SL Art

There are so many ways to create and display art and now there is another way for artist to display their creative genius. People are building and scripting locations on Second Life that gives the viewer as an avatar a three-dimensional point of view of their creation. I believe this is the newest form of art these days and there will be more artists that will be choosing this type of palette to show their art. I found some amazing locations under Showcase in the search engine on the Art tab.

I found Art Box where an avatar can interact with famous pieces of art. You are teleported to a room with several familiar pictures. Then you touch the piece you like and it teleports you to a room that is the piece of art in 3D. On the side they have the all the props and even outfits so you can get the full look. There is also an avatar at the side to clean up after your done playing around with the set.

Another location I am very fond of is Immersiva at 180, 83, 26 by Bryn Oh. You are teleported in a sea of very shallow water with a mountain island made of metal and a free small object that you have to get closer to see what they are. When you get to these objects they are all connected to a story line. On the other side of the mountain there is a wooden contraption built with objects inside. When you touch the object it teleports you to a black room.

When you spin around there is a still scene with a note on the ground. Through poetry the artist tells a story through teleporting to each scene. You can walk around but cannot change anything. The story is interesting about a robot rabbit and the conflicts it goes though. There is another place that teleports you to a crisp white room with scenes set up like several small stages. This location is very whimsical and futuristic and a really cool idea to tell a story.

Restaurants With Art

I enjoy sitting down at a restaurant and looking around at the art on the walls. A restaurant called Recipes on Crooks in Troy is a perfect example. This is a very small place and kinda hard to find but always has local artists work on the walls. I think this is a great idea and more restaurants should do this. It gives the room a creative vibe and even inspiration to the customers.

Recipes is a very cute place that serves breakfast and lunch. Kind of expensive but has great eggs Benedict and French toast as well as cappuccinos in really large cups. This is a one-room restaurant and every wall has artwork from an artist. The pieces are hung by bent spoons, which I think is a really cool idea. The art gives the room an atmosphere depending on the artist. I found it very interesting to eat my eggs and look around at the paintings or photographs.

A place my friends and I go to not only because they work there but because it is super cool is in Clawson called Black Lotus Brewery. This is a wonderful place to hang out and drink, eat and listen to live music, all while checking out local artists work on the walls. They brew their own beer in all different flavors according to seasons and have a small wine list. I usually get a fun wine spritzer and my friend Ally gets her beer with vanilla ice cream, which is apparently delicious.

Another cool place for local art is the Cass Café in Detroit on Cass Avenue. It is a very interesting and eclectic restaurant that serves an amazing menu with a full bar. It’s nice for Wayne students to hop over for a quick meal and drink before going back to class. They also have live music and local artists displayed on the walls. They have also won awards from the Metro Times, Best Bar Art, Best Bar for Conversations, and Best Bar to Take Friends From New York.

Black Lotus

Cass Cafe

Work of Art

There will be a new show looking for The Next Great Artist on Bravo premiering June 9^th called Work of Art. For all my years of watching reality show I have never seen one about artists. It looks like it is going to be the same set up as Top Chef or Project Runway. There is of course a host China Chow, who is not surprisingly a model as well as an actress and artist who grew up around prominent artist in New York. The judges are Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Jerry Saltz, and Bill Powers; unfortunately I have no clue who any of them are but are very relevant in the industry.

There is also a mentor Simon de Pury or the Tim Gunn of this show for those of you who watch Project Runway. Sarah Jessica Parker is one of the executive producers for this show, which is unexpected in my opinion. I would figure her to be more of a fashion show producer instead of an artist show. I feel like this show might be taken the wrong way or possibly made to be something that could be looked down upon. I hope the producers do not give the impression to the viewers that all artists are crazy lunatics but show that there is sanity in the art world.

I am very excited to watch this show and see how they handle the fourteen contestants. I am concerned on how they will judge the contestants art. I believe creating art and displaying it is a very personal experience and these people will be doing this in a matter of hours in front of millions and being critically judged by very important people. I do not know if I would be able to handle that. The winner would get an express ticket to possibly being an important well-known artist.

The artist will have to defend their work through everything. The problem is every one has their own opinion and taste level in art so it will be interesting to see what the judges say. One of the artist Nao said, “I’m not responsible for your experience of my work”. I do believe that everyone views art with bias eyes. Everyone has their own background and reasons for their likes and dislikes but there is also a difference between good art and bad art.

There are bios of everyone involved and videos on the Bravo site for this show. There is also a place where you can get creative yourself and draw a little something special.

Work of Art: The Next Great Artist

Wonderwall inc.

This site is made by Masamichi Katayama and is an interior designing firm that shows off their brilliance. There are portfolios that cover commercial spaces like retail spaces, restaurant and bars and office showrooms. Each design is crisp and clean and very contemporary. The main page is very creative in its design. At the top there are categories from news to jobs and years that you can view the bottom part by.

The main part is this extraordinarily designed showcase of all these places, which are mostly located in New York, Paris and Japan. When scrolled across the images transform by following the pointer the parts are twisted and enlarged. While this is happening there is the sound of little driplets’ of water when ever crossing to the next image. There is five across and thirty-five down if you view all of the sites on one page. When you click on a cube it tells you about the location and gives other addresses and there are pictures that download to the right.

The images are impressive and designs are very stylish. I can tell these places are for the rich and famous. The places are linear and complex with quality furniture. The lighting is very important and placement of furniture. Many places use glass and brick as dividers.

One of my favorites is A Bathing Ape Pirate Store in Nagano because it has a sense of humor. The clothes are displayed in treasure trunks and the walls look like you’re in the belly of a ship. The outside is a neon blue wall that looks like wood and water. I also enjoy the store The Ice Cream Store in Hong Kong because it is very atmospheric. The stairs to go up have little lights on the steps and walls and on the ceiling. When upstairs the whole room is covered in planet textures. The seats look like ice cream sandwiches and the down stairs looks like an ice cream shop but they sell clothing. It has a child like appearance and I’m sure the price tag differs.

Wonderwall inc.

Freebies

I may be addicted to shopping on Second Life. I want to go every time I am on line. Although it has to be freebies because I refuse to put money into SL. This is probably because I would be on more than I am already and I do not have time to have another addiction. I will buy anything that is free unless I already have it. I find myself buying things that look interesting or things that I would like in real life. I also buy things that I would not be able to get or wear in real life.

I click on the item and add it to my inventory then get to campus and open everything and check what I got out. I get rid of a few things but keep most of it because I never know when I might need a Jester costume or a citrus squeeze store. I like to keep the odd things just incase I need it for the special moment in the future. I have so many houses, boats and Vehicles I could be on the Rich and the Famous if this was real life. The things I have the most of is clothing, countless items in this category.

I have 20,714 items in my inventory at this very moment. Some how I wish I had all these for myself in real life. I would be one happy person with a lot of crap and most wouldn’t even fit me. A lot are duplicates though really. I could go through and probably get rid of a few thousand or so because I will most likely never use the item.

I have gotten this freebie shopping down to an art. I go to search under All and either input freebie but that usually pops up with places I have been already or places that have the same stuff I already have. Or I input something that interests me and I go to the location that looks prosperous and then look at the Price list and look for the word free. Then I teleport to the place and hunt down what they are offering me. I also love to look at the Showcase locations because those are usually very interesting and look for free things there. It’s nice to get a little gift and exciting to open it up like Christmas morning.

Designer Couch: Dale May

This site is very interesting because it shows many artist and photographers of all types and shows their talent. I’d like to focus on this one photographer Dale May. His work is beautiful and inspiriting. He is based in New York and works in advertising, editorial, music and conceptual based imagery. His work is amazing and should be because he is the Creative Director of Post Image Group. He retouches high-end digital works.

His first photo is of multiple people around a pool table brawling. The rest of the pictures on the page are of women covered in tattoos in pin up poses. They all have beautiful scenery with either natural or textured environments. Some images are more surreal and fantasy like. Near the end he has animal posing in human environments. One is a bunny and cat bowling.

The image above is my favorite from this site from Dale. I find it the most inspiring because of the bright color choices and intense contrast. I admire pin up photography and the retro look mixed with the 21^st century. I love the vintage-inspired look with a contemporary vibe to it. The inner lip tattoo is pretty cool too, I was going to get one of those but decided to get on in my ear instead.

I started looking around the site and searched under the Digital art category and found many artists with very expressive works. Some have graphic designed based images that burst with curves and colors. Many have brilliant colors and abstract shapes that look more like wallpaper. Although others look more like advertisement and commercial with models or creatively designed logos. This site is full of talented artist that are inspiring.

Gamer

A movie came out this year called Gamer staring Gerard Butler (hot), Amber Valletta and Michael C. Hal. It’s about a man, Cable that was accused of murder and sentenced to jail. By the way it is based in the future so the prisoners are the avatars in a game played by people in their homes. The game is based on Call of Duty or other military games where the point of view is the face of the shooter in the game. This man is really talented at killing with the help of the kid that controls his movements.

His wife is part of a Second Life/SIMS world but she is a prostitute controlled by a really gross fat man. They show the world and it is very eclectic with bright colored outfits and graphic sexual scenes. The parts in this world are very intense with rapid moments and music to match. It looks like Second life would look if it were to be in the real world. There are names over the avatars heads and people can change their identity.

There is not a relationship between the players and the gamers because of the player being prisoners and having the possibility to die at any battle. In Cable’s situation he is the best ever in the game and could win his freedom and back with his wife and daughter. His daughter is actually being taken care of by the creator of the whole real person gaming system and the one who put Cable in jail on purpose. His character is pretty intense; he even has a song and dance number, which is entertaining.

This movie was not at all what I thought it was going to be like. I was surprised how they incorporated Second Life and SIMS but I thought it was interesting. Although I hope if this were to happen in the future, it would not be all about sex and prostitutes. Hopefully it would be more like how it is now but have the ability to be in two places at once with the help of avatars. There would be a world I could not imagine and probably will never happen, but you never know.