My two nominated works at the Best of Brooklyn Is Watching

I am extraordinarily grateful to announce that two of my artworks were nominated for the Best of Brooklyn Is Watching -


I'm Sorry, Dad

and

Bunnyken In La-La-Land.

I set them up near each other at the display space, and it's sort of odd to see them juxtaposed in such a way; I mean, the subject matter, the intent, the emotion that went into the pieces could not be more opposite.

Also, it was a bit difficult to revisit I'm Sorry, Dad. Fortunately, it was saved to my inventory in pretty much one piece, so there was no need to spend a lot of time dwelling on it.

Teleport to the exhibition space here - http://slurl.com/secondlife/KU%20Art/214/117/21

Make sure you have plenty of time to explore; there are a TON of amazing pieces of art to experience - many by some of my favorite Second Life artists: Arahan Claveau, Ichibot Nishi, Dekka Raymaker, Selavy Oh, Dancoyote Antonelli, Glyph Graves, Bryn Oh... and many more!


Press release about the festival here.

Arthole Season 3 is just around the corner!

Arthole Season 3 kicks off Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 2 pm SLT (PST) and welcomes Penumbra Carter as our new guest artist!

Read all the details here, on the Arthole blog.

In preparation for Season 3, the Arthole gallery will close for one week beginning Saturday, July 11th.

Don't miss the last chance to see our current guest artist Dekka Raymaker's Church of Whoami on level 3, and Arahan Claveau & Nebulosus Severine's XXX PRIVATE SHOW on level 2!

Teleport to the gallery: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kress/168/88/391

Download the Arthole Season 3 press release here.

Best of Brooklyn Is Watching Voting Results!

Taken from the Brooklyn is Watching blog:

Voting finished: The 30 best list

(*Note: Artists whose names are in bold are, or have been, Arthole artists.)

Podcaster’s votes:

ARAHAN CLAVEAU, Injustice
COMET MORIGI, foggy forest
DANCOYOTE ANTONELLI, Tower of Light
DEKKA RAYMAKER, 8 Platforms
GAZIRA BABELI, Avatar on Canvas
GLYPH GRAVES, Wind Installation
ICHIBOT NISHI & ARAHAN CLAVEAU, Beyond Human
ICHIBOT NISHI, episodic.atomized
JURIA YOSHIKAWA, A Window Into Your Mind
LONETORUS HABILIS, Garden of Colour
MISPRINT THURSDAY, Aeroport
NEBULOSUS SEVERINE, I’m Sorry Dad
NEBULOSUS SEVERINE, Bunnyken in La-La-Land
OBERON ONMURA, Beacon
PATRICIAANNE DAVIAU, Lilliton
PAVIG LOK, Intellectual Property Garden
RACHEL BREAKER, MAGICENCHANTED DREAM FACTORYNOBASE
REZAGO KOKORIN, Watching Brooklyn is Watching
SELAVY OH, Spiral
SELAVY OH, Attractive Art

Public votes:

COMET MORIGI, Wind Particles
ALIZARIN GOLDFLAKE, The Maze
BRYN OH, Sea & Sky
ALIZARIN GOLDFLAKE, Night Light
BRYN OH, Rabicorn Environment
ALIZARIN GOLDFLAKE, Come Go With Me
ALIZARIN GOLDFLAKE, Phosphoressence
BRYN OH, Drawing Out the Shiver
SOLKIDE AUER, Black Pearl
SOLKIDE AUER, Radiations (Radiazioni)

------------------------------------------

Thank you to all who have voted and participated - as always, I am grateful for your continued support!

Vote, Vote, Vote!

Public Vote for Best of BiW Year One Now Open! Voting deadline is the end of Saturday, July 4th.

Taken from the Brooklyn is Watching blog -

Ok here we go. Podcast participants are sending in emails to me with their picks- that will account for 20 of the choices.

Who picks the other 10? YOU DO. Anyone can vote. Vote wisely- Vote only once. Voting is only today (july 4) and tomorrow (july 5) till 2pm eastern. Artists- you might want to send out some emails about this to let your fans know.

Click Here to VOTE

What I’m going to do is take the 20 highest rated artworks from the podcasters lists- those are in, and then take 10 highest rated works from this survey that are not already in because of the podcasters voting and those 10 will be in too to make up 30.

FULL EXPLANATION OF THE FESTIVAL IS HERE

View results of voting so far

Description of all the nominated work here

Ten batches of icing.

Ten batches of icing achieved (FINALLY).
That's about 30 cups.
Phase 1 of my brother's wedding cake is complete.

Siri Woodget's blog

Siri Woodget was kind enough to write a review of my installation at the Caerleon Art Collective on her blog, My Life in Second Life:

Bittersweet memories -
...Severine built an evocative and typical scene for many children shipped off to summer camp each year, called Summer, 1985; a platform tent in the woods; sleeping bag resting on thin mattress, bag of clothes stuffed damply beneath the rusty springs of the bed, can of repellent rolling across the floor. Visitors are asked to lie on the bed and listen to the radio. Stations quickly change as though someone were spinning the dial looking for a good tune...

(full article here)

Thanks so much, Siri! I'm glad you were able to visit, and I'm glad you enjoyed group show as well.

Veggie wraps ftw.

Went shopping at Trader Joe's recently, & they had samples of a Mediterranean veggie hummus wrap that were just so amazingly good I had to buy the ingredients and recreate it at home.

What I used in this particular photo:

- Sundried tomato tortilla wraps (I prefer spinach wraps, but the store didn't have any at the time)
- Hummus (Cedar's original tahini)
- Green leaf lettuce
- English cucumber
- Trader Joe's Feta cheese with Mediterranean herbs

For the dressing:
- Lemon juice
- Trader Joe's white balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil

First I made the dressing -
I whisked together one tablespoon each of the lemon juice & vinegar, and two tablespoons of olive oil to make an emulsion (this will make enough dressing for 4 wraps).

To assemble the wrap --
I spread about a quarter cup of hummus on each wrap, right to the edges (it helps the wrap to stick closed).

On top of each went a shredded lettuce leaf, some slices of cucumber (wash but don't peel), a tablespoon of feta, then a tablespoon of dressing drizzled over that.

Wrap 'em up and EAT. Obviously, there are probably a zillion different variations you could make with this basic set of instructions. Could also very easily be adapted into a vegan version.

Srsly, this is my new favorite sandwich-esque food item.

SL Blogger Meme: Who Inspired Your Avatar?

Found on New World Notes:
Spread This SL Blogger Meme: Who Inspired Your Avatar?

My answer:

My avatar isn't based on anything other than perhaps my subconscious; it is a self-portrait of sorts, and strongly resembles many of the ink drawings I've done in the past - which are symbolic self-portraits as well.

I consider my avatar as an extension of my art - it is a very stylized self-portrait in itself.

Arthole Season 3 - July 18th 2009

Tune-in to Arthole Radio on Wednesday 24th June from 9pm UK time to hear details on Season 3 ...

1pm PDT / 9pm BST / 4pm EDT

Listen here.

(reposted from the Arthole blog, which was most recently updated by Arahan Claveau)

Latest doodle

Throes
Ballpoint pen on paper
Approx. 8.5. in. x 11 in.
(2009)

Wedding cake process

Today I began the long and labor-intensive process of making my brother's wedding cake.

I have to start making the icing in advance, as this will be one of the most time-consuming steps.

First batch is done - I have to repeat this process 9 times more.

Summer Camp, 1985

This installation is the Second Life counterpart to my painting "Bending Trees," for the Aequitas group exhibition in both NYC and the Caerleon Art Collective sim.

When I was first approached to be in this exhibition, and was told that the theme of the show was to be based around childhood memories, I instantly knew which of my own experiences I would revisit:

I was a pretty sheltered, innocent, carefree child until I went away to summer camp when I was about 9 years old. The two weeks I was away destroyed me emotionally; I was terribly homesick, and was completely ostracized and rejected by the other kids in the camp (including my friend, whom I had gone with specifically so that neither of us would feel totally alone). It was really the beginning of a huge complex I still have to this day over my fear of rejection. Obviously, I've come a long way since I was 9 years old, but that experience with summer camp traumatized me deeply. When I returned home, finally, I had separation anxiety from my mother, and I had to go to therapy for a long time afterward. I did end up a stronger person in some ways, and my independent thinking & my resolve to fight and stick up for myself grew as a result. So, for what it's worth, the experience, though mostly bad, DID turn out to be positive in many ways, and really helped to make me what I am today.

In this installation, I attempted to capture an experience I had every sunrise while away at camp. As I'd slowly wake in my sleeping bag, for the first brief moments I would believe that I was home, in my own bed; and as I'd fully gain consciousness, the horror of my situation would set in once again.

I have a recurring fear that perhaps the past 24 years of my life have been a dream, and someday I will wake up, still in bed at camp.

Instructions for viewing:
- Set daylight settings to Sunrise (World -- Environment Settings -- Sunrise)
- Turn up the volume on Sounds
- Touch the bed (Disable your animation override, if applicable)
- Touch the radio underneath the bed

Teleport - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caerleon%20Art%20Collective2/63/31/21

Great advice from a wise friend --

"Let all your expectations disappear and just BE."

Found in one of my old high school journals --

Frustration is one of the great things in Art, satisfaction is nothing.

-- Malcolm McLaren, college notes (winter 1967/8)

(I am not a huge fan of M. McLaren, but this is a pretty wise statement.)

Why

There are times that I feel like just walking away from all of this -- Second Life, an art career, stuff like that.

I can't help but wonder: what is the point of it all?

Do I really have anything important or significant to say to the world? I mean, really?

I struggle with the notion that my work is mediocre at best, for the most part; and that I just can't hack it. I feel some joy at minor accomplishments & small victories, but it's not enough; I am unfulfilled. I keep trying, but I'm still left feeling empty. I'm not satisfied.

Plenty of artists & creative people are perfectly content to retread familiar art territory; and plenty of good, even GREAT art comes out of that process. But that's not enough for me. I struggle to find something NEW, to discover something that has never been seen or done before. Second Life art is a start, but... it doesn't quite fill that void yet for me, not yet anyway.

And even if I found sudden success in that respect -- What the hell would I do with the whole art world rat-race anyway? I couldn't handle that, at least not now, as I am.

These are all simply rhetorical questions; the only answers I can really expect are from myself, and with time.

I'm not giving up, I CAN'T give up. Just having an existential crisis, again. Questioning, re-examining, searching, wondering, thinking.

Twitter

Oh yeah, by the way, I use Twitter sometimes --

http://twitter.com/Nebulosus

-- if you wanna follow me.

I'm still getting the hang of it, & still not posting all that regularly, but I'm getting used to it & more use out of it.

Sometimes I post pictures, too.

New commission piece - 'Talk To Me'

About twelve hours ago, I finished my latest painting, Talk To Me; and about 8 hours ago, I delivered it to its recipient.

Pics:

Title: Talk To Me (diptych)
Year: 2009
Dimensions: Approx. 32 in. X 20 in.
Media: Acrylic on canvas

Detail 1, Detail 2


Raw sketch

Aequitas -- first pictures of the real-life show

Photos courtesy of Stephen Beveridge/Sowa Mai.

(If you can't see the embedded slideshow, click here to view)

Aequitas
Artspace OSA
June 1 - June 30, 2009
Reception Friday June 19th. 6:30-8:30
178 Bennett Ave @ 189th St, NYC
1 train to 191st Street | A train to 190th Street

Second Life Version
Caerleon Art Collective
June 26 - July 3, 2009
Reception June 26th. 6:30-8:30slpm
slurl.com/secondlife/Caerleon%20Art%20Co llective2/108/48/24/

Friends

All of you out there who have a network of friends, with whom you socialize in-person, on a somewhat regular basis -- never, ever take that for granted. You may or may not realize just how lucky you are.

You're lucky, and I envy you.

Beta-testing AvaLine

Arahan emailed me today to tell me about AvaLine, a new way to use voice chat in Second Life -- it enables you to receive phone calls to your avatar. It's only in beta testing just now, but I thought I'd be one of the 1,000 people who would give it a shot!

Here's how it works:

1.) Dial one of the numbers listed below:
Boston: +1 617-861-0749
Chicago: +1 312-348-3694
Dallas: +1 972-813-0067
Los Angeles: +1 213-271-2575
New York: +1 212-660-9951
Philadelphia: +1 215-475-5291
San Francisco: +1 415-490-9443
Washington DC: +1 202-629-9859
London, UK: +44 20-7100-5624
(* long-distance rates may apply, check before you call)

2.) When prompted, enter the access code of the person you want to call, followed by the pound sign (#). [Obviously, you have to know their access code beforehand.]

-- If the person is logged in, and is currently accepting voice calls, they will get a notification, which looks like this:

If the call is accepted, it connects the way a regular voice-chat IM would:

-- If the person is offline, is unavailable, or does not have voice enabled, you will be able to leave a voice message, which will be emailed to them in the form of an .mp3 file:

Bear in mind that the person you call WILL be able to see what phone number you're calling from.

For more information about this service, or to sign up for the beta-test yourself, check out the following link:
http://secondlife.com/avaline
(Note that you will have to sign in to the forums using your SL user name & password.)

In case anybody is interested, my access code is 807141. Leave me a message!