New SL Art Calendar ning!

Utilizing the social networking strengths of the ning, Tricia Aferdita has created a new social network to help artists and gallery owners in Second Life to promote their work and their shows in one central location.

SL Art Calendar is a public forum for posting and finding art-related events in Second Life. It can be found at http://slartcalendar.ning.com/.

I encourage everyone who is interested in the vibrant SL arts scene to join the ning and keep up to date on artists, galleries and arts-related events across the grid.

Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Ning offers an easy-to-use technology platform enabling you to create and join Ning Networks for your interests and passions. With over 1.3 million Ning social networks created and more than 30 million registered members, millions of people every day are coming together across Ning to explore and express their interests, discover new passions, and meet new people around shared pursuits.

Art of C.J. Ross (aka Winter Nightfire)

Winter Nightfire aka C.J Ross is a self-taught painter from San Francisco, California. Her exposure to Abstract Expressionism began at age 16 in the North Beach neighborhood at Caffe Trieste, where she befriended her mentors, the noted Beat artists Jack Hirschman and George Long.

She displayed her first painting at a group show with her mentors in 2001 at age 24, and has been showing solo at venues across San Francisco ever since.

Winter recently teamed up with Filthy Fluno (Jeffrey Lipski) at the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) in San Francisco for Artathon. These two amazing, fun and provocative artists took SLCC by storm...armed with paints, pastels and assorted canvases to capture the essence of the convention...in art! Sponsored by Avalon Art District and CounterpART Gallery, the pair created a wide-range of abstract art inspired by the event. The works were auctioned off at the end of the convention; raising $1,000 US for the non-profit organization Virtual Ability!

You can support fabulous artists like Winter by purchasing their wonderful and creative works in real life. You can view works currently for sale and acquire your own by visiting http://counterpartgallery.art.officelive.com/winternighfire.aspx.

The Vernian Deep by Viv Trafalgar

I present to you this fabulous video of the Vernian Deep in New Babbage created by the ever talented Viv Trafalgar. This video is just amazing...great work Viv!



Or visit YouTube to watch and rate it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ITE3HTWvSw!

Nude Studies by Scottius Polke at Exposure Art Gallery

PJ Trenton is pleased to welcome the most talented and artistic otter on the grid to Exposure Art Gallery (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tabula%20rasa/142/39/27) for an exhibit of nude studies in pastel and ink. The otterly incredible Scottius Polke opens his exhibit at Exposure on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 from 7 to 8 pm slt.

Join us for a fabulous opening event with Radio Riel's own Gabrielle Riel as she brings us some of the best grooves for shaking your pixels!

Scottius brings you a collection of beautifully rendered nude studies, several of which have never been seen in Second Life before.

We look forward to seeing you at the opening of this amazing exhibit.

Quest for the Golden Prim Podcast

Welcome to a behind the scenes look at The Quest for the Golden Prim! Join Gabrielle Riel, as she discovers the mysteries of the making of the web comic, through interviews with the creators, writers, producers and cast of The Quest for the Golden Prim. The time for secrets...is at an end!

In the first episode, Gabrielle Riel speaks with Saffia Widdershins and PJ Trenton about some of the inspirations that created The Quest!

The podcast is available by visiting the Golden Prim blog at http://goldenprim.blogspot.com/2009/08/quest-for-golden-prim-podcast-episode-1.html.

Grand Opening of the Au Cafe and Gallery (August 29)

What is the Au Cafe?
The cafe is a place where Alchemy unplugged displays their bizarreness. Whether it is an hour long practice session full of philosophy and madness, or low prim furniture they have created or extraordinary creations that their associates have produced, it's all there, at the Au Cafe (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vindoskygger/238/40/26).

I am honoured to have been asked to exhibit new Second Life photographic works at Au. I hope you will be able to drop by and see these brand new works which are available for sale.

Events schedule:
11 AM: Au live @ the cafe (there is no better way to kick off a grand opening than with the live music of Alchemy unplugged: aka: Au - Natil has one of the best voices in SL! You just HAVE to have a listen!)
12pm : DJ Lynda @ the cafe (She's hot, she's stylish and she has plenty of good tunes to make you dance)
1pm : DJ Penny @ the cafe (sixties psychedelic, punk, celtic rock and a DJ with mega intelligence... and a quirky sense of humour)
2:30 pm : Au live @ the cafe w/Natil and Daren lookalikes contest with 2700 lindens in prizes (Au madness - what the hell was I thinking?)
3:30 pm : DJ Paulina @ the gallery (Eighties, dance, classic rock - she's half-sweet and half-acid and always READY TO RUMBLE!)
5pm : Au Live @ the gallery (Au smoothness - yaaaaaaaaa)
6pm : DJ Lynda @ the gallery (Groove/Jazz/soul/rock/electro)

Throughout the day : amateur art contest. Submit one piece to either Lynda Ultsch or Natil Flanagan. SL or RL photography, photoshop, paintings, sculptures (low-prim). Prize : 1000 Lindens, plus a wall to expose and sell your creations in the gallery for two months.

Natil's trivia, between 12pm and 2:30pm, where she will hand out various prizes from our sponsors.

Khet tournament, Au blade of your choice to the winner (compliments of Kanto Edges). (if you don't know Khet, it's a board game, very strategic, and rather easy to learn. A board is up in the gallery lobby for those who want to practise. -needs two players-)

Oh! Don't forget to take a stroll through the seasons at the Sound Tree... there are more free gifts there than you can shake a stick at... er, or a branch for that matter.

Voting in the Caledon Rose Growing Competition Now Open

As you may have seen, The Primgraph is sponsoring The Caledon Rose-Growing Competition. To celebrate the launch of our summer issue, we are holding the competition on the grounds of The Primgraph Press in Caledon Glengarry (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Glengarry/53/143/124)

This competition (we hope the first of an annual event) is being staged in order to find the best roses in the Steamlands and beyond - and we have some superb entrants!

There are two categories:

• Single Roses (no more than 35 prims per rose)
• Rosebushes (no more than 15 prims per bush)

The roses in competition are on display in the courtyard at The Primgraph Press in Caledon Glengarry - four rose bushes and six individual roses.

Now it is your turn! There are voting boards above the either side of the gate. To vote for your favourite rose on display, click on the name of the entrant. The PINK board is for the single rose competition; the BLUE board is for the rosebush competition.

Voting is now open, and will conclude at 2pm on Saturday 29th August!

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

Artathon Artworks Opening ~ August 30, 2009 @ 2pm SLT

Two of Second Life's most recognizable and creative artists invite you to the opening of Artathon Artworks in the Avalon Art District (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ars%20Lunga/15/172/28) on Sunday, August 30th at 2 pm! Artathon is the result of an incredible philanthropic adventure conceived by Filthy Fluno and Winter Nightfire for the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) in San Francisco earlier this month.

These two amazing, fun and provocative artists took SLCC by storm...armed with paints, pastels and assorted canvases to capture the essence of the convention...in art! Sponsored by Avalon Art District and CounterpART Gallery, the pair created a wide-range of abstract art inspired by the event. The works were auctioned off at the end of the convention; raising $1,000 US for the non-profit organization Virtual Ability!

Virtual Ability works to help people with assistive hardware like voice recognition, special styluses and specialized typing determine the best way to access their virtual environment. They provide community members with support and encouragement, training, virtual field trips and more. You can learn more about Virtual Ability at www.virtualability.org.

Please join us in Avalon on the 30th and meet this two fabulous and generous artists and see the amazing works created at the convention!

Days...a poem by Kimba Sideways

I was honoured to be asked by my good friend Kimba Sideways to read two poems which she wrote at our last open poetry night in Avalon. Once a month we all gather at the Speaker's Circle in Avalon to listen to each other read poetry. They could be original compositions, personal favourites by better kn0wn poets or ones that we just feel are fitting either based on the audience or the theme when we have them. Below, I present one of Kimba's poems which I read to the gathered audience...

Days
by Kimba Sideways

It took me hours just to get it right
but only seconds to disappear
I got the feeling I am shouting out as loud as I can
but the silence is all I hear
it is like salt upon my wounded skin
that'll burn me up from inside
it is a fight I could never ever possibly win
like the spark taking on the night

I got my eyes open wide at night
it is darkness I am wrapped in
I simply can't turn from my inner frights
it is my body I am trapped in
I was amused about what's on my mind
implications precisely defined
now I'm confused about the turning in me
'caus the turning in me
was a joke of the killing kind

...days....
seem to roll like big waves
now there are standing so still,
I fell under a crazy spell

I got to turn wise before I turn old
I gotta get me a coat before I get a cold
I'm acting funny while I'm out on a limb
now it doesn't seem to matter what I've been told
I had nine lives but I wasted eight
a loss at a heavy rate
No, I can't get out of stormy seas
so am I or am I not the maker of my destiny

high hopes at a high time
It is an urge that makes me want to break a line
sunlight's getting bleaker
shadows getting longer
I'm getting weaker
not stronger
but still there's something that is holding me back
while my head keeps pushing to get rid of that
I'm getting nervous as time's getting tight
I toss and turn I can't sleep at night

...days....
up and down like big waves
into a beautiful embrace
deep within I'm in a crazy spin....