SL Art 101: An Introduction

As many of you know, I am heavy into the Second Life art scene and participate regularly in various artistic events (photography contests, gallery openings, the SL Artists Network, etc). Recently, my good friend Track Hax, owner of the Avatrait Gallery in Second Life presented me with what I can only consider the opportunity of a lifetime: the ability to teach a free introductory art class for residents.

Words can’t even EXPRESS how excited I am about this.

The official press release (thanks, Eschatos!) is as follows:

Avatrait Gallery is very pleased to announce the start of
a new series of in-world Art classes, beginning this
month with celebrated Second Life designer, artist and
photographer Ryker Beck who will be leading “S.L. Art 101:
An Introduction” on Wednesday, January 23rd, at 6pm SLT.

Ms. Beck, a Second Life resident with a special interest
in in-world fashion,photography, and art, has been blogging
her experiences at http://rykerbeck.com,where she has also
relocated her popular graphic and scripting tutorial series.
She is a writer for ASpiRE! Magazine, and has recently
launched her own in-world jewelry design business, Beck’s
Fine Jewelry.

This will be the official launch of Avatrait’s in-world
classes. Ryker Beck will be teaching the modules of how
to create art in Second Life, but there will also be
classes on Art History, Art Appreciation, and other topics
of art and in-world photography interest, on Wednesday
evenings (with machinima re-plays on Thursday afternoons)
every month as part of the new Avatrait activity calendar.

The Avatrait Gallery
(http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality/41/213/35)
features Second Life’s most outstanding artists, one of
whose works are featured every month, with exclusive
collectible one-of-a-kind framed images available in-world,
and high quality framed prints available through the
Avatrait web site (http://Avatrait.com) for real-world
display.

This certainly does promise to be a class to remember. With my lesson plan already mapped out, and development underway, I am busy at work preparing for what I hope will be one of the best introductory classes in Second Life. I sincerely hope all of you can come, and I can’t wait to see you all there!

PS: If you have any special requests for something you’d perhaps like to see, please don’t hesitate to let me know… I might be able to squeeze a few juicy tidbits in. And if you DO attend the event, please don’t forget to ask questions! This will be a very interactive affair, and I welcome and would LOVE feedback!

Paolo Bade’s “Sex and the Virtual Landscape”

I am sure most of us, by now, have heard the name Paolo Bade. I had the pleasure of meeting him (early) this morning at AvaTrait’s Meet the Artist gathering, which Venkman so kindly invited me to! Paolo is an incredibly talented photographer, and his exhibition “Sex and the Virtual Landscape” is one that truly should not be missed by any means. I fully encourage anyone, if you have not seen it yet, to head on over to AvaTrait and see the exhibition while it still exists. There is also a photo contest involving the sets that Paolo has built and you, the SL photographer.

Further information from Stephen Venkman:

Here is your chance to show us what you can do with the sets created for “tribute” to Helmut Newton. Paolo along with Avatrait will be holding a photo contest starting December 2nd @ 4 am PST. All you need to do is come through the exhibit and take some photo’s using the set’s created for his exhibit. All images need to be received by December 9th by 6 pm SLT in order to qualify and only one photo for avatar name. Please send photo images to Paolo Bade @ paolobade@gmail.com with the following information:

- Mail Subject: Avatrait Contest
- avatar name
- title you named the photo
- a brief comment to your photo

We will then post all images up for the public to vote on during the following week. On Sunday the 16th we will then tally the votes and a quialified jury will choose the winner among the 3 most voted photos. Winner will receive a unique, unpublished photo of the Newton series.