Some thoughts.....

I have not been writing since a long, long time now, but had suddenly the need to write something after reading Summer’s thoughts. It is not an answer to her article, nor is it a claim of wisdom. It is just what I feel, while being on the grid for more then three years now.

While some people try to compare life with beaches and waves (article of Summer W.), which are coming and going, life is most of all an experience of successive events. Good and bad ones.

Although life seems to be a stacking of negative experiences, these events should be turned into positive experiences which could be used in future events.

In Second Life, events are following each other at high speed, even not realistic in normal RL, and people are emotionally involved, because it is not the avatar who is responding but the person behind the keyboard. It is sometimes very difficult to even process all these happenings, and at the end, people have the tendency to get a moment of depressiveness, where , originally, they started in SL to step out of their RL and have fun in another, virtual, life. Meeting other cultures, other nationalities were the challenges of the new world, but are also increasing the chances of being misunderstood, due to misinterpretations, which can cause frustrations.

These frustrations are the result of trying to communicate in a different language, which, although you can have a great skill, been written with certain proverbs, and not understood properly.

It is the truth that, once something is written, the other person will read it and understand it with his knowledge of the language, which is not always his mother language, and in most cases, even not of the writer either. And there you are…..left with some words, no expression of the face, no gesture language, just words, written in a moment of unknown mood.

The art is, trying to comprehend the other person, not to upset anybody, reacting as a mature person and relativate all events in SL.

Sometimes, the best way to find a solution is on your own, not involving third parties, because other minds, other thoughts can make it all worse instead of better.

Kahlan Bingyi and Adianna Price at the Avatrait Gallery

We are proud to have the amazing art of Kahlan Bingyi and Adianna Price at the Avatrait Gallery. I am glad I could persuade them to make 10 original art pieces for this event.

We are also glad to inform everybody that we have changed the concept of the gallery. Every original art piece can be bought multiple times inworld, at very interesting prices. You will only be able to buy this piece at the Avatrait Gallery. It is exclusively made for the gallery.

By buying a piece of art at the gallery, you support in fact the artist, and give him a sign of appreciation, and that is where they all have been working for: appreciation of their work.
All profits are for the artist only.

You can visit the gallery here.

The Avatrait Gallery will have a new show at a new location!!

The Avatrait Gallery has moved several times over the past year to find a good location. Several friends of the gallery have offered their land for a temporary settlement.
The past location was perfect, if it wasn't for the limitation of the visitors. I doubted a long time, because it was only needed for a couple of hours per month, but finally decided to move again.
Naima Rejkus, known from the DBL gallery, has offered her land to be the new home for the Avatrait Gallery. This will not mean that the DBL gallery will disappear, on the contrary.
It will open again in the near future, and a s a neighbour of the Avatrait Gallery.

Naima Rejkus will be the PR manager of the Avatrait Gallery in the future, and, just like the past show, we will have machinima at the gallery. The set up of this machinima event will be done by the Media Techs of the Avatrait Gallery, Veronika Garzo and Bulli Shumann from TEKSTUFF.
In the month of April, there will be no machinima event, because of the change of settings by "youtube", but we will have the nicest videos of SL again in May.

For the April show, the Avatrait Gallery is proud to present five artists.
Ariel Brearly, Mariella Tammas, Djibu Fabre, WhoFliesLikeTheWind Writer, known as "Wind", and Babe Topaz will show each of them four originals, never shown inworld or on any other site.

The Avatrait Management will be glad to welcome you on Saturday, April 10th 2010 at 1PM SLT at the new location.

The Other Life at the Avatrait Gallery

On Saturday, March 6th, Ahmad "Don" Hosho will be featuring at the Avatrait Gallery. The concept of this show will be heard through the music of Tasty Hax, especially for this show.
He made 10 original pieces for "The Other Life", a show that will explain his and our other life to you.

For the first time, we will also have a special machinima event, with the contribution of Rysan Fall and Hadji Ling, two talented machinima makers. This set up of machinima was possible with the help of Veronika Garzo from TEKSTUFF, who made some efforts for this show.

These machinima will not only be a visual spectacle, but will have audio too.

Visit the gallery here.

Four Artists, Four Styles at the Avatrait Gallery

After the successful show of Nessy Shepherd in January, the Avatrait Gallery has now invited four artists who make interesting works.
Nevery Lorakeet, Meilo Minotaur, Theoretical Afterthought and J. Blüü have made each four works in their very own style. The combination of these different styles makes this show so special.
After having the gallery on different places for the past year, we hope that we now found a place where we can stay for a long time. It was Tymmerie Thorne and Jerremy Darwin who were so kind to make some space on their sim Ghambt. We could build the whole gallery back again in all his pride, so the work of Prad Prathivi, who built the gallery, and which is a unique building inworld, is still intact.

The gallery will be open on Saturday, February 6th at 1 PM SLT.

Visit the gallery here.

Nessy Shepherd at the Avatrait Gallery

The Avatrait Gallery starts the brand new year with a show of Nessy Shepherd.

She isn't new in Second Life, she doesn't need an introduction.
Looking through her flickrstream you can see she handles a lot of styles. She loves fantasy and classic, but also modern and surreal.

This artist has prepared some post processed images but also pure snapshots from the grid.

Like always we will have a party to celebrate the opening of the show.

Don't miss this event, exceptionally it will start on a Sunday at 1 Pm SLT on a new location.

See you on Sunday,

Looker Lumet
Avatrait Manager

PS. Thanks to Metapartners we could build up the gallery on their sim for this show.

Season's Greetings

Etereal Ghost wins the CW Studio Halloween Photo contest

I am proud to inform that this picture has won the first price in the CW Studio Halloween Photo Contest 2009.

It is not always easy to find the right inspiration for pictures, but I am happy with this result.
I truly appreciate the comment written on their blog.

"The use of a transparent layer is breath taking when done right!
The soft ghost against the dark night is what made this image our winner.

I loved the lighting contrast and attention to detail."

Rebeca Bashly at the Avatrait Gallery

Next saturday, October the 3rd, Rebeca Bashly will be featured at the Avatrait Gallery. The show will be on for the whole month, but if I were you, I wouldn't miss the opening party for a dime.

Rebeca isn't an Avatrait member, but was a co winner for the May show, where she could exhibit her winning piece. It was at that show that she impressed the Avatrait board and they asked her to do a personal show for the gallery, which she gladly accepted. She made 20 new originals for this show, and I can say that they are really amazing.

I tried to put her soul in the poster. Don't miss this event!!
Dj will be Lucifer Hammerer

Saturday , October, 3rd
1- 4 PM SLT
Smilla 31/191/3501

Are SL Artists becoming scarce?

I was reading an article, actually more a message, yesterday, about Second Life art, and more in particular the art of images. It seems that there are some people who believe the making of art works in Sl is over. People wouldn’t be interested anymore in making images in the virtual world. Instead of that, they look for other challenges as building, scripting, machinima, shops or whatever they think about what would give them more satisfaction than making art images.

My opinion is, that maybe there are less photographers inworld interested to make beautiful pieces, but….to me…it is only a natural change of interest. The “few” that will be left, will be the ones that are motivated to work on images and will try to maintain the quality of their images as high as possible. Others, with maybe more skills and talent, eventually will find their way in building or other activities. It is not always because you have the skills, that you are meant to be an image maker, and perfectly understandable to look for other challenges.

But there are exceptions. People whose life has always been about photography and who want to improve their skills in Photoshop or another post processing program will eventually stick to the pictures enhancements. SL is an ideal platform to take pictures and try out all the tools in your photo program. It is a world that is not comparable, as you can choose which background, which scene, which pose, which angle…etc….what you can not do so easy in RL

I won’t call myself an artist, but since I have registered myself at SL, I have been using the opportunities in the virtual world to enhance my skills in Photoshop. I wasn’t familiar with the program at all at the beginning, and, although I am not posting as much images as in the beginning, I still have fun by surfin’ the net for tutorials or images which I can use to process my pictures. And I see others improving too, and that makes me happy.

We do see a slight change though, and that is that more and more avatars use RL pictures to blend with SL pictures, but as long as the main object is from inworld, I don’t think it would ruin the appreciation of the majority, as being SL images.

I hope I am not alone with my view on this matter, and that we still will have quality SL pictures in flickr and inworld.

Avatrait Gallery on the move

After 3 shows at Kapako, the Avatrait Gallery will move again to another sim.
We were lucky that Mecca Merosi gave us the opportunity to have our shows at her sim, while we were looking for other possibilities.

Finally Coolz0r Courier offered to put the gallery on his sim . Landmarks will be given soon, after our hard work to put the gallery back in his glory.;)

On September 5th, the gallery will be opened with a brand new show of Sebcaen Ulysse's works.

Eventually, for the visitors of the gallery, nothing, or at least not much will change. The gallery stays the same, it is just moved to another sim.

Thank you Mecca, for hosting us these past months, thank you Coolz0r, for giving us this opportunity, and thank you, visitors of the gallery, for your everlasting support.

Fundraiser Event at the Avatrait Gallery

For the first time in Avatrait's history, there will be an event at the gallery, to support another artist with another art form. There are a lot of avatars making beautiful machinima on SL, but yet, this art form has not been directly supported by Avatrait, as it is difficult to frame a movie.
Nevertheless we want to support those artists too, and accepted the request from Noelani Mahana, to organize a Fundraiser Event for her next project.

You can see some of her previous works on YouTube, here and here.

Noelani Mahana is also a novice writer, and you will be able to find her works on Black Lashed.

"This Summer Mahana Machinima is dusting off the reels and embarking on a new machinima production right here in our beloved Second Life.

To finance this movie project Mahana Machinima is hosting a Fundraiser Event at the marvelous Avatrait Gallery on Saturday the 11th of July 2009 between 1-5 p.m. SLT.

Avatrait Gallery

We are honored to send you this invitation and hope to see you there where the owner of Mahana Machinima, Miss Noelani Mahana, will get more into details about this movie project.

This presentation will be followed by a magnificent show by the sensational DJ, Saturn Ariantho.

On behalf of Mahana Machinima I welcome you.

Noelani Mahana "

The art of Iam Yumako will still be displayed during this event, so don't hesitate to visit us, and enjoy the wonderful art of this artist.

Artist of the Month in Vain INC.

I was looking at the kiosks at the Avatrait Gallery, and suddenly I saw the cover of Vain INC. And there it was my name, artist of the month. Although it took me some time to go through the pages to find the article and pictures, it was worthwhile.

Lost World in the new issue of Role Magazine

Role Magazine is pleased to announce the publication of our May, 2009 issue. As we celebrate the release of our 6th issue we take a closer look at the challenges surrounding enforcement of residents’ Intellectual Property rights including trademark and copyright issues.

If you’re considering strolling down the aisle during the upcoming wedding season, be sure to look at our fashion spread which features a lovely selection of nuptial attire. As always, we bring you articles on the latest trends; hot finds and kawaii, fashion tips for men and women; and, features on the subjects of house and living, art, music, literary, travel, property and more.

See an article that might interest your friends or group members? ROLE Magazine blog posts can now be easily shared by linking directly to your Plurk or Twitter page.

ROLE Magazine continues our commitment to our advertisers by providing verifiable readership statistics on our website.

As always, the team at ROLE Magazine thanks you for your continued support and encouragement!

The article I wrote this month for the Role Magazine is about "Lost World" and more in particular lolmac Shan and Kiya McMahon.

Freak Show & Avatrait @ ModaSL!

Avatrait began in Second Life back in 2007, initially as a service that allowed SL residents to order high-quality framed prints of in-world portraits of their Avatars. As we reached out to talented S.L. photographers, we discovered that there was a whole new type of art being produced in Second Life, and decided to open up the Avatrait Gallery to feature the best of these artists.

The Avatrait Gallery not only produces virtual art for sale in-world, but creates real-world versions available to order. As popular as the Gallery has been, the amount of Second Life art that can be featured in it at any given time is limited, so we decided to develop a web site that would allow all those interested in this new genre to store, share, and even sell their works.

As you all noticed, the gallery has disappeared for a couple of weeks now, and that is also why we had to move to the gallery garden for Joshua's show, which was a success, btw.

We had to look for a new location and found it eventually. All need still to be rebuild, but the co-operation with ModaSL is a fact.

What is behind the project ModaSL?
ModaSL is a sim dedicated to Fashion, Glamour, Design and Art related to Second Life. Its not commercial approach will allow creation, presentation, promotion and design of all new trends related to the world of fashion and all its derivatives. Composed of different areas depending on the examined field, ModaSL tend to become a solid point of reference for those who create and follow fashion, and new insights about the virtual design. The channels are muliple infact: two exhibit areas, one indoor and one outdoor, as a gallery space and for dynamic presentation of objects of design. There will be two runways to make way for new stylists or new collections. And also a cinema / auditorium to provide space to art film linked to Second Life, an information point where Miss Bliss Janus welcomes questions, giving informations and advices about new shops and new international trends, an "Outfit of the Week" area with references to combinations and LM, a building dedicated to bloggers, which will become home base within the metaverse of all important fashion blog runners around Second Life, a fashion school and last but not least, the famous Fashion Café, meeting place for parties, discussions and community. And finally, about 1000 meters high, you can now find the famous Freak Show, an area dedicated to the Visual Art of Second Life.

ModaSL is part of the region that includes ItaliaSL, both Jacopo Perenti's SIMs, and that ModaSL will be completed shortly and is going to be ready to host fashion shows, exhibitions, galleries, presentations, and many more.

More information on the Avatrait gallery will be up soon.

So, stay tuned Freaks and Avatrait fans!!!!!! A lot of fun and art @ ModaSL!!!!!

Sunshine in the virtual world doesn't always mean the same in RL

It has been a while that I have written a blog post, but every day seems to have fewer hours.

I had a lot of things on my hand, not only in SL, but also in RL. This meant for me that I was not able to work on pictures, the way I would like to do. And certainly did not even think about blogging, for which I apologize to all (how few they may be) readers, who are or were anxious to read about new adventures or experiences.

The next couple of days will even be very crucial for my future in SL, as some decisions are about to be made, which can turn my virtual life upside down. This can be either way.

I have been inworld for two and a half years; I enjoyed it very much, learned a lot and could do my most favorite thing: taking and post processing pictures. So not all was in vain after all.

Companies are rising inworld, and people with professional skills are taking over from the amateurs. Magazines, galleries, clothing shops etc. are more and more based on real marketing strategies, with people who are doing the same jobs in RL, or at least related to it.

It will be more and more difficult to start a new business, without having the knowledge of running a business. This also means that other avatars, who are the co-workers, will have or get more stress to get their things done.

The virtual world is and will always be a hobby for me, but you will have to find the right balance between the two worlds, not that the virtual world will become that important, that your real life begins to suffer from it. Some friends have experienced it, and decided to take it easy on the virtual life, and to secure their RL. Everyone will have to decide for their own, how far they can go with “the game”.

It is not easy to start a company, these days, and become very well known in the virtual world, building an image, which speaks for itself, and having the right people at the steering wheel. But when these people decide to take a step down, it is a tragedy for the company. It can happen in RL too, but to replace worth full people in SL is not a sinecure.

Where in RL you can almost say that people are replaceable, but in SL you will have not the same insight and visibility on people as you have in RL.

Will I be doing the same activities in the future in SL, will I take it easier? All questions I can’t answer. I still like to work on pictures, as main activity, but I just don’t have the time to do so.

Things will be more clear in a couple of days, I hope.

Avatrait Gallery presents 9

Saturday March 21st, 9 artists will show their work at the Avatrait Gallery. This is a special event as never seen before,as the Avatrait Gallery is featuring 9 artists for one show.
This is an opportunity to see multiple art works from different artists at one show.
And I don't need to mention that I am one of them.;)

Looker Lumet at the Avatrait Gallery site

As you all should know, Avatrait, the inworld gallery, has a new website. Everyone can join this site, and upload their images to share. So it is not only meant for the Avatrait artists, but also for every SL lover wanting to share their snapshots to the world.

The Avatrait Gallery not only produces virtual art for sale in-world, but creates real-world versions available to order. As popular as the Gallery has been, the amount of Second Life art that can be featured in it at any given time is limited, so we decided to develop a web site that would allow all those interested in this new genre to store, share, and even sell their works.

The new Avatrait web site is, obviously, a "work in progress", with new features and capabilities coming on-line all the time. Currently, there are only two types of membership, the Gallery Artists (who are part of the in-world Gallery collection), and Free Members.

Avatrait is largely a "labor of love" for a small group of dedicated individuals, and they frequently find themselves having to deal with having too few hours in the day/week/month to get everything that they're wanting to have (in terms of both functionality and content) on the site done.

But they are getting there...one thing at the time. A few artists have already their frontpages. You can have a look at mine on this link.

If you're not a member yet , join today, and you will see what magnificent art people can make with the snapshots they took inworld. And who knows, you might be one of them in the near future.

Feathers Boa in the Role Magazine

ROLE Magazine proudly announces the publication of our March magazine.

In this issue we focus on in-world situations which affect us all. The cover story addresses the many ways artificial intelligence bots have changed our community: copy bots, land bots and traffic bots are a few examples of the ways in which we are all being forced to carefully evaluate what we choose to believe every day.

Topics in this issue include a retro, black and white fashion spread, and a closer look at the works of talented artists, musicians, designers, writers, builders, travelers and explorers.

Our upcoming installment features the works of the gifted Bryn Oh, Feathers Boa and talented musician BlindBoy Gumbo, March 14th at 12pm SLT at ROLE Magazine Headquarters on the Concetta sim.

Don't miss the article of Feathers Boa in this month's issue by undersigned!

For your convenience, ROLE Magazine is available in 2 formats. The in-world magazine is available at our many kiosk locations and offers the option of clicking the HUD’s menu button to receive a notecard of all referenced SLURLs. Our web version is available at www.role-magazine.com and features “clickable” SLURLs.

As always, the team at ROLE Magazine thanks you for your continued interest and support. We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Blog time

Ooww, I haven't been posting anything since February 7th. That is too long.

Writing a blog and keeping it up to date isn’t easy. I started in 2007, but have to admit that, due to circumstances, I am not able anymore to blog every day. I think it is a shame, and I regret that, but there is turning back.

Being active in Sl as the photographer of CYD records, writing articles in the Role magazine and being on the board of the Avatrait Gallery gives me not much time left to do the daily stories on my blog.

Nevertheless, I want to write now and than, to keep the few readers left on my blog up to date.

This evening I will be visiting the opening of Winter Wardhani’s first solo exhibition. Woot!!! She was the one who offered me some time ago to do my first solo exhibition at Portucalis. I am glad to see that she has her own show now.

In the meanwhile all articles for the next edition of the Role magazine are submitted and being edited. According Ofelia, the new edition looks again very promising. She told that the February edition alone, had already 4000 readers. So the curve is still climbing….. and so is the content of the magazine!! Don’t miss it, ‘cause this time I wrote an article about Feathers Boa…pssst…that should be a secret.;)

At the Avatrait gallery, Harry Huffmann is featuring this fortnight’s exhibition. On Friday at 2 PM SLT I will host the “Meet the artist” at the gallery inworld, so if you should have any question that you always wanted to ask Harry, but you never had the chance, come over and enjoy the chat hour with one of the most talented photographers in SL.

Some of you may have already noticed that I have found a new “toy”, that is called “Plurk”. Since the end of January, I am registered at “Plurk”, and that is fun doing, because I can not log in on SL at work, but I can plurk, and keeping myself very well aware of things that are happening inworld and in RL among my friends.

And between all these activities, I try to work on new pieces, learning every day what Photoshop has to offer, to make my works a bit more than just common. Thanks to some “new”and some "old" friends I have been able to find some inspiration again to continue my life as a photographer in SL, and even more than that.