Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Niagara River






I will hold a reception for "The Niagara River," my most recent immersive art installation, on Sunday, November 25, 2012, 2-3 pm PDT, at Atelier Alizarin on Alizarine Lakes.  The reception is open to the public, and everyone is invited to view the art, ask questions if they want, mix with old friends and make some new.  There will be a gorgeous freebie from the build for male and female avis alike.  The wine-and-cheese reception will be patterned on RL art openings, ie., art, finger food, wine, and fun chat.

The installation has been a long time coming.  The image that moves along the walls of the formal dining room is based on a photograph that I took eons ago.  It had a mysterious staying power but I could never quite figure out how to turn it into a drawing until I evolved my new style, The Big Pixel drawings.

 

(http://www.marthavista.com/big-pixel.html).  Just as I was finishing the RL drawing, someone gave me a book of Kay Ryan poems, and the poem "The Niagara River" seemed to say in words what "Dark Pool" says in imagery.  Virtual reality is the ideal environment for bringing words and images together environmentally, and so the installation was launched.  Many thanks to Auburne LittleBoots for helping me to sync the scripts that move the image along the walls so smoothly.

Because the poem uses a dining room melded with a river as a metaphor for the passage of time, life, or maybe the constant stream of consciouness, my installation has a sound environment that mixes the sound of rushing water with steady stream of people talking.  The people have long departed from the room, from life, but their voices linger like ghosts and their names float in hover text.  There are hints of a back story, too - an overturned chair and goblet, a chair that emits a sullen black fog ...  Unfortunately the poem had to be covered with a napkin because of copyright violation worries but there is a url loader out in front of the installation that takes the visitor to a web site where the full text can be read.

Making the rubrum bouquets, the table legs, and the chairs was a great adventure in Blender.  The crystal sculpties were done with Rokuro and the candelabrum with a SL tool called the Prim Generator.  Most of the pieces that make up the installation wear textures created with Corel Painter and my digitzing tablet and stylus. A digital artist in Real Life, I also used additional software in the creation of the work:  Photoshop (textures), Blender (sculpties), and Audacity (sound).  I relied heavily as well on my six years experience with virtual tools, including prim editing, texturing, and script modification.

The build is 6 x 13  x 30  meters and 1240 lovingly shaped and textured prims.  Because of the prim count, I don't expect anyone to actually buy the art work, but I would like to make it known that I do custom installations in case the build inspires someone.

I am a digital artist in Real Life, and I used the following RL software in the creation of the work:  Corel Painter (digital drawing/textures), Photoshop (textures), Blender (sculpties), and Audacity (sound).  I also relied heavily on my experience with virtual tools, including prim editing, texturing, and script modification. 

Links:

DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin: http://places.inworldz.com/Alizarine%20Lakes/195/216/1002/
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/


Anza Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/1/5s_KRMi55v8/
Acquarella:http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
Acquarella:the Fable ( a Chantal Harvey machinima):
Metemspyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/2/GfQGuNXWvLo
Requiem for Fukushima Daiichi: http://youtu.be/2H_ne2XbcNs
Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/XDjrLmPpopA
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/4/OEa9rtEiINE/
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/5/c6Xv_pAf0Qc
The Winter Bear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMYSYJNkm1E&list=QL&playnext=1

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Acquarella Rising Opens 9/7/12, 2-4pm PDT in InWorldz



Opening reception: Friday, September 7, 2012, 2 - 4 pm PDT, part of the Intergrid Metaverse Art Biennial
DJ: Cataplexia Numbers

Izurls:
Acquarella Rising: http://places.inworldz.com/Alizarine%20Lakes/27/20/701
Acquarella Rising Store: http://places.inworldz.com/Alizarine%20Lakes/148/109/699

OPENING RECEPTION for "Acquarella Rising"

Alizarin Goldflake's largest virtual art installation has moved to her own sim and has been given a complete overhaul, including a new ending for the story and a new name, "Acquarella Rising," because it concludes in an upbeat celebration of light and color and life. There are many additions, including the path of hot coals in the "Disaster" chapter, new plants for "Perfection," a much spookier "Dead," and the gorgeous starfish path in "Color."

The installation is based on "Acquarella: The Fable," a machinima written and staged by Alizarin and filmed by Chantal Harvey. The machinima was shown at the World's Fair in Shanghai in September and October 2010 under the auspices of Aino Barr/Christina Garcia Lasuen.

links:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/-O9Zh7J40Zo (English narration)
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/10/h605uFRIGsY(Chinese narration)


The story has been divided into four chapters. The first chapter depicts a time when The Age of Man has ended in a blaze of fire, famine, and warfare. In the second, the Age of Acquarella dawns. The mighty goddess begins to repopulate the seas with outposts of aquariums filled with creatures that survived in the cool depths of the oceans. Hoping to avoid the violent excesses of her forebears, she plans for these mini-oceans to be peaceful and pure, hence colored only with the purest of colors, black and white.


Alas, as they say, if you want to make the Devil laugh, make plans. The third chapter shows one of the aquariums as a dead zone, all the life squeezed out of it by the goddess's rigid reliance on purity.


At last the goddess softens her ideas, and the fourth chapter blooms in a burst of color and fecundity. There are fanciful plants, brilliant fish, pink seahorses, showers of multicolored diatoms, masses of ikura eggs, and a bejewelled starfish path.

Alizarin, who is a digital artist in Real Life, used the following RL software in the creation of the work: Corel Painter (digital drawing/textures), Photoshop (textures), Blender (sculpties), and Audacity (sound). She also relied heavily on her experience with virtual tools, including prim editing, texturing, and script modification. The re-installation was begun in May 2012 and finished four months later.

Acquarella has received some most welcome publicity.
**http://iwnn.weebly.com/art--music.html 20120828 article by Jillian2000 Quintessa
**The first installation was featured on on Treet.tv, Episode 120.
** An interview by Nazz Lane appeared on August 1, 2011: http://laneslist.blogspot.com/2011/08/preview-of-alizarin-goldflakes.html
**And another by Thirza Ember on October 19, 2011 : http://pingsfromtheafterlife.blogspot.com/

Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (InWorldz sim)
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/
YOUTUBE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake
Anza Borrego Oak:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/1/5s_KRMi55v8
Acquarella:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
Acquarella:the Fable ( a Chantal Harvey machinima)
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/-O9Zh7J40Zo (English narration)
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/10/h605uFRIGsY (Chinese narration)
Metemspyche's Garden:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/2/GfQGuNXWvLo
Requiem for Fukushima Daiichi:
http://youtu.be/2H_ne2XbcNs
Studio Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/XDjrLmPpopA
The Maze:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/4/OEa9rtEiINE
The Mysterious Forest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/5/c6Xv_pAf0Qc
The Winter Bear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMYSYJNkm1E&list=QL&playnext=1

Thursday, May 10, 2012

see the May updates on my RL blog here: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

Acquarella: After the Apocalypse shown at Split Screen installation space in Second life during April 2012, screen shot 01,virtual immersive art

This image, along with 14 others, will be part of a Billboard Art Project show. The BAP is looking for more artists, so be sure to check out the details on my RL blog.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Acquarella: After the Apocalypse Opens at Split Screen


Dividni Shostakovich, curator of Split Screen Installation Space, will open Alizarin Goldflake's "Acquarella: After the Apocalypse (Chapters 1 & 2)" and Blue Tsuki's "Adagio" to the public on Sunday, April 1, 12 am PDT, at Split Screen. All are cordially invited to drop in anytime. The Reception Party will be Sunday, April 8, 1 - 2 pm PDT .

Alizarin & Blue: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Beleza/37/219/1501

"Acquarella: After the Apocalypse (Chapters 1 & 2)" is a metamorphosis of the first half of an InWorldz installation hosted by virtual art patron Jeri Rahja. The story is the same: the goddess Acquarella sets out to repopulate the dead ocean after the human race wipes out life on earth, but she makes a big mistake along the way. The story may be the same but the "set" has a fresh look. Although the Disaster chapter still sparkles with particle flames, the following new things have been added: the balcony entrance, the path of hot coals, the flaming lilypad stems, the thick black cloud, a totally different more allegorical soundscape, and the shape of the chapter container itself. The Perfection chapter has some new plants, a different layout, and now includes a spying monster named Homeland Security, which enhances the original idea that attempts at perfection carry the seeds of their own destruction within them.

"Adagio" is both meditation and vision. Growing out of a rippling red sea, trefoil Sab flowers emit dark elegant urns that float in a blood red sky, singing as they emit trails of golden particles the whole of their long and varied trajectories. Surrounding this ascension, ranks of solemnly turning windmills bear witness from darker waters, churning an unknown essence into the fiery sky. Magenta stalks rising from the center further suggest transcendence. A rich and sophisticated soundscape is integral to the build.

Both installations will be open throughout the month of April.








Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/
YOUTUBE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake
Anza Borrego Oak:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/1/5s_KRMi55v8
Acquarella:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
Acquarella:the Fable ( a Chantal Harvey machinima)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX1eFMtjV6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhO2Rf88uM (Chinese narration)
Metemspyche's Garden:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/2/GfQGuNXWvLo
Requiem for Fukushima Daiichi:
http://youtu.be/2H_ne2XbcNs
Studio Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/XDjrLmPpopA
The Maze:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/4/OEa9rtEiINE
The Mysterious Forest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/5/c6Xv_pAf0Qc
The Winter Bear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMYSYJNkm1E&list=QL&playnext=1

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Norden Art Vanishes Into Thin Air

A facebook post from Aino Barr showed up in my inbox just now: http://on.fb.me/zIPgRw Yesterday the bad news was about PiRats likely closing ... today Norden Art is gone. Poof. And Flora along with it. I went from Aino's post to Flora's blog, where I read the following epitaph:

"I have left Second Life. I have deleted my avatars and removed everything from Nordan om Jorden, including Nordan Art. The Nordan om Jorden group will be inactive as will this blog. Second Life was an incredible experience for me, it is just time to go. Goodbye, everybody.
Flora" http://nordanomjorden.wordpress.com/

I couldn't believe it, so I logged in to Second Life and looked for Flora on Search: none found. I took the landmark teleport to the Nordan Art gallery location: bare earth. Just last week I de-installed my December-January exhibit there, and the gallery was a whirlwind of activity with the next show going up. Just yesterday at PiRats (possibly) last opening, I noticed Flora's name online on my friend's list as usual. All gone now, and it is very hard to accept.

In fact, the whole trend is deeply troubling. So many galleries have closed, along with the art sims of wonderful universities like UTSA; so many artists have moved to other grids or left entirely ... it seems like the beautiful virtual art community is draining from Second Life at an alarming pace.

Flora Nordenskiold, Merlina Rokocoko, Newbab Zsigmond, constructivIST Solo are all consummate professionals. It was my very great pleasure to work with them. Pioneers, they have advanced virtual art in profound ways, and the loss of their talents is a loss for all of virtual art.

And where is Second Life itself headed? I don't believe the people at Linden Lab care a bit about the astonishing art world that grew up around them, and their lack of concern about the diminution of their product bodes ill. InWorldz anyone?

============================================
Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/
VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/
YOUTUBE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake
Anza Borrego Oak:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/1/5s_KRMi55v8
Acquarella:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
Acquarella:the Fable ( a Chantal Harvey machinima)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX1eFMtjV6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhO2Rf88uM (Chinese narration)
Metemspyche's Garden:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/2/GfQGuNXWvLo
Requiem for Fukushima Daiichi:
http://youtu.be/2H_ne2XbcNs
Studio Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/XDjrLmPpopA
The Maze:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/4/OEa9rtEiINE
The Mysterious Forest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/5/c6Xv_pAf0Qc
The Winter Bear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMYSYJNkm1E&list=QL&playnext=1

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Pictures from the Grand Opening of Acquarella: After the Apocalypse



It was a wonderful party!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/sets/72157628011874342/

Many thanks to host Jeri Rahja, to the musicians Chandra Deed and DeclanG, and to all the lovely people who showed up to celebrate with me. Exhausted but happy .... :-)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

GRAND OPENING for "Acquarella: After the Apocalypse


My first full-sim immersive art creation, "Acquarella: After the Apocalypse," opens on Saturday, October 29, 12 -3 PDT, on Jeri Rahja's Nexus Central sim in InWorldz. Enjoy music by Chandra Deed noon to 1:30 pm PDT and Declan G 1:30 - 3 pm PDT. Feast on sushi, ride a pink seahorse, come see a story as told by a sim!

http://places.inworldz.com/Nexus%20Central/211/49/25

The installation is based on "Acquarella: The Fable," a machinima written and staged by Alizarin and filmed by Chantal Harvey. The machinima was shown at the World's Fair in Shanghai in September and October 2010 under the auspices of Aino Barr/Christina Garcia Lasuen.
links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX1eFMtjV6U (English narration)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhO2Rf88uM (Chinese narration)

The sim has been terraformed into four containers, and this InWorldz version of the story is told in four parts, one for each of the quadrants.

The first quadrant depicts a time when The Age of Man has ended in a blaze of fire, famine, and warfare.

In the second, the Age of Acquarella dawns. The mighty goddess begins to repopulate the seas with outposts of aquariums filled with creatures that survived in the cool depths of the oceans. Hoping to avoid the violent excesses of her forebears, she plans for these mini-oceans to be peaceful and pure, hence colored only with the purest of colors, black and white.

Alas, as they say, if you want to make the Devil laugh, make plans. The third quadrant shows one of our aquariums as a dead zone, all the life squeezed out of it by the goddess's rigid reliance on purity.

At last the goddess softens her ideas, and the fourth quadrant blooms in a burst of color and fecundity. There are fanciful plants, brilliant fish, pink seahorses, showers of multicolored diatoms, masses of ikura eggs, and dance balls everywhere. It seems like paradise, but there is a hint of the sinister in the sushi pavilion, where it appears that the aquarium has succumbed to cannibalism. Even more sinister is the black spy monster lurking out of sight overhead and manipulating destiny to travel full circle like the merry go round that marks the passage back to the disaster quadrant. In the end the story of the sim asks whether moral progress is possible.

I am a digital artist in Real Life and I used the following RL software in the creation of the work: Corel Painter (digital drawing/textures), Photoshop (textures), Blender (sculpties), and Audacity (sound). I also relied heavily on my experience with virtual tools, including prim editing, texturing, and script modification. The sim was begun in February 2011 and finished eight months later. Although bits and pieces may make it to other grids, "Acquarella: After the Apocalypse" in its entirety is unique and always will be to Nexus Central in InWorldz.

Many thanks to Jeri Rahja for granting me the use of the sim, to Elenia LLewellyn for technical support, and to Zauber Paracelsus for help with scripting and lag.

Prior to opening, Acquarella has received some most welcome publicity.
**The first quadrant was featured on on Treet.tv, Episode 120.
** An interview by treasured friend Nazz Lane appeared on August 1, 2011: http://laneslist.blogspot.com/2011/08/preview-of-alizarin-goldflakes.html.
**And another by the incomparable Thirza Ember on October 19, 2011 : http://pingsfromtheafterlife.blogspot.com/

============================================
Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/
VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/
YOUTUBE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake
Anza Borrego Oak:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/1/5s_KRMi55v8
Acquarella:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
Acquarella:the Fable ( a Chantal Harvey machinima)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX1eFMtjV6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhO2Rf88uM (Chinese narration)
Metemspyche's Garden:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/2/GfQGuNXWvLo
Requiem for Fukushima Daiichi:
http://youtu.be/2H_ne2XbcNs
Studio Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/XDjrLmPpopA
The Maze:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/4/OEa9rtEiINE
The Mysterious Forest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/5/c6Xv_pAf0Qc
The Winter Bear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMYSYJNkm1E&list=QL&playnext=1