Loose Thoughts… January 4, 2011

All eggs in one basket now: Pietmond. Edwardston Station Gallery importance seems to have shrunk… can’t exist independently. Instead: projected new gallery in sky, kind of building on UFO I had to recently delete, reachable from Underground Pietmond (above-below dichotomy).

Although I probably can’t promote it in Second Life as much as I would want, Pietmond is already a great success. I’m friends with all exhibitors, which I think is important. I enjoyed exhibiting some established SL artists last year, but distance was still great — I was one of many places their art was shown, another stop. The artists’ works I’m showing now are all more distant from the Second Life virtual reality itself. Besides, my SL friend Flora Nordenskiold, who set up my first solo SL exhibit (and only one so far featuring my own work) is really starting to have the bases covered on providing great spaces for established SL artists, often numbering 4 for each new show at her Nordan Art gallery.

The original idea for the Blue Feather Gallery, starting in Noru, went along the lines of what Flora has evolved through Nordan Art (after what she would admit was a rather bumpy beginning; I was involved!). But it didn’t take me long to realize, 1) I didn’t have much of a talent for self promotion needed to be “successful” in the SL art scene, 2) my hours spent in SL are bunched together more in the middle of the night (2am-6am), when most of that virtual world is “asleep” — hard to promote/mingle when no one is around!, 3) I do not consider myself much of a real life artist, in that I’m not dedicated to any one craft in a totally artistic way, in contrast to many SL artists who are successful in real life art as well. (thinking here, for example, of Natsha Lemton, an early exhibitor at the Noru’s Blue Feather Gallery and who subsequently had a showing in Flora’s gallery as well), 4) I’m dedicated now to Linden mainland, and most inworldly successful artists or art galleries work on estate property — not exclusively but I just thought I’d add that in, since it naturally leads to, 5) I see SL as a giant piece of art itself, with mainland a great example of heterogeneous collage that represents a primary media interest. Because of this, I like to explore — I like to immerse myself in the artwork constantly surrounding me in this virtual world. I think for this reason, although I like to visit art galleries I mainly find them to be lacking in and of themselves. I always find myself poking around the vegetation surrounding the galleries. What makes this artist tick, and why are they involving themselves in SL?

So back to the Blue Feather Gallery, what it evolved into (some might say “devolved” here, hehe) was a type of personal shrine to this exoteric art known as mainland, specifically for the continent I call home: Jeogeot. “Jeogeot Through Art and Word,” condensed version, has become the permanent, final exhibit for this particular space. It will probably remain a cornerstone, again just on a personal scale, for any art or art promotion that I will be engaged in. It helps move me away from myself. And appropriately I’ve now been able to incorporate it into Pietmond, which is, on a larger scale, doing the same. And Pietmond itself becomes a small piece of Jeogeot, a fragment of a greater whole.

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Continuing…

Very pleased with the development of the SoSo Gallery and all Pietmond Art Crawl Galleries. SoSo has grown from just showing the 20 collages of my Oblong series to also exhibiting works of others, starting with Mike Casey, an old synching buddy, shall we say, who I’ve corresponded with off and on for about 10 years now. The Oblong series is still within SoSo, true, but in an eastern side that now has a matching, somewhat larger, west part (Casey art).

In thinking about it now, Mike’s exhibit, like the Blue Feather Gallery mentioned before, may be “permanent”, or as permanent as I can promise in the ever shifting world of My Second Life. Connected with this is a very interesting and perhaps still developing set of coincidences surrounding the name origin of SoSo, a *conscious* or purposeful fusion of Peter Gabriel’s top selling So album and the comic corruption of the moniker Peter the Great to Peter the Good and then Peter the So So, or Peter SoSo. But what I didn’t realize until more recently is the *barely* unconscious connection with Led Zeppelin’s similarly archetypal album ZoSo, also generically called Led Zeppelin IV. Here’s the story behind the odd name in case you didn’t know or remember. In reading up myself on the origin, I was interested to see that ZoSo is also a nickname for Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. But all this becomes odder when I find out Mike’s most recent, larger synching project (more on the whole “synching” thing soon enough, I suppose) involves just this very album, and, in particular, the song “Stairway To Heaven” that ends the traditional side 1 of ZoSo/Led Zep IV. The resulting backwards synchronicity, combining this song with a section of The Wizard of Oz movie, is cleverly dubbed “Stairway From Heaven,” and you can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HywC71qZOs

In our correspondence, Dr. Casey has talked about, in some detail, the symbolism he finds embedded in the 8 minute synchronicity, which has been of some influence. Just off the top, what I like about it is that the cuing point between the 2 involved media (there’s only 1 cue, differentiating “Stairway From Oz” from a more manipulated audiovisual mashup) is what I’d call “natural” or “unforced”. It is simply “Stairway To Heaven” played backwards (otherwise unmanipulated) to a similarly backwards playing Wizard of Oz, starting right when Dorothy opens the front door of her just crashed farmhouse and enters Oz (Munchkinland) for the first time. Since the movie is playing backwards here, the synch starts with Dorothy *closing* this door, then, instead of opening it, and the backwards “Stairway To Heaven” matching this with what appears to be the phrase, “Love vanquished.”

Quite a powerful view with the subtitles and all, but Mike’s theories concerning SFO are what really struck me. I’d like to see him post these to the web somewhere. Perhaps on this blog?

But I found this little tangle of meaningful coincidences — synchronicities themselves, really, in a classical, Jungian manner — very interesting. In writing all this out, I think it means, on one, basic level, that Mike art should have a permanent place in the SoSo gallery, as mentioned before. I would not take it the logical, last step and rename his part of SoSo ZoSo (too obvious), but the link has nonetheless been locked in.

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I must, then, move on the next gallery specifically created for the Pietmond Art Crawl: Norum. Julie Sadler is a newer friend who featured my involvement in Second Life art in a post on her large, influential Collage Clearinghouse back in 2009. Probably the great majority of *her* friends and followers, at the time, thought — what’s Julie on about here? Virtual art? Textures on prims?

More recently, I asked Julie’s permission to go through her flickr site and select various photo textures for creating art to hang in the brand spanking new Norum Gallery of Pietmond. I thought virtual representations of her collage/mixed media pieces would play well within that small, intimate space, and the final results appear to prove my instincts right. Ms. Sadler seems to agree; she’s even published her own post concerning the Norum Gallery and Pietmond in general to her wonderful blog.

More will develop of this. Besides managing her blog, Julie is super busy creating art in Real Life. Oh, and I believe she also has a regular, day job, like most of us struggling, creative types. The Collage Clearinghouse, while also acting as a podium for others to discuss their own collage efforts if they wish, remains primarily a place Julie shares with the world personal stories of trials and tribulations/successes and achievements with the same. Exposure for any type of artist is a high challenge, but the overall work of collage artists weave in added twists to this old problem. Copyright reverberations spring to mind immediately.

I have promised Julie that I’ll read her blog back to front in the coming months, with further questions from me forthcoming I’m sure. Pietmond is not finished with Julie, I don’t think.

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Which brings us to the Something To CHRO About gallery just across the sidewalk from the Norum Gallery. STCA features a good number of photos by Edna Million, now a known “High Country” artist with several Real Life gallery showings garnishing her creative resume. Edna is also a writer who hopes to published — nay, *will* publish several, perhaps many novels and larger works in the coming years. Photography is a complementary, art focus. And like baker and Julie before her, Edna is also a collage artist, although she hasn’t worked in that medium for a number of years. *And,* Edna also happens to be my (baker b.’s) Real Life wife.

I am projecting a *really* big, future venture fusing our collage sensibilities (and Edna’s photography skills), but it will involve an extended “trip” to Britain, probably months and months in length and which may not happen until we are both retired. In the meantime, Edna has already visited England for 2 weeks with a friend this fall, and my virtual avatar Baker Bloch, aided by a touch of collage magic, hehe, was able to do the same this past spring, as recorded in Pietmond’s final, present gallery: the Tower of TILE.

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And that concludes my little spiel about Pietmond art developments, still a work in progress!

Pietmond Ch-ch-ch-changes, 02 December 8, 2010

Closeup of another, more recent MC piece called Messy World. Quite fascinating. Well done!

Then moving to the other half of SoSo, just across Main Way (sidewalk) from Downtown, we find my Oblong collection, now housed in a redecorated version of Arcadia Asylum’s famous slum apartment building placed here several days beforehand.

Lemon House, just above Orange House, has been deleted. Well, technically I guess you could say it’s been moved, since a duplicate of this house, shall we say, forms the back part of the Blue Feather Gallery as transposed from Teepot to Pietmond now.

Here’s where it is “now,” then.

I’m not entirely happy with the landscaping around Pietmond’s Blue Feather yet, but there’s only so much you can do in one night. 🙂

Then I also deleted the shed that use to be similarly stuck to Downtown, and, oh yeah, moved the entire Downtown over a couple of meters south so that less terrain would poke through the bottom of its lowest floor. This left no room for the shed at its former position. Hope the Peter’s Grave campers/pilgrims aren’t too pissed off at me, haha.

Current view down Long Way looking east toward the House of Truth.

Pietmond Ch-ch-ch-changes, 01

Sorry. I’ve had the Flight of the Conchords’ song “Bowie” running around in my head all day…

So here we go again. First I moved the entire Blue Feather Gallery from Teepot over to Pietmond, placing it at the, yes, former location of Gallery Jack. The latter has simply been deleted from my land holdings, at least for now. I figured I already had the Edwardston Station Gallery in Rubi to point people/avatars to if they wanted to see my entire collection of collages. But the main catalyst behind all this is the reinstatement of the SoSo Gallery in the heart of Otaki Gorge, and on the same exact land, coincidentally enough (or not), that the original version use to occupy, as discussed, for example, in this blog entry from mid-September. ‘Cept now it not only includes the Oblong collage series (as it always has through its several incarnations) but also the work of a guest artist, Mike Casey, a long time “syncher” friend we’ll say. More on that in a minute.

Below we see the top of “Downtown” Pietmond. I turned to bar around so that it faces the newly installed Blue Feather Gallery up on the hill.

Baker Bloch relieving pressure through excessive drinking after a long day of structure additions/subtractions/reshufflings. “Pietmond will be the end of me yet,” he slurs. There’s the new Blue Feather Gallery between Gallery None and House Greenup behind him from this angle.

And then within this Downtown now, with bar still perched on top, lies the new addition to the SoSo gallery and Mike Casey’s art. All these pictures were downloaded, with Mike’s permission of course, from his gallery page at the fascinating SITO site, long a cutting edge repository of shared, online artworks. Wikipedia article here.

Below, Baker stares at one of my favorites of his 26 pieces exhibited in this part of SoSo: a fractal inspired work called Wave Vulture. The SITO page on this picture is here.

More MC work displayed in the room nearest the front door of this space. I made an early decision to show his pieces against mostly a pure, black background, which I think helps to highlight the baroque textures.

Baker doing some impromptu repositioning as we follow him into the second room on this floor.

A look back to an interesting, anthropomorphic abstraction cryptically called Dr. F. that I decided to feature on a wall by itself here. Most of the pictures have cryptic titles, actually, which brings to mind works of famous Dadaists and Surrealists of the past, like Duchamp for example.

On the second and last floor in the part of SoSo dedicated to Mike’s work, I decided to exhibit only the black and white selections from his online collection. I think they work really well in this space, and the division between color (lower floor) and b&w (upper floor) was a natural one to make.

Closeup of a more recent and very intricate piece called Information Nibbler, from September 2010.

Pietmond Ch-ch-ch-changes, 02.

Gallery Jack/SoSo added to Pietmond… October 24, 2010

On hill to west, overlooking the town proper. Inside, again, are 4 of the 6 art/collage 10×10 series. The 5th lies in the SoSo gallery still sitting atop Gallery Jack, like it did in Orions Vale (I had to give up that land for this land). But I believe the name SoSo is best absorbed into Gallery Jack.

House Greenup (right), containing the original and remaining series, is just beside. What I’ve been calling “Gallery 9” (left) has currently been deactivated, since all the collages within are now found in the other 2 galleries.

Long shot looking west across the town toward Gallery Jack.

Yet another import from Orions Vale, or will be soon: the little bar in the middle of the woods created from an old A-frame, just east of town and still in the Otaki Gorge sim. This time it sits in a sort of moat. I have a feeling this bar will soon have its own story to tell, with the perhaps struggling proprietor a member of the Pietmond community.

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“Let’s bring in Hucka D. for some quality entertainment. Hucka D.?”

Hucka D.:

Good evening. Where do I sign up to be a resident of Pietmond? I want to contribute. Torsit says he wants to be a resident too. But he won’t be out [of jail] for a long, long time. They might even execute him. I’m planning a jail break. Want to contribute?

bb:

Maybe it’s best that Torsit stays in jail, Hucka D. After all he did threaten to kill the love of your life.

Hucka D.:

I know she’s not real now. *Torsit* doesn’t know that — he just read some loose ideas from the blog. Avid reader, you know. He said he really enjoyed reading the whole of Floydodo just after he killed Bracket Jupiter. But, thing is, it’s all blank pages. He only *thought* he read something real and tangible — projection. Queer, eh?

bb:

Yes, it is (!) So Floydodo’s just a blank book. Of no substance whatsoever.

Hucka D.:

None. You wish to talk of The Bill, though, and their influence on Pietmond tonight. Good topic!

bb:

Well… I was thinking — to start anyway — along the lines of Orange, Lemon, and Lime houses.

Hucka D. (quickly):

Orange is more fleshed out. Lime less so. There’s arguments that it isn’t even part of Pietmond and should be torn down. Lemon is between the 2. Orange… yellow… green; whole… half… void.

bb:

That was my thinking[ not surprisingly]. Lemon [House] lies in a halfway world between Orange/whole and Lime/empty or barren.

Hucka D.:

Pietmond has many stories to tell, as you’ll soon see. The Castle in The Rocks, for example: it was the original TILE Temple on the grounds. This is the birthplace of TILE, you see. The Cathedral of TILE is just the latest and last version. Sink, sank, sunk. Sunklands. This is where it all begins/will begin/has begun. A past/future paradise. Come a long way and a long way to go. Now you must create a confederation.

bb:

Confederation of sinks?

Hucka D.:

Yes.

bb:

Oh. Let me insert a picture of the town limits sign while I’m thinking about it. Technically, the galleries aren’t a part of town.

Hucka D.:

They were kicked out because the rest of the town wanted more art than just your collages. Don’t blame them. Nothing against the collages themselves, of course. Pietmond itself, after all, is the newest of your collages.

bb:

Right. My thinking as well… again. Each part seems to be where it belongs. Lemme go inworld and take that sign picture. (pause)

So here we have a picture of the gazebo I neglected to mention before, to the north of the downtown, as we’re calling it.

Hucka D.:

That gazebo has another story to tell. It use to be in Gallery Jack but was removed. Another group of people protested this as well. Pietmond town meetings can get a little rough. You should go to one.

bb (laughing):

Thanks. I will if you will. So here’s the signage. On the front: “To Galleries”. On the back: “Pietmond Town Limits”. This demonstrates the separation of the two regions.

Hucka D.:

The gazebo, like the Lime House beside it, was seen by some residents as also outside the community. Some members of the town even showed up with limes to pelt gallery supporters with. It got nasty. And juicy!

bb:

Is that why Lime House was never finished?

Hucka D.:

Yes. Kind of. You should also know that House Greenup wasn’t originally a gallery but a residence. Same for Gallery 9, and there’s discussion about whether it should be converted to apartments, once more, given the now overcrowded situation in Pietmond itself. 20 residents total now, I believe.

bb:

Where do they live? I know: another night.

Hucka D.:

Another night. Goodnight!

The disputed Lime House, directly beside the similarly controversial gazebo.

“Gallery Jack” Updates October 13, 2010

Well, as soon as I write that the 10×10 and the Edwardston Station Gallery are splitting into 3 separate collections, it all comes back together again. It’s a little wacky looking, but I think it works in its own, special way, shall we say. I present to you the 3rd (final?) version of the Edwardston Station Gallery, amalgamating the 10×10 series housed in the former, various collections once more. We still have the 3 formerly independent structures — House Greenup, SoSo, and Gallery Jack — but now they’re stuck together, as it were, 3 things that don’t really belong together that nevertheless seem to need each other to complete themselves.

Some interesting details of what use to be called SoSo, now perched directly atop the old Gallery Jack (a name which was “new” for about *1 day*).

Adding SoSo into the mix was the final touch, and I *just* had enough prims to do so. Immediately before that, I had also replaced the smaller Victorian house already on the land with the somewhat larger House Greenup, last seen on the Greentop property (which I still own).

Below is a better look at the mini-forest located to the east of the new Edwardston Station Gallery. Still hidden within the trees is the tiny bar with the great view of the surrounding forest. Probably should get a name for it.

I guess it was silly of me to think that the 10×10 should be exhibited in 3 separate, smaller galleries, and that somehow the series themselves were splitting off into combative groups of some sort. But there was a logic to that determination. Let’s see if Hucka D. wants to briefly talk tonight.

Hucka D.:

Nice job baker b. 3rd version, yes. How could you have guessed — once more?

bb:

*No* way. The 3 structures seem so different. They *are* different.

Hucka D.:

Yet they belong together. Finish up Floydadada soon, and we’ll work some more on interpretations, then. Unlike some of your subject matter, like Mythos, the 10×10 interests me considerably. More the art 10×10 than the writing 10×10, but both as well.

bb:

Should I join up with the Metaharpers now?

Hucka D.:

A possibility. You *could* make more art.

bb:

I’m going to keep exploring Corsica, Hucka D. Oh, I forgot to add the most important thing…

Hucka D.:

The most important along with the new Edwardston Station Gallery.

bb:

Well, that might be true. But it’s the idea that the Corsica continent is 3d in nature, or possibly 4d. It is simply different from other SL mainland continents in this way.

Hucka D.:

Not really. But as I said before, this is where SL and RL intertwine. Heterocera is still most closely bonded to Corsica. That leaves Jeogeot a bit to the side. At least for now.

bb:

But I know what all this is now. The Plane of Bill… Comma Islands… Egg Hill and Chasm Deep sinks…

Hucka D.:

You must then find Bill Hill.

bb:

My thinking is that it may be Greentop, my own hill that’s perhaps the highest hill on Corsica before it becomes a granite topped *mountain*. A Mole Hill…

Hucka D.:

… instead of a mountain, yes. Well, you may be right, then. (pause) What next?

bb:

Exploring.

More Updates… September 16, 2010

Replaced Gallery 9 near northeast corner of Noru, on my remaining parcel there (a 512), with just purchased Victorian house that I intuitively felt would be a great place to show the Greenup series of the 10×10. And it seems I was right. I call it House Greenup.

Upstairs:

Alcove w/ transparent walls, giving that great view of the surrounding “lowlands”.

Downstairs:

The Greenup series (20 collages) begins at Baker’s right here and works counterclockwise around the walls of both the lower and upper floors. ending at Baker’s left. Fits pretty well. And the house looks great, and slots into my narrow parcel perfectly.

View from long porch toward park-like grounds.

I don’t think I’ve included a picture of the expanded version of the lake in the park, so here ‘t’is. It’s quite deep for its size, although not really big enough to warrent a sailboat. Just for show, mind you. It’s a nice place to relax, and admittedly my favorite spot in Noru presently. Good place to get away from it all still.

Finally, I thought I’d throw in a snapshot from Otaki Gorge once more, showing some recently planted pink bushes in the pine woods on each side of the sink/gorge. And today I also tested whether the entire Blue Feather Gallery, current version, would fit onto this new property in any way. Success! Yes, I can move it to Otaki Gorge, but I’d ruin most of the views I currently have. So for now it’s staying put in Noru. But I left a bit of its pipe on the ground still (right), just to get use to the idea if needed.

New art in the Blue Feather; new gallery (SoSo) in Otaki Gorge… September 14, 2010

Kinetic art piece bought about a week ago from Tubular Gallery near Chilbo. Baker “sits” within and takes a fun ride. Inserted on middle of 3 patio areas of Blue Feather. Tubular Gallery added to appropriate maps and notecards. Go visit!

Couple more copies of famous art pieces procured from the Parktown Art Gallery. Once again, visit! There’s also an ad I picked up from the Red Leaf Gallery, which exists now only as a shell of the busy, functioning gallery it use to be (judging from the ad). I’d ask you to visit as well, but… well, it’s really not there any longer. Perhaps the Red Leaf will return; I’ll make a note to keep checking back. It *was* located just across the Hanja Infohub region from Parktown, in Hamneda.

Bought another beautiful etched glass art piece from Chilbo’s Kristine Kristan (K2 Gallery), along with another Chilbo piece by surrealist Janis Shamen (Ceci n’est pas une Galerie – Sur)

Finally a couple of Blinkertons for the second floor — yes he was a resident of Jeogeot — sometime, somewhere. 🙂

Moving now to Otaki Gorge, I’ve created an entirely new gallery called SoSo, a small affair housing, presently, 1 series of my “Art 10×10”, namely the Oblong series, my personal favorite as a whole.

Within you can look up for a great view of the palm tree marking the grave of Peter the SoSo, former resident of Otaki Gorge in pre-Linden days, apparently. This leftover tree acts as proof, after all (!) And so the gallery was named for this Sunklander Peter, who also, according the story/stories I’m still developing, left Norum sometime just before or after its absorption into the Linden Lab grid to come to this gorge/sink, perhaps the first such sink created.

As you can see, nature has not been excluded from the gallery. 🙂

Looking toward the Home o’ Fibs, as I’m calling it, from the large, east facing window of the gallery.

Overhead view. Since the creation of these photos, I’ve also made a path from the backdoor of the gallery (there are 2 identically shaped doors — front and back) to Gallery 9 transferred from Noru, up the hill a bit. More on that soon.

SoSo (gallery) was designed so that you could still get a great view into the center of the sink from the House of Truth (blue house in photo below) and Gallery 9.