Avalon Town Arts Initiative Launch

Floraclayflower Beeswing and Hypatia Pickens to Open the New AVALON ARTS INITIATIVE on Saturday, February 5, 2011 from 4 - 6 pm SLT.

Avalon Arts Community is pleased to announce a new program for budding virtual artists: the Avalon Arts Initiative. The town is sponsoring prime gallery space for new artists to exhibit - free of charge, with the goal of fostering new talent in virtual art. “This exciting project was really Tricia Aferdita’s idea,” said Rowan Derryth, Curator of the Initiative, “but being incredibly busy with managing Avalon Town, producing and hosting Metaverse Arts for Treet TV, and directing two galleries, she brought me on board. I’ve been keen to work on a project with her, and it’s been great fun.”

A call to artists went out last month which laid out the guidelines for participation: “Featured artists need not be new to SL, but should have only started exhibiting in the last 6 months, and must have had no major gallery exhibitions in world. We looked for artists working with virtual media, as opposed to those importing and showing images of physical works.”

The first two artists to be featured are Floraclayflower Beeswing and Hypatia Pickens. Beeswing is an SL photographer who has only just begun showing her work, which involves some wonderfully conceived post-production in Photoshop. Pickens is a seasoned SL educator, and has been involved in numerous arts and education projects. However this is her first time showing her own work in a large gallery, which combines elements of virtual building and machinima.

The Arts Initiative also hopes to promote education across the arts in SL, and will host in world classes as well as sponsored events across the arts spectrum, such as literary readings and performances.

The opening of the first exhibit will be held on Saturday, February 5th from 4 – 6 pm SLT. The event will also include a poetry reading by Pickens at 4.30, as well as the screening of Derryth’s first documentary Ekphrasis: PJ Trenton, an experiment in taking her Ekphrasis articles written for the Prim Perfect blog and turning them into a short film format. “I suppose I can include myself in the ‘budding artist’ category since this is my first machinima,” commented Derryth. “I figured I should be brave and put my work out there for critique!”

Sunday will also see the launch of the education portion of the programme, when the Avalon “Art History with a Twist” lecture series takes residence with a talk by artist Gracie Kendal titled The Art of Transformation in Contemporary Self-Portraits. Through their use of costumes, masks, wigs and make-up, artists such as Cindy Sherman, Lynn Hershmann and Yasumasa Morimura explore the relationship between identity and appearance, illusion and reality. Kendal will explore the way in which contemporary artists present their fictional, or "other selves."

All events will be held in the new Avalon Arts Initiative Building in Tabula Rasa (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tabula%20rasa/87/104/28.)

This is only the start for the Initiative, and applications will be accepted from artists on an ongoing basis. For further information, please contact Rowan Derryth in world.

Exposure Art Gallery sparkles with a collection of works by the artist Kyra. Join us as we celebrate the opening of this incredible exhibit of three dimensional art and sculptures with unique textures and motion. We kick off the exhibit with a concert by guitarist Simon Voix! See you there!

Exposure Art Gallery is located in Avalon Town (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tabula%20rasa/135/20/27)

The Luminous Lens: Photo Abstractions by PJ Trenton

I cordially invite you to join us at the Tricia Aferdita Gallery in Avalon Town on Wednesday, March 3 at 7 pm slt for the opening of a my new exhibit...my first in quite some time.

The Luminous Lens is a collection of abstract images that push the limits of photography to create some uniquely "painted" images from across the metaverse. Shot at various locations, the collection takes advantage of light, colour and texture to create bright, vibrant and abstract works with a somewhat impressionistic feel.

We welcome DJ Sredni Eel to provide the music for this exhibit opening.

The Tricia Aferdita Gallery is located in the vibrant Second Life arts community of Avalon Town. Avalon is a vibrant & innovative virtual community that prides itself on being a fun and creative atmosphere of art and literature.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tabula%20rasa/92/26/28.

Autumn Evening by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Last night was another great poetry night at the Speakers Circle in Avalon Town. In honour of the changing seasons, I decided to read the following poem by Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942).

Autumn Evening
Dark hills against a hollow crocus sky
Scarfed with its crimson pennons, and below
The dome of sunset long, hushed valleys lie
Cradling the twilight, where the lone winds blow
And wake among the harps of leafless trees
Fantastic runes and mournful melodies.

The chilly purple air is threaded through
With silver from the rising moon afar,
And from a gulf of clear, unfathomed blue
In the southwest glimmers a great gold star
Above the darkening druid glens of fir
Where beckoning boughs and elfin voices stir.

And so I wander through the shadows still,
And look and listen with a rapt delight,
Pausing again and yet again at will
To drink the elusive beauty of the night,
Until my soul is filled, as some deep cup,
That with divine enchantment is brimmed up.

Vacuum by Kimba Sideways

So I present below the second of Miss Kimba's poems that I read at our recent open poetry night in Avalon Town.

Vacuum
by Kimba Sideways

I woke into a dream, woke up screaming
I was blinded by an ultra-violet beaming
I'm in a cold sweat, shivers running down my spine
I got soaking wet by constant decline

I was haunted by a monster ape
with its constantly changing shape
there was millions of them big and small
leaving no way to escape at all

I'm in a space without room
I'm running down a vacuum
there ain't no easy way out
of the enclosing continuum

I can't speak my mind - there are freaks within me
who are shouting with double intensity
I go to bed, I get attacked
by the friends and foes I never met yet,

yet a true confession is the fear of the fearless
the replacement of the dream of the dreamless
I 'm in a cold sweat, shivers down my spine
I am running faster all the time

I was sitting on a raft made of deadwood
that immediately sank just like lead would
I got a feeling inside that gave me an outside chill
the fish like chew on my spongy mesophyll

this is a true confession of a passionate one
this is the fear of the dreamless
it's the replacement of what has hardly begun
it's the dream of the fearless

Gracie Kendal at Exposure Art Gallery...

I am extremely excited to have the incredibly talented artist Gracie Kendal showing in the art loft at Exposure Art Gallery. Those who know Gracie will attest to her creativity, her wonderful personality and her joie de vivre! Incredibly talented to boot!

"As an artist, I have become fascinated with emerging online social environments, specifically the Web 2.0 virtual reality world of Second Life. Within Second Life I created a virtual representation of myself in order to connect with other artists, art enthusiasts and creative people from around the world", says Gracie.

I invite you to come and immerse yourself in the exciting and vibrant art of Gracie at Exposure!

Find out more about Gracie and see about acquiring some of her work in real life! Visit her web site at http://www.kristineschomaker.net.

Exposure Art Gallery is located in the heart of the thriving arts community of Avalon on the Tabula Rasa sim (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tabula%20rasa/135/20/27).

For more information about Avalon, please visit the community ning at http://avalontown.ning.com/.