Art and Kart Safari

There was an Unexpected Peruvian Incident in the Safari this week, though I don't think anyone but Larysa and me knew it. Ostensibly, it was a simple trip to an Art Sim by ieko catnap on Francogrid, and then a Kart sim - is it sacrilege to call Bill Blight's desert landscape and hit-the-coin-with-the car game a 'Kart sim'?   HG Addresses at the end of this post, as usual. And please, don't forget to 'Like' the regions you visit, by going to opensimworld.com... it may seem a small silly thing to you, but it means a lot to the creators.

           We tried to hard to make Ieko Catnap rez during our visit to imaginaire-de-ieko-18, with no success - luckily I got this snap of her earlier. Otherwise,
 Ieko appears in the Safari photos as a cloud, but that was really the only small wrinkle in our visit to her region. 
            The credit for a relatively fast rez for such a big group of people surely goes to Francogrid stalwart and virtual hero Claudius Utopy, who did an enormous amount of work to make sure that the region was visitable by us. It's easy to overlook the work that goes on behind the scenes, but without these magnificent geeks, where would we be? Hug an admin today!

            There were about twenty of us, including some random souls who appeared to have seen the region go to the top of the list on opensimworld.com (the so-called Safari Spike, where our sudden influx lures lonely wanderers to our location, hoping for a party, I suppose)  and we arrived at a nice mesh building decked out as an Irish Pub. The whole region has a photorealistic look to it, and an art gallery...
ieko catnap [fr→en]: 2 art galleries. I imagined the terrain to make my paintings real. I started with the first gallery, which is a plant [factory] victorian, and continued in this style. The nearest gallery is the second, it contains a part of my paintings.
Tryad Destiny: still has to rez for me
Lucy Afarensis: takes a while, but worth waiting for.
ieko catnap [fr→en]: These are all paintings by me, 25 years of painting,  I present the best on Francogrid

Alya VonZ: oh my god, this one is gorgeous...  I love the colors in this one:)
alex Salamander: très jolie et bon couleurs
Yara Eilde: I like Tea 3, I would buy that in the RL
Art Blue: very fine works    
Phred: how large are the RL originals?
ieko catnap: 80 x 100 cm, the larger 2 x 2 meters, acrylic background and then oil, principle of oil painting in the traditional fat over lean, a lot of layers are necessary, sometimes it takes three months to finish one.

 thirza ember: ieko, do you show your art in RL galleries?
 ieko catnap [fr→en]: yes sometimes I exhibit in art galleries near me, but it is difficult to expose because too often it is necessary to pay
Alya VonZ: that is a shame
Lucy Afarensis: indeed
ieko catnap [fr→en]: the important thing is to continue to paint, it is my priority
Larysa Firehawk: Yes. it is. If we don't create, we die a little bit, every day.

ieko catnap [fr→en]: you can go to the first gallery ?
        Now, you're thinking, this is where they all crash. After all, 20 people walking across a fairly crowded sim, that's risky business, but no! By the power of Claudius, we didn't crash.

ieko catnap [fr→en]: here are the rest of the paintings that are presented,  I started painting 25 years ago, by a figurative art,  I was graphic designer in a printing establishment, at the end of 4 years I went back to the abstraction
 thirza ember: takes a while for the pictures to pop, but again, they are worth waiting for
Lucy.Afarensis: the building are very cool...  I wish there was away to pop the pictures you want to see first
Phred: zoom closely on it
Lucy.Afarensis: It is nice to walk to to what you are looking at,  I hardly ever know what people are looking at when visiting my virtual galleries, In my rl gallery I find that very important.

thirza ember: ieko, which artists are your strongest influence, and how did you find Opensim?
ieko catnap [fr→en]: the artists that I prefer (there are many) are Zao-Wou-Ki, Soulages, Tapiès, Barcelo, a lot of influences and I've found my style. As for opensim, I was already on Francogrid several years ago, but I had a sim dedicated to the Chevalier d'Eon [a historical figure associated with androgyny, intrigue, anime and Assassin's Creed]. I have done some historical research on this character, then I came back a few months ago to make the galleries. However, I have preserved the building of the Fosse Dionne as a souvenir of the build, this rl building is in the city of Tonnerre. his home town.

the Fosse Dionne

Tryad Destiny: good work, I like many of them  the colours  energy and sometimes hidden elements
Wizardoz Chrome: I find also the color combination very nice
ieko catnap [fr→en]: I studied as a graphic designer (not computer graphic designer because there were no computers) then I attended an art school. I still go there once week to have a large workshop, mine is a rather small, the school is Cepagrap at the school, there is a contemporary art gallery, with exhibitions every three weeks of regional or national artists. I also did 3 years of sculpture in the same school. I'm not a concept artist, I try to convey emotions, if I get there I'm happy.

Main Gallery, imaginaire-de-ieko-18

So what was conveyed to the Safari public? Let's see if they can give two words that are a snapshot of their experience, looking at these paintings.
Tryad Destiny: movement  energetic
Art Blue: scratch art
Larysa Firehawk: Emotional content.
Bertrand Lebert: quietly realistic

There is a lot to see on Imaginaire-de-Ieko-18, whether you're interested in thinking about paintings, or just want a pleasant romantic place to wander. 

          Our second stop was a return visit of sorts, to opensimlife. A few weeks back there was a last minute cancellation for another venue, and Bill Blight very kindly stepped in with less than an hour to go and facilitated a visit to is Coin Hunt region, Desert Oasis. 

Timbuktu, or Xanadu?

           Originally meant for roleplay, the region is a huge desert punctuated with a few camps, two arabesque cities, some waterways and a dance floor. This return visit was a popular choice, and all 12 of the cars were immediately put to use! You don't have to drive the car to play, you can be a passenger... as long as you're sitting in a car, you're in the game and can either run over coins or use your camera to find them, being careful to avoid the Demon Coins that blow you up and detract major points.

Demon Coins (center ) lurk among the dunes at Desert Oasis

         The game has a new feature, the Map, which lets you see where players are, and some other tweaks that you can ask Bill about (sick of unreliable hypergrid IMs? look for Bill on Discord). 

Bill+Board

         Anyone can start a game, so you don't have to wait for something like the Safari to happen, in order to play. 

        Originally there was an NPC caravan that roamed between the two cities (which are beautiful and worth exploring in their own right) and the sim/vehicles has UBODE physics happening, which makes driving both a challenge and a joy. 

Eyeing the scoreboard at the end of the first game

        Games last 15 minutes, just about enough time to go do a mad dash across the dunes, or (pro tip) fish for coins in the lagoons. Another pro tip:  Fred, Aime, Loru, Flidais, Singergirl, Yara and Alex are hard to beat, so I suggest you take out their tires or something, if you find yourself playing against them. It is the hardest thing in the world to take photos here, because the game is kind of irresistible...
.... OK, I'm going back to my Peruvian tangent...
HG Addresses
Ieko Catnap galleries and more          hg.francogrid.org:80:imaginaire-de-ieko-18
Coin Hunt game by Bill Blight             grid.opensim.life:8002:desert oasis