2008 in review

2008 was a pretty big year for me; I feel that I made a good amount of personal and artistic growth, so I'd like to spend a moment or two documenting some of the more significant moments.

[I actually started this post about a week ago and have only just finished it. :P]

JANUARY 2008
-- I uploaded the infamous 'Odious Source' picture to Flickr that stirred up a shitstorm (technically, it was uploaded on Dec. 31st, 2007 but the resulting controversy came the day/s after):


-- I hosted the Second Annual David Bowie Birthday Bash in SL:


-- I was invited to exhibit an art piece in the Amsterdam sim in SL, so I created the installation 'Come Closer,' a site-specific interactive, kinetic piece:


-- Construction of Arthole, the collaborative gallery in SL for me and my friend/art co-conspirator Arahan Claveau (Steve Millar) began:



FEBRUARY 2008
-- I did the construction & art directing for a sociological / identity / gender exploration / embodiment / performance-art piece in SL called 'The Labor Project,' concept by Rivka Rau and Jubilant Quackenbush:



MARCH 2008
-- I was featured in the (now-defunct) SL tabloid The Avastar as one of the Top Ten most influential women of SL (I was chosen as the art candidate):


-- I began exhibiting work semi-regularly at Brooklyn Is Watching, beginning with Bunnykenball:


-- I found an actual Bunnyken on Ebay, bid on it, and won:



APRIL 2008
-- Arthole opens! Our first guest artist was Ichibot Nishi:


-- I was invited to join the Not Possible In Real Life (NPIRL) group in SL.


MAY 2008
-- Arahan, Ichibot, and I participated in the Kunstvlaai festival, held in the Virtual Holland and Amsterdam sims, an event in Amsterdam with components both in real-life and in SL:


-- Khamudy Mannonen, a friend, donated the Arthole Annex, a piece of virtual land, to our gallery so that we'd have a bit more space in which to build:


-- I participated in the group Hyperformalist exhibition in SL called Kiss the Sky:


-- I participated in the Garden of NPIRL Delights, a multi-artist event held in SL; my build was called 'Excess of Sorrow Laughs / Excess of Joy Weeps':


-- I hit my third rez-day, or the 3-year anniversary of the date I first came to SL:


-- I bought a Wacom digital drawing tablet, finally! --


-- Changed my avatar shape to be less-skinny.


JUNE 2008
-- I hosted an event at Arthole for Arahan, who had decided to cancel his Flickr account:


-- I was offered the use of a sim for 2 months by Bettina Tizzy, founder of NPIRL; that project eventually became the installation 'Chasm,' but originally started off VERY differently.

-- I decided to close my SL shop, Numinous, to focus on more art projects:



JULY 2008
-- I finished my SL installation 'So Flows the Current' at the Depot 7 sim:


-- I also completed the 'Chasm' installation:


-- I was asked by SL fashion designer Callie Cline to work with her on an ensemble for a virtual fashion show at the Black Swan sim:



AUGUST 2008
-- Arahan and I created the performance piece 'ORIENTATION' for the Club Goodbye Dollar event held in both SL and real life:


-- The second season of Arthole opened, with new guest artist Selavy Oh:


-- I took day trips to Boston and Maine:



SEPTEMBER 2008
-- I collaborated again with Callie Cline for another virtual fashion show at the Black Swan sim:


-- I helped to plan and build for the third anniversary celebration of Le Cimetiere, a virtual nightclub owned by my good friend Jinx Paz:


-- I built an installation, 'Ornamental Love,' for the Sintetika sim in SL:


-- 'ORIENTATION' is re-created and filmed for PICNIC 08, an arts and technology event in Amsterdam:


-- Arthole Radio launches its weekly show, with Amy Freelunch (Amy Wilson) joining the line-up shortly after:



OCTOBER 2008
-- I built a Halloween-themed installation, 'In The Hall of the Pumpkin King' for the Cetus Gallery in SL:



NOVEMBER 2008
-- I accepted my first real-life commission for a work of art, which was sold to my friend known as Sunshine Kukulcan in SL; it was completed and shipped in December:

(crappy phone-cam pic; better photos to be added soon)


DECEMBER 2008
-- I was interviewed on Skype by Amy Wilson (aka Amy Freelunch) for Arthole Radio -- you can listen to it here - http://arthole.shadow-dominion.com/Amy/wilsonep12.mp3




Also of note in 2008:
-- I overcame my fear of the dentist (for the most part) and started going back regularly, which was a HUGE step for me, since I had not gone in many years. Fortunately, I had no serious issues and only needed a series of deep cleanings.
-- I met a few Second Life friends in person, though I am not going to mention their names, out of respect for their privacy and my own.

'Ornamental Love' - last chance to see it

My SL installation at the Sintetika sim, 'Ornamental Love,' will be dismantled on the evening of Jan. 8th (if my internet connection holds up!).

SLurl -- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sintetika/21/155/41

RIP, Great-Uncle Bill

A couple of days ago, my mother told me that my great-uncle Bill (her father's brother) had passed away on New Year's (eve or day, I'm not sure which). He was pretty old (92, I think) and it sounds like he just died of old age. I was not close to him, but I still felt a twinge of sadness...

A couple of summers ago, I spent a few days in Maine, and he was kind enough to let my roommate & me stay overnight in one of the little cottages behind his house. She and I spent some time with him while we were there, just talking and keeping him company. I hadn't seen him since I was a kid, probably. Despite his age, he was very alert; his mind still sharp as a tack.

Hearing of his death made me feel a little nostalgic, so I dug up photos from that vacation; sadly, I don't have any pictures of him.

The cottage we stayed in


The Maine Diner, where we've eaten several times over the years


Statue & flowers in front of a photographer's studio in Kennebunkport


Rainbow at Drakes Island Beach


Setting sun at Drakes Island


Nubble Lighthouse in York

See the rest of the photoset here.

Great, just fucking great.

I found out the hard way tonight that my installation 'So Flows the Current' at Depot 7 (in SL)... NO LONGER FUCKING EXISTS. Looks like it was returned to me, mid-December, without so much as an IM or warning of any kind, and that the land it was on was sold.

Fortunately, it's sort of in two pieces that I could probably reconstruct. But it was kind of a site-specific piece, though, so I guess I can consider this one dead. Hardly anybody even got to see it. :\



2009's turning out fucking GREAT thus far.

BIG news - my first art commission

This is probably one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me, and I am only just sharing it with the world now.

In November, I sold my first (real-life) painting.

It was completed, and shipped, in late December. It was commissioned by my friend, Sunshine Kukulcan, who has been a huge supporter of my art since I first met her nearly 3 years ago in SL. She gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted for the piece -- here are the first pictures I have released of the finished art:

Title: November
Year: 2008
Dimensions: 28 in. X 11 in.
Media: Acrylic, enamel, and LED lights on canvas

Notes: I took these pics with my phone camera, so they're pretty crappy resolution.

The streaks of light-colored paint are silver, not white as it may appear.

I created this piece in an attempt to capture the feeling of gloom/nostalgia I mentioned on my blog not too long ago (the 'November in my soul' post). It is a diptych that is actually comprised of 6 smaller canvases which I layered (3 on each side).

There are LEDs inside the piece to illuminate it from within.

Sunshine has promised to take better photos of the piece and send them to me, so I will post better, higher-resolution pics as soon as I can!



Beginning now, I will begin accepting more commissions, so if you'd like me to create something for you, contact me at nebulosus dot severine at gmail dot com and we can negotiate.

Coconut milk yogurt

Was shopping at Whole Foods a couple days ago and found this in the yogurt section:

I love yogurt, but I only bought one (in vanilla; they have other flavors, too), because I wasn't sure if I'd like it. I wish I had bought more, it was fucking amazing -- the brand name is certainly appropriate. The vanilla flavor is nice and sweet, with just a hint of coconut milk; the texture is silky and creamy. This would be an excellent yogurt for anyone who cannot, or does not, eat dairy or soy. I like milk-based yogurt just fine, but would gladly include this in my regular yogurt-buying.

Why, indeed.

Lately, I have been feeling used up, bored, restless, uninspired, empty, burnt-out, frustrated, wanting.

I know it's just a phase and it will pass, but in the meantime, it SUCKS. I want something to focus all my energy into, and nothing seems to feel right... feels like all I am doing is killing time, now. I need a PROJECT, for fuck's sake. I need to WORK, I need something NEW.

Rest in peace, Mr. Bun-Bun.

My brother's rabbit passed away sometime Christmas morning after some recent health troubles. He was about 7 years old.

He had been a Christmas gift to my brother from his former girlfriend about 7 years ago.

He was a sweet, affectionate, loving bunny who loved to play and give kisses.

He was loved by everyone who knew him.

I'll miss you, Mr. Bun. :(

Xmas Eve On Arthole Radio

Join us this Christmas Eve on Arthole Radio for a four hour festive feast!

The shows will play back to back starting at 9pm GMT
(1pm SLT / 4pm EST).

Arahan Claveau brings you Burroughs, Burl Ives and The Beatles, with a touch of Cheech & Chong and Charlie Brown.

The Amy Freelunch Hour CHRISTMASPECTACULAR!
Featuring a conversation with Nebulosus Severine, singing cats, holiday cheer, and all the Bibbe Hansen bashing you can fit into an hour.

Nebulosus Severine's annual Festive Freak Show.
Guaranteed to displease.
________________________

Copy and paste this link into your streaming media player:
http://slan13.ipr365.com:10320

Captivating, haunting images

Caption: A statue of Rigas Feraios, a Greek writer and revolutionary who died in 1798, stands vandalized with an anarchy symbol outside the Athens University on December 12, 2008. (ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images) #

Was surfing the web tonight and came across a series of photographs about the recent riots in Greece that just blew my mind:

On the night of Saturday, December 6th, two Special Guards of the Greek police clashed with a small group of young men. The exact details of what took place are still unclear, but it is known that one of the Guards fired three shots, and one of those bullets caused the death of 15-year-old Alexander Grigoropoulos - whether the injury was made by an accidental ricochet or deliberate shot remains to be determined. The two Guards are now in jail awaiting trial, the shooter charged with homicide. This incident sparked an immediate and widespread response in the form of angry demonstrations and riots in many Greek cities that have continued at varying levels to this day - though dimming in intensity recently. Alexander's death appears to have been a catalyst, unleashing widespread Greek anger towards many issues - police mistreatment of protesters, unwelcome education reforms, economic stagnation, government corruption and more.

To see the rest of the images, follow this link:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_greek_riots.html

We are very intellectual, and we have very intellectual conversations.

engrishfunny.com!

[14:58] Me: ROFL WTF!! http://engrishfunny.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/hallowmas.jpg
[14:58] Friend: GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD LMAO
[14:58] Me: hahahah
[14:59] Friend: god lmao i can't even begin to comprehend trhat
[14:59] Me: rofl
[14:59] Friend: hallowmas lol what about christoween?
[15:00] Me: AHAHAHAHAHAH

'not being able to create art / they will not understand art'

(if you cannot see the above video, click here)

The Genius Of The Crowd
Charles Bukowski

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds
for they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art

Holy crap -- THIS is the show that made me want to be an artist.

Was hanging out in SL, chatting with various people, and the topic of art came up, and I mentioned Robert Longo (my favorite artist & one of my biggest influences), and I decided to Google something about him, and I came across this article -- written about the VERY exhibition that lead to one of the biggest turning points in my life -- the one that made me want to be an artist -- I call it my "artistic epiphany" -- HAHA! This is the show that I am always telling people about when they ask me how I discovered that art was (is) my calling -- holy shit!!

Okay -- so. A little background info regarding:

When I was 14, in the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I took a college-level summer art program for high-school kids at the University of Hartford. It was a 3-week class, Monday through Friday, 7 hours a day. Sculpture class in the morning; an hour for lunch; then drawing in the afternoon. At the end of the course, our class took a field trip to the Wadsworth Atheneum, which just happened to have a Robert Longo exhibition going on at the time.

That field trip changed me profoundly -- and changed my idea of what an artist could do, and what art can BE. It made me realize exactly what I wanted to fucking do with my life.

So anyway, the article:

ART; Secondhand Emotions in Varied Media
By VIVIEN RAYNOR
Published: August 5, 1990

LEAD: THE main event now at Wadsworth Atheneum is ''Robert Longo.'' But first, the superlatives and demi-superlatives: the 12-year retrospective is billed as ''the primary contemporary art exhibition in New England this summer'' and as the vehicle for ''some of the largest works ever mounted'' at the Hartford museum.

Mr. Longo himself is advertised as ''one of the most significant figures of the generation that came to prominence during the 1980's'' and as ''one of the world's most heralded young artists'' (a title for which the competition is fierce). He is also called ''poet of urban life,'' a title that has a familiar ring.

As for the exhibition, it originated in slightly larger form at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it was organized by the curator of contemporary art, Howard Fox, and A.T.&T. is its angel. Accompanying the event is a catalogue containing essays by Mr. Fox and other authorities, with lots of photographs in black and white and color.

The tale of the artist's life makes chaotic reading. Having been graduated from Plainview High School, on Long Island, he spent about a year at North Texas State University, in Denton, then took to the road in a Volkswagen. Upon arriving in New York City, he worked in survival jobs and studied briefly with the sculptor Leonda Finke. Receiving a grant in 1972, Mr. Longo, then in his 19th year, proceeded to Italy, where he applied himself to learning art history and painting restoration. After that, more traveling, but a visit to the Rodin Museum, in Paris, clinched the idea of becoming an artist, and by the end of 1973, he was in Buffalo, at the State University College's art school.

In Buffalo, Mr. Longo began making the contacts that have been so crucial to his career - with the film makers Hollis Frampton and Paul Sharits, the photographer Cindy Sherman and a host of other talents, emerging and emerged. In company with some of these new friends, Mr. Longo set up the alternative space, Hallwalls, inviting the attention of Vito Acconci, Sol Lewitt, Lucy Lippard, Richard Serra and other notables, including the new curator of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Linda Cathcart.

So far, the artist's own work had been largely experimental, but in 1976, he staged his first performance, ''Artful Dodger.'' This caught the eye of Helene Winer, who invited him to Artists Space, her own territory in Manhattan, where he did another performance, this time with the help of several Buffalo friends. There followed an encounter with Jonathan Borofsky and, as a result, Mr. Longo's first reliefs in clay. Cast in aluminum and painted, the one called ''Seven Seals for Missouri Breaks'' made it into a group show at the Albright-Knox, and it is the earliest piece in the present display.

By 1977, the artist was very much in the Manhattan swim, sharing quarters with Ms. Sherman, working as Mr. Acconci's assistant, going to avant-garde movies, hanging out at the Mudd Club and other nightspots, organizing and participating in exhibitions. Of course, there were hard times, including a stint as a cabdriver. But Mr. Longo's star was rising, and in 1981, he made his first solo appearance in a commercial gallery, the aptly-named Metro Pictures. He had already acquired his collaborator, Diane Shea, a professional illustrator who ''improves'' his drawings.

Thanks to the ground broken by Pop, art had completed its metamorphosis from a solitary, sometimes dowdy occupation enlivened by the occasional eccentric to a highly charged collective activity that depends as much on the media as on its own media for success. Not that there is anything inherently wrong about that. Still, it goes a long way toward explaining Mr. Longo's way of alternating between naivete and slickness, solemnity and emptiness. There is angst in this art, but it is a secondhand version, an offset reproduction of the emotion.

The first piece to greet the visitor is a bank of four steel cylindars covered with gold leaf. It looks like a giant gold mangle hanging on the wall, and, every so often, the rollers rotate at high speed, making the gallery resonate like a Laundromat. Dated 1988 and titled ''Dumb Running: The Theory of the Brake,'' it could be the last object touched by Midas. To Mr. Fox, it suggests ''an absolute power that exists to serve itself and operates on all things external with equal indifference.''

Indifference, absence, alienation, indolence - these are Mr. Longo's themes, and he expresses them in many different forms. One is the large figure that is half-Samurai, half comic-book robot but all scales, chains, machine parts, bandoliers and guns cast into bronze. A creature with, among other things, two densely fanged mouths and a single female breast, it stands against a painted backdrop of opera boxes, holding a flagpole in one hand, a broken guitar in the other and emitting from its naked rump a bunch of thunderbolts. The figure symbolizes a fallen angel, possibly Beelzebub himself, and the title, ''All You Zombies: Truth Before God,'' has a moralizing tone. Nevertheless, the awe it inspires is strictly ''special effects.''

Though much concerned with the evils of the world, Mr. Longo is less than sophisticated when making his big points. ''Pressure,'' for example, is a painting of a young man in clown makeup who, literally, is under pressure from the relief above of office buildings painted pale gray. Yet this kind of thing is catnip to the literal minded. Mr. Fox likens the piece to Rodin's carving of Pallas Athena crowned with a diminutive Parthenon, and who but an esthete can gainsay him?

There are images that are heavy with meaning but work well as abstractions, like ''Joker: Force of Choice,'' an upended cross that is the sum of four right-angled chevrons of Corten steel. But the strongest punch comes from the black-and-white drawings of life-size figures in arrested motion, the men wearing business suits, the women dresses. Well-dressed nonentities with neither a past nor a future, they inhabit a perpetual freeze frame. The reviewer never sees them without thinking of the people who dance alone at discos, perhaps hoping to be caught as Mr. Longo catches them but in gorgeous grainy photographs.

As mediocre drawings these images are more memorable than they ought to be. The same can be said for ''Corporate Wars: Walls of Influence,'' an aluminum relief of office workers kicking, shoving and wrestling each other, which is flanked by two black shapes symbolizing corporate architecture.

Then again, the secret of Mr. Longo's success may be his very ingenuousness. Bizarre as it may seem, most of his work is as easy to ''read'' as Norman Rockwell's vision of Thanksgiving dinner.

The Robert Longo retrospective, which also includes videotapes, will remain at the Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main Street, Hartford, through Sept. 1.

[ Source: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5DB123BF936A3575BC0A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all ]

I used to have the book from this show, but currently I have no idea where it is -- I may have lost it when I moved into my current home.

(I have some old photos from that art class floating around somewhere; when I find them, I will post them.)

Night-Ghast items: Ice Pavilion

ICE PAVILION
25m Base
38 Prims

To purchase, simply donate L$1 or more to the vendor that contains the item you want, and you get it -- That's all!
Higher donations are encouraged and ALWAYS appreciated.

Get it here:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kress/242/88/148

Jim Morrison's birthday

O great creator of being
grant us one more hour
to perform our art
& perfect our lives.
-- Jim Morrison

I commemorate his birthday every year.

And, weirdly, tonight as I browsed the web looking for pictures, I came upon two articles related to Jim:

Jim Morrison's Father Dies
December 3rd, 2008

Late Doors star Jim Morrison's father has died, aged 89. Rear Admiral George Morrison died of natural causes on November 17. A veteran of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Morrison was largely disowned by his rock star son, who insisted his parents were dead in early interviews.

In 1990, Morrison visited his son's grave in Paris, France and had a plaque installed.

Shortly after the Morrisons moved to Coronado, California in 2002, the admiral's wife died, and reports suggest he has been i n declining health ever since.

Rear Admiral Morrison's private memorial service was held last Wednesday at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California.

The feeling was mutual - the seaman rarely discussed his son as he rose up the ranks.

[Source: http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/12/03/jim_morrison_s_father_dies]

Image of Morrison aged 65 unveiled



Scientists have revealed what legendary rocker Jim Morrison may have looked like were he still alive now.

Researchers at the University of St Andrews used the latest technology to create a computer-generated image of the singer and poet.

The Doors' frontman, who died at the age of 27 in Paris in July 1971, would have been 65 now.

The image, put together by the university's perception laboratory, shows the singer as a greying pensioner, with familiar piercing eyes.

The team used an image of Morrison in his mid-20s as a starting point.

Professor David Perrett, of the university's school of psychology, said: "We used 'ageing' software to reproduce the natural effects of ageing, taking into account changes in skin texture, hairline and hair colour.

"The process of ageing was mimicked by changing the texture and shape of the original image to simulate the changes in the skin that would occur between the ages of 40 and 70."

The perception lab team has previously created images of Hollywood stars Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, who also died suddenly at a young age. Images of Elvis Presley aged 70 and John Lennon at 64 have also been developed.

It is hoped the software being developed at the lab could be used for assisting with missing person inquiries, particularly those who have not been seen for many years.

The same software can also be used to change sex and race.

[Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jxBJ82YdxxDJ9ZPNpWFQBsDjbYvg ]

Funny quote of the moment

"creationism, for people who think their god is too stupid to come up with evolution."

(Digg comment re: Roger Ebert's review of Ben Stein's 'Expelled')

Night-Ghast items: Santa's Slain - Santa Chalk Outline

Santa's Slain! Santa Chalk Outline with blood splatter
- No Transfer
To purchase, simply donate L$1 or more to the vendor that contains the item you want, and you get it -- That's all!
Higher donations are encouraged and ALWAYS appreciated.

Get it here:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kress/242/88/148