Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Arthole Radio - Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Arthole Radio airs this Wednesday 29th July with live shows from Arahan Claveau and Amy Freelunch and the welcome return of Nebulosus Severine after a two month absence.

We start broadcasting as usual from 1pm Second Life time.
(1pm US/PDT / 9pm UK/BST / 4pm US/EDT).

Listen live at the Arthole gallery in Second Life or open this link in your media player.

Show archives here.

Thanks for listening!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Art I like lately - Simon Marsden and Adam Weiss

For this week's Arthole Radio show I wanted to mention the work of a couple of photographers I'm digging lately.

The first is Simon Marsden, whose work can be found on the website THE MARSDEN ARCHIVE:
"Over the last eleven years THE MARSDEN ARCHIVE has become widely recognised as a unique picture library specialising in the fantastic and the supernatural.

Exclusively holding Simon Marsden's extraordinary and powerful black and white images the collection contains material from the Brit
ish Isles, Ireland, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Romania and the USA.

Categories include haunted houses, mystical landscapes, romantic ruins, gothic graveyards, secret gardens, fantastic follies, crumbling castles, grotesque gargoyles, moonlit abbeys and many more."



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The second photographer is Adam Weiss:
"Currently his work ranges from portraiture and large scale conceptual advertising projects to intimate portraits of real people in ethereal landscapes. The word cinematic is often used when describing his work."




So, yeah. Check 'em out!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Making my brother's wedding cake.

At long last, the project of making the cake for my brother's wedding is FINALLY accomplished and behind me. Here's the full story:

Not long after my brother proposed to his now-wife, he asked me if I would be willing to make the wedding cake. He knew I had taken a couple of Wilton cake decorating classes and had been impressed with the cakes I had made for the final projects.

With a bit of apprehension, I accepted. I knew it would be a HUGE, huge challenge, and I knew it would likely be almost an overwhelming task, but... I love my brother, and his wife is an amazing, sweet person -- I love them both to death, and I wanted to make them happy on their wedding day. I approached the project as I would any other art project, so I think that made it easier for me to deal with.

I started the process a few weeks prior to the wedding date. Fortunately, icing keeps well in the freezer, so I made all of that ahead of time.

Ten batches of icing.

Over the next couple of weeks, I bought the ingredients and equipment I needed, but had to wait to do the bulk of the work (like the actual baking, etc.)

I struggled for awhile with the design. I knew that the bride-to-be wanted Funfetti cake, but other than that, the entire concept of the cake was totally open. Fortunately, the cake stand I bought helped me to narrow down what I wanted to do.

Finally, on the Thursday before the wedding (which was on Saturday, July 11th), I decided on the final design and I bought the accessories I needed.

Wedding cake adornments

I started baking on Thursday night, and while the cakes were in the oven, I worked to assemble the accessories -- the beaded garlands that would circle the perimeters of the cakes.

Beaded garland for wedding cake.

I finished baking early on Friday, then worked late, late, LATE into the wee hours getting all the cakes filled, frosted, and covered with fondant. I didn't finish up til about 5 a.m.

14-inch-cake, covered with fondant.

The next morning before the wedding, I had to transport the blank cakes, the stand, and all the accessories to the reception hall, to finish assembling it. Once there, I arranged the cakes on the stand, hand-painted the metallic swirl designs (the "paint" is made of edible glitter powder mixed with vanilla flavoring), then added the ribbons and garlands to the base; then I affixed the bride & groom to the cake.

Finished cake.

THEN, I ran the hell to the bathroom, got changed, and hurried along to the wedding -- I made it there JUST in time!

The wedding was beautiful, and as we headed to the reception, I felt relieved that I could finally relax. However -- I was worried that the cake wouldn't taste good, despite all the work I put into it -- but it turned out to be delicious, and got universal rave reviews. Most importantly, it made my brother and his wife happy, and that is the biggest and best compliment I could have received.

Making this cake was stressful, tiring, aggravating, nerve-wracking... and totally, totally worth it.

Slideshow of all the cake photos:



(If you cannot see the embedded slideshow, click here for a direct link.)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

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


"I'm Sorry, Dad" - installation

and

Bunnyken In La-La-Land.

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.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

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!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

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