…and so many are free or open source!