Alizarin Goldflake: 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/

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=KX1eFMtjV6U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhO2Rf88uM (Chinese narration)