gone memespelunking

"Cosmic Kisses Illuminated"
Originally uploaded by Strawberry Holiday

"Kisses under the stars.
Yes, in love once more."

This line from the poem in the Exhibit information about "Cosmic Kisses Illuminated" captures the feel of the piece completely. Swirling, twisted, cubes dance in an array of pink and white. Soft sounds, like a digital wind chime, only add to the magical feel that surrounds you as you teleport into the first installation at "The Garden of Memespelunk".

4:4
Originally uploaded by Strawberry Holiday

Walking away from Cosmic Kisses is a difficult thing to do, but you're rewarded by immediately discovering "4:4". "4:4" is the final week of four installations in four weeks by Juria Yoshikawa, the artist behind all the exhibits at the Garden of Memespelunk. About this piece Juria says "In making this I imagined a situation climactic yet pristine. Like a supernova, magnitudes greater than the star in its normal life, expelling all final energy. In logical terms, the cube gallery has been multiplied by 4, rising toward the heavens. There are tables with 4 chairs, some right side up others upside down." She continues and talks about the rise and fall of all things in life, including art, and how this piece is a celebration of that cycle.

Juria Yoshikawa at Garden of Memespelunk
Originally uploaded by Strawberry Holiday

Piece after piece, I'm amazed by her works. Each is unique in its composition, but mimic's the other's abilities to draw you in. Juria's artist statement says she came "looking for a new artistic spark". Well I think she's found it. Landmarks to all sorts of builds and installations by her can be found at The Garden of Memespelunk.

This Second Life artist is definitely worth more than a few minutes of your time.

Links:
- Blog
- Flickr

SLURLs:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/North%20Dolores/202/61/24
To Liquid Light, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stheno/83/100/600
Garden Electric, http://slurl.com/secondlife/IBM%201/220/10/37
Aurora Room, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Alexander%20Beach/116/124/25

Blackfyr McBride @ Nectaris Arts

Nectaris Arts
Originally uploaded by Strawberry Holiday

Erin Talamasca is owner of Nectaris Art, which displays a regularly changing exibit of real life paintings and photography, including many of her own photographs and artwork. The current exhibit, which opened Friday, November 2nd, is a set of surreal imagery by an artist new to second life, Blackfyr McBride.

Many gallery owners shy away from new artists, knowing that it's artists with big names that bring in traffic and sales, but not Talamasca. She says "I had a new player approach me and ask about a show - I used to curate a place that existed to help new artists in SL, so it's something I like doing."

Erin Talamasca
Originally uploaded by Strawberry Holiday

The "new player" in question is Blackfyr McBride. With only three months in SL, she hasn't had much exposure. A wide array of colors and styles in the works on display at Nectaris makes me think the Artist must use different media, or process, but in fact when I ask about this, I find I'm wrong.

Blackfyr: "It's mostly the same process with all of them. I start with a digital photo in Photoshop and make multiple layers which I then run through filters, overlaying them on the other layers and play with the interactions of the layers until I get something I like."

Blackfyr McBride
Originally uploaded by Strawberry Holiday

Most of the photographs are Blackfyr's original digital images, as well. Though she says she sometimes uses stock photography or publicly available imagery.

Blackfyr has a website called Broken Hexagon, where there is info about her and her art, but like many of us SL artists, we've found something to be gained by exhibiting in this virtual world. For Blackfyr it was "People interested in creating. My website pretty much just sits there in cyberspace getting lost in the morass of crud, whereas SL has a built in population of people who either like to create or like looking at other people's creations - or both."

So if you're one of those people interested in creating, this new artist would love your feedback, and friendship! Stop by and see her work today at Nectaris! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Riiki/126/45/33