Wrong Way Books and Cafe

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Artists Riverfront, The Colony, Thea Donovan, virtual publishing, Wrong Way Books, Wrong Way Cafe

There’s an interesting mainland area to explore on Route 1, near the Linden Butterfly House in Clearwing. Wrong Way Cafe in Sabre and Wrong Way Books next door are mostly the creation of Thea Donovan, who has returned to Second Life.

My first three photos are of the book store. It’s evident that Thea Donovan is a writer; there are at least a couple of well written info notecards that will tell you all you might wish to know. If you need to get in touch with Ms Donovan, there’s a pink mailbox by the door of the bookstore where you can drop a notecard.

Some excerpts from the bookstore notecard:

“Established in 2015, Wrong Way Books is a bookstore and small press in-world publisher of poetry manuscripts by independent authors.”

“All of our authors retain full copyright to their work and are free to share or sell their books in any venue. We merely provide book creation and editorial services (free of charge) as well as a place to display and sell the books we publish.”

There are several books for sale and one offer on the marketplace, Erasing Eleanor, an art object book of redacted text about the secret love affair of Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok.

There’s a continually working press shown in the photo below. (The actual THINC Intelli Book Factory used is hidden in the closet next to my friend.)

edit 2/27/16: from an IM from Trilby Minotaur: “I went to wrong way books and noticed that the press that’s running is one made by Villian Baroque. It’s quite amazing. The rollers ink the type and little arms feed and remove the paper. It’s based on a Heidelberg windmill press, so called because of the way the arms move.”

The red building seen outside the window is a gacha yard sale. It seems when Ms Donovan returned to Second Life she discovered the world of gachas.

You can read about that and more background in her blog which she’s been posting to infrequently. In addition to the book shop, gacha collectibles and small dwelling (with open doors) is The Wrong Way Cafe and Dead End Theater.

An excerpt from the informative notecard:

“The cafe ran from September 2005 to September 2006 and became a regular venue for poetry readings from diverse members of our virtual community. As of October 2015, its founder Thea Donovan has returned to Second Life and resurrected the cafe to once again provide a venue for creative expression.” There are open mics scheduled for Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. SLT and it’s available for events.There’s a hangout/meeting area upstairs.

Thea also has a Visual Poetry installation in one of the trailers at The Colony, Artists Riverfront in Deimos.

Besides the Linden Butterfly House in the area, someone has part of an installation by Bryn Oh on the other side of Wrong Way.  Across the road is an art gallery, Northmans’ Tourist Trap Roadside Art Shop, Clearwing. This is an overview of Wrong Way Books and Cafe.

Some of the places across the road near Northmans’ are available to enter, some are private. When you leave Wrong Way and go left, past the Mole Mart, you will eventually get to a rez zone where you can rez road vehicles or water vehicles. (It was quite a challenge for me to get far on the water though.)

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At VeGeTaL PLaNeT

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9Volt Borkotron, Elie Maurice, Mitou Waco, VeGeTaL PLaNeT, Vroum Short

I filmed this at the installation by 9Volt Borkotron, the most recent contributor to VeGeTaL PLanet.  VeGeTal PLaNet, created and owned by the French SL artist Vroum Short, has been back for a few months after a hiatus of several years.

“Surrounded with all her friends, she created VeGeTaL PLaNeT,􀀁 a world where all becomes possible and attainable, where the barriers of the real life diminish, to let the imagination flood it over with life. In her submarine exhibitions, 3D animated living plant sculptures and luminous pictures mix together harmoniously. 􀀀By creating Vegetal Planet, Vroum has discovered the world of art : an universal communication tool…
Probably the one of the subconscious sharing of our dreams.” — from the artist bio notecard.I found the sim this past weekend when I was teleported in and became enchanted by Borkotron’s installation. Besides Vroum Short and 9Volt Borkotron, there’s an exhibition of real life paintings by FaFNer Hofmann at VeGeTaL PLaNeT. Hofmann is a French artist; some of the paintings are shown in the photo above. There are several areas that can be reached by teleporter, including a games area. Seating is available throughout the sim. You can pick up a bubble to float around in on one level, just add to wear.The ceiling looks like water; the walls and floors change color. What looks like a wall often leads into another gallery.There’s a level that has a beautiful landscape.The Vroum Short Gallery has art groupings in many areas.  Much of it is animated.Elie Maurice Photographie.

Other artists include Loup Erin and Ananga Resident.Animated art by Vroum Short.

You can find many videos on YouTube and Vimeo about VeGeTal PLaNeT. Animated art by Mitou Waco At VeGeTaL PLaNeT.

Obviously it will take several visits to see everything. You can use the teleporters to explore. The art is available for purchase and there are some great gifts too.

I’d like to thank Izida Hax for help with clarifying information along with Vroum Short for the kind welcome.

 

Silas Merlin ~ Jean-Francois Le Saint

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Babbage Square, Jean-Francois Le Saint, pastel art, Silas Merlin, The Silas Gallery

The photo above is of The Silas Gallery in Babbage Square. There’s time-sensitive information about an exhibition of the pastels of Silas Merlin running through February at Gallery 24 in Tabula rasa further on in this post.

I first became aware of this artist through the Flickr feed of Kimika Ying, who shoots wonderful images of New Babbage. Silas Merlin, known as Jean-Francois Le Saint in the physical world, does pastel studies of real life people, many of them young, in period or festival clothing. These were selected for the setting in New Babbage and there are about 169 art pieces here.In the front room of the gallery is the poster, shown in the middle of this photo, that led me to the Gallery 24 exhibition. There’s an exhibition book that can be viewed and also purchased, seen in the front window display here. Silas Merlin is also experimenting with 3D sculpture. A new one was rezzed in the front yard of the gallery just recently. The second room has comfortable seating and a link to magazine articles about the work of Le Saint in both French and English. I’ve noticed some other 3D creations of Silas Merlin in New Babbage. He has a cemetery; he isn’t an artist who puts up a virtual gallery and then never engages.

From the land description:

“A (growing) selection of pastels and sculptures by Silas Merlin, aka Jean-François Le Saint, Master Pastellist of the Pastel Society of France.”

I’d wondered about these two room in such a huge building. On my second visit I noticed an armoire door open which led to a huge room filled with pastel studies and two more floors of portraits above it. If you’re too tall to walk through, you can use chairs to sit your way in.

I’ve read the artist likes to start a live sketch and then work from photographs. That explains how the sweet studies of an orange tiger cat were possible; they can be seen on the second floor.This is the top floor of the back rooms of the gallery, the windows showing views of Babbage Square. 

The Silas Gallery poster led me to the exhibition entitled The Portraits of Silas Merlin. The exhibition, curated by Kayly Iali, is at Gallery 24 in the Avalon Arts Community. It opened in January and runs through February.

Kayly Iali has written about the artist on her blog here.

The upper room I stood in to take the above photo has commissioned portraits being shown. The room that was to my right has original portraits for sale with a reminder to pick up the art. Walking out onto a roof terrace, there are some examples of avatar portrait commissions.

Near the front door of the gallery is a link to an excellent post about the artist and this exhibit by Inara Pey on her Living in a Modemworld blog.A room off to the side on the first floor has some information about the process the artist uses.  There’s also a link to a time lapse video, of under 4 minutes in length, of a portrait being drawn having taken over an hour to complete. (This video is also embedded in Inara Pey’s post.)

There is supposed to be a third location at the Creative Trio Mansion in Escapades but it was confusing to me and I didn’t find a studio for him. The trio is Draxtor, Silas Merlin and Flokers, a cartoon artist. I landed in Flokers’ studio and the Draxtor Smartbot outside gave me a bit of a startle. Being intrepid, I looked around, with the Draxtor bot talking the whole time. Later, I learned that Silas doesn’t have art in Escapades at this time and I was given an exciting tour through “secret” tunnels from New Babbage (through the wax museum) into the basement of the Creative Trio Mansion. There’s a figure based on one of the Goonies characters in the tunnels and I plan to go back and see if I can find my way on my own.Escapades is intended to be a fun place to be enjoyed by the public.  I  feel fortunate that I got to meet Silas and visit his studio where we discussed prims and mesh and this and that. He explained several steps in the process of creating 3D sculpture starting with prims.

I’m looking forward to following his work in Second Life. In the meantime, I recommend visiting the exhibition at Gallery 24, running through February.

 

Furillen

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Furillen, Moon Edenbaum, Serene Footman, virtual photography

Visiting Furillen during the last couple of months has been a respite and inspiration for me. It was a single photo that first intrigued me and I was delighted to find this estate/homestead provides something for me that I’ve been missing in my virtual life.It’s a peaceful place and has a vibrancy suggested by the weather as well as the changes that observant visitors notice. I haven’t gone often; it has a power that stays with me while I take care of other (mostly self-chosen) virtual activities. Sometimes I’ve taken my camera, others I’ve just sat or wandered around.The virtual Furillen, rated Moderate, holds about 18 — 20 avatars.  It feels spacious. The Janitor, Serene Footman, will boot and ban those who cause one’s stay to feel troubled. 

From the land description:  “An island off the northeast coast of Sweden. Once a limestone factory, now a hotel. Remote, bleak, beautiful.” The current Windlight Sky is Bryn Oh’s Immersive Grey Dust, as seen in the first three photos. The snow constantly falls but that can be turned off in your viewer. After asking for feedback, The Janitor will be changing the seasons while keeping the atmosphere and spirit of the place. The sim has its own music stream by Serene Footman and is quite lovely to hear. Recently there were a couple of days of Bowie playing 24/7 and during the exhibit of portraits this past weekend, Moon Edenbaum selected music to loop through the viewing as accompaniment.  There’s a very active Flickr Group. Photo contests are held; the first one allowed everyone to vote, the second will be voted on by the entrants for simplicity. The winning photo is displayed on the sim and the photographer picks the next theme. The current theme is “Cold” and the winner will be announced on the 7th.

Fashion photographers are welcome as well as landscape, art and any combination of such. There’s a group one can join for the purpose of rezzing temporary props. I’ve not seen it abused; The Janitor does a great job.

Machinima is allowed too; I asked. Unlike photography, permission is supposed to have been obtained to film someone’s place. (This is often overlooked and is most often not a problem.)This is one of the well photographed scenes at Furillen.

I find the place inspires happiness and creativity in me. I’m all for enlightenment and the higher dimensions as many are and often don’t experience them as pastel, neon or flashing. Being easily over-stimulated, I’m not seeking frenetic visuals that promise to maybe “break my computer”.  The word soul comes to my mind. Part of it may be the suggestion of those lives where we could hear ourselves think and were very much in tune with our environment.There are attractive donation sites conveniently scattered about the sim. Furillen isn’t commercial or subsidized and donations are important.The best way to keep up with Furillen insights and information is to follow the Furillen blog, which I find refreshing to read. On some of those days when my eyes are glazed over from information on the internet, this blog is still appealing and makes sense to me. Often there’s simply a photo of the day.The blog is also important for understanding the details of unique events to be held. This past weekend, Shooting the Shooters, a portrait exhibit of some of the photographers at Furillen by Moon Edenbaum was available for two days, which turned into three. There was seating to watch the portraits projected onto the screen at a pace that allowed for taking things in without blocking everything else out and feeling frazzled. It was kind of hypnotic.The music was selected by Moon Edenbaum to accompany the portraits. A photographers name would be projected along with some descriptive words such as “the secret of a moving body” and “a tender step towards a dream”. Then the photographers portrait was shown.It was refreshing to be welcomed and hear others being welcomed by the photographer and Serene Footman. I was also thanked by both as I was leaving.  As many photogenic spots as there are at Furillen,  I have most enjoyed shooting in the hotel rooms.