Fatal Attraction

Frank Gresham: Yay for opensim 

There is crazy good and crazy bad. We all know that. Second Life has been, for many of us, crazy Good, in its way. It was thus for Safari regular Loru Destiny and the three friends who, together with her, form the heart and soul of ArtDestiny grid, our first destination this week. It's a very attractive combination of so much art and beauty that for us to visit, it has to be fate. Addresses, as always, at the end of the post.

          

             We teleported over and arrived in a large, airy art gallery, everyone rezzing pretty quickly considering how many we were, and that it was not a great night for the internet. The whole visit was so well organized, it was pure pleasure to meet our hosts and take a tour around Spooky City.

Loru Destiny

Loru Destiny: Welcome to Artdestiny.  We are very happy that you are here today. First I tell a bit about this grid.  The Grid Artdestiny is a small, private grid.  But of course everyone is very welcome to visit us. We are 4 residents here: Stormy  Scorpio and Moses Rae, Tryad and me. Our mothertoungues are american, english and german. We met about 11 years ago in  SL and  finally switched to opensim because SL didn't give us enough options to give shape and color to our dreams without ruining us financially. 

Moses and Stormy

Loru Destiny: Here in opensim we found what we were looking for:  A space to live out our creativity and people who share this passion with us. We love art and music. Stormy creates beautiful landscapes, that go into the soul of everyone who visits them. In RL Moses is a musician, singer-songwriter, and Tryad is a visual artist.  I teach art and here in opensim I design and build dresses. We are here on Tryad's sim where you can see his work in 4 galleries.  Near gallery 3 I put a small shop as a teaser. If you like, you can have a  look there and take the LM for the shop on the sim glede. The clothes I build are especially made for opensim and are of course free of charge. "Sharing is caring" is for me, for all of us, an essential part of opensim. Tryad will now tell you a little about his art.

Tryad Destiny: Ok  A bit about me.  I  am an artist,  a grumpy old man, I have been painting since 1999. I was standing on my balcony in Oslo Norway one winter night when Ray shone down on me from the fith dimension, that's when I started painting
Aphra.Hendrix: wow
Lucy Afarensis: Oh them rays

Tryad Destiny: I  don't plan paintings.   They come to me  as I  start    I paint in oils   acryl and   digital. I like to trigger emotions in people, ever hate,   love them,   but please don't be indifferent

thirza ember: I want to buy them LOL - that's the emotion they trigger in me ...the colors!

Aphra.Hendrix: hahhaha same here

Marina.Baer: I've already marked everyone I'm taking with me

George admires the paintings

Tryad Destiny: In gallery  1 and 2  the paintings are named, but not in 3 and 4, so let your imagination work and see what you think they represent.  I don't want to do it for you,  so teleports to galleries are by the entrance  sighs  takes  a deep breath - enjoy.

Willy Wonka [de→en]: are these pictures all by you?

logicamp immo: yes very nice, Klimt influence ?

Tryad Destiny: I like klimt,  munch and many other  painters

Aphra.Hendrix: are they RL paintings?  or digital adding?

Loru.Destiny: both

Stormy Scorpio: some of your artwork reminds me of Chagall

Tryad Destiny: also a great  painter

whirli placebo: beautiful color palettes you use

Thirza Ember: all acrylic? and I see also some sculpture work, do you do that in rl also?

Tryad Destiny: oils  too -  Sculpture only in  vr

Lucy Afarensis: Its fun to see one's work 15 x 20 meters

Thirza Ember: Tryad and Loru, do you build together? or do you fight when you build ? LOL

Aphra studies the unusual gallery

Loru Destiny: sometime Tryad and I paint together

Tryad Destiny: Loru paints  background  and i take over with figures, separately it's calmer that way

Loru Destiny: yes :-)

Kai Baer: really beautiful specimens, klasse Tryad

 

        The whole sim is a work of art, with many thought provoking and amusing tableaux, posters, and architecture, so it's worth walking from place to place if you're visiting Spooky City in a smaller group or by yourself. Loru's neat little store is a gem, and there are many little surprises and cute copyable items here and there, 
But it is the paintings one comes here to see. Even a short visit will leave you with a sense of having come across something extraordinary, a communication with the artist and his world, but also with thoughts and memories of your own. The only way to get the full effect is, of course, to visit, and let's hope you get a chance to do so soon.

After about thirty minutes we moved on to the second part of our ArtDestiny visit.

          This is Tir a Nog, by Stormy Scorpio.  To learn more about the meaning behind the name, go here. The name echoes thoughts of eternal youth but the land is not overly linked with one sort of legend, rather, it's a unique mixture of elfin and elegant mythology, all lying just about on the edge of reality, not an easy balance to achieve.  

It's hard to put into words the loveliness of the landscape on Stormy's regions. You could spend, as Frank put it, hours and hours here, without seeing it all. Green hills and woodland valleys, ponds and  mysterious figures and flower-filled glades abound here. 

Animesh creatures bring the scene to life with subtle beauty. We fairly rushed across the region, almost unable to take in what we were seeing, but not because it didn't rez  for the grid is very fast. It was more because there was so much to see, and we were constantly on the move. 

To cross the land you can, as Tina Bey did. How lovely to see creators and artists like Tina and Cherry, Kelso, Lucy and Tosha - just to name a few of our group - take the time to join us on Safari. They could so easily just stay at home and wait for people to visit their regions, but instead they are out here exploring and appreciating the art of others. This really is the spirit of the hypergrid. 

Loru Destiny [de→en]: Stormy is a divine landscaper

Tosha Tyran: hi Cherry

Thirza Ember: this is the land of Stormy, Cherry

Cherry Manga: thank you! hey Stormy !

Stormy Scorpio: grins

Loru Destiny: stormy will you tell a bit about your sims?

Stormy Scorpio: yes, (Removing NPC...) it is my artwork, the sims are for people to explore. Mostly I like seeing people just have fun here

Cherry Manga: satyrs guys are ...yummy

George Equus: One of the best places I visited in years, great detailing, wonderful landscape

          Eventually, we arrived at something unexpected.

          Stormy brought us to a Star Trek inspired hologate that led up to a bunch of space ships high in the heavens above the grid, in a completely different theme to the lush landscape below, but made with the same attention to detail and care that you find on Tir Na Nog. 

        But by then we were nearly out of time, and it's not right to keep our second destination waiting, and to try to show the space ships here would not do them justice. Not that this will stop you visiting, of course! The teleports are available on the landing point of ArtDestiny and are all carefully marked and easy to find. The scifi regions will be, I hope, an excellent destination for another Safari, maybe in our second season, which will begin in May. Moses is a singer songwriter, and we're all hoping he will be available to play for us too, I hope you will join us!

Arcanquest rocking the sari look

          And then the Taj Mahal, a huge build by Tosha Tyran, on Craft Grid.
          This is a massive build, as close as possible to the actual structure, which was built, as we all know, in the 1600s by Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. The real place is located in Agra, India. It's one of the most famous landmarks in the world and to add to the sense of reality, Tosha has peopled the region with all kinds of tourist NPCs who animate the various environments. 
          We were lucky enough to also see a brand new feature on the build, a clothing store by Mariposita Miami, with outfits for men and women to capture the Indian look and make you feel like a local.  

          The store is set in one of the buildings on the edge of the complex, and there was a handy arrow pointing to it, for the convenience of the Safaristas, as well as a dancing ball, a concession to virtual visitors!

Tosha Tyran: I think it is an impressive build RL It always is the greatest thing about building: researching, and I notice lately that I am becoming a gigantomaniac :DD

Cherry.Manga: wow, what a work of documentation you did, and bravo for the prim work - oh it's mesh!!

Tosha Tyran: hmm, it is practically purely mesh, I am a blender addict

Cherry Manga: sorry Tosha, hahah, but an even bigger bravo then ;))

Lucy Afarensis: 39 avies here

Cherry Manga: region is full

Kelso Uxlay: many NPCs

thirza ember: I'm afraid many of the group could not join us

Tosha Tyran: I didn't think about my 1000s of NPCs! all NPCs killed now - plenty of space

Thirza Ember: Tosha it's a fantastic sight, and must have taken you ages to build. Can you tell us what was the most difficult part to make here?

Tosha Tyran: the inside of the build

Arcanquest Frank [it→en]: i saw inside, it's awesome

Tosha Tyran: because every time there was a flaw in the texture I had to rezz almost the whole thing again

Arcanquest Frank [it→en]: I would not have held up .. no no

Thirza Ember: me too

Tosha Tyran: and the gate around the tombs, it is all mesh, very fine that was the work of a mad woman, hahaha

Arcanquest Frank [it→en]: hahaha but in the end you succeeded !

Tosha Tyran: :) yes, I have to watch out when I am in blender, I am capable to forget everything. it is a love affair - tosha and blender, blender and tosha. Sometimes I win, sometimes blender does

Arcanquest Frank [it→en]: when patience ends even love goes away :)

Tosha Tyran: oh,  patience I have indeed. I am getting better now lol, I just have to remember to shower, eat and sleep. Really... sometimes I look at the time and say: uff, already midnight passed, and next thing I know it is 6 in the morning

Arcanquest Frank [it→en]: thanks for the nice things and congratulations

Aphra.Hendrix: is wonderful

Thirza Ember: Tosha, tell us what inspired you to try this build. Is this something you have been working on for a long time?

Tosha Tyran: reading about it inspired me - and actually wanting to go when I was in India but I could not. Considering the research time... maybe 6 to 8 months, because the textures are all fotos of the net and not all were of good quality, but the main research really is all the story behind the build - the love story, but not only that... the time when it was build, the horrendous costs of the build etc. One has to be very rich to do such a thing and the whole state was ruined after the build was finished and the son of the emperor usurped and quit his father from the throne and imprisoned him for spending so much.  The project was an act of madness, but also love... and what is love if not madness?

Thirza Ember: like the safari then

Tosha Tyran: lol, true... without a good portion of madness on your side, Thirza, that would never work

Arcanquest Frank [it→en]: but is the Mariposita shop here?

Thirza Ember: let's all go 

Tosha Tyran: it is pretty :) she did a good job in no time at all

Arcanquest Frank [it→en]: beautiful here too 

Arcanquest Frank [it→en]: hahaha rest on these sumptuous pillows

Tosha Tyran: ooh before reviving the NPCs, I might just dress them with these clothes

Thirza Ember: that would rock

Tosha Tyran: rock the taj mahal, hahaha

Destnations:

Tryad's art region Spooky City                  artdestiny.de:8002:Spooky City                  

Stormy's fantasy landscape Tir Na Nog       artdestiny.de:8002:Tir Na Nog
Tosha's Taj Mahal                                      craft-world.org:8002:Taj Mahal