Every medium does require an adjustment. It affects the way we think like a color palette affects a painter. Going into virtual reality with a purpose is needed, but attempting to force a medium to expectations means missing its potential.

The journey is complex to learn, more due to choices than due to technology. Many begin by joining fund raising projects or building exhibits or performing. Many begin is less respectable ways too because people will be people and given such a safe environment, love to let loose on the fantasies! Having a sense of humor is mandatory.

My interests remain exploring this as a presentation medium. Unlike Sketchup or Cad based 3-D programs, in virtual reality we have an audience. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, we can interact with them as if they were in our own living rooms.

Every point in the journey also has its temptations. In retrospect, now that i have been working in SL for getting close to 1.5 years, I was wise to choose role play as a way to learn. Beginning in the Chicago Roaring 20′s sim, I was able to find how publications adapt to a virtual environment—and learn the basics like how to move objects and change clothing!

The Chicagoan Magazine that mirrored the real one, ran for about the same length of time online at http://www.slchicagoan.wordpress.com. Having an office in the sim ensured interaction with the residents. Writing collaborative fiction in my own titles has helped me explore new ways to write. The series has become a long-term project. Fiction, even closely tied to history, requires a character development so different than writing nonfiction. It is a good creative stretch.

What I initially hoped to do in the Chicago SIM was represent the Art Institute of the 20s. Having gone to school there, having grown up with the place, I have a loyalty to its cultural contribution. And it would be fun to show people from my past there what I have created. But it didn’t fit in with the SIM owners. What DID, however, was the publication. Still, the last project in Chicago was helping to open a bookstore/gallery with a partner. There, I presented a new kind of publication that responds to online features in ways that traditional media can’t.

Presentation receives a boost by scripts that allow pictures to change upon the viewer's click. Therefore, a new kind of publication is born that combines the visual features of the slide show with the visual job of showing art. Posing in front of Winterwolf Bookstore, the logo I designed for the store reads even small.

Somehow I wasn’t done with the role play sims. Going into Serenity Point, I wanted to see how that sim owner operated as compared to the one who owns Chicago. Sure enough though, I got talked into doing a 50′s publication. Producing a format that they can continue, I created the first issue as a way to explore some new visual techniques. Like photography approximates reality—and professionals know how to fool the camera—photography in SL further distorts. It captures a frame of what is more like a video of action. Very few images that I work with come through to publication without Photoshop work. That, to me, elevates it from the realm of the snapshot. The visual principles of balance, enhancement, eliminating the irrelevant, cropping, condensing, and vibrancy all dictate improvements from raw shots. Mirroring reality in setups and timing, the comic nature of SL offers special challenges of expression. It in itself is an expression, as each avatar is its own self-portrait. Capturing the personality of those expressions is the challenge.

Select Magazine fit the 50's genre and gave a solid portrayal of not only vintage style, but also vintage attitudes. I had a cool office there and made some good friends.

Producing Select Magazine did fulfill the fantasy of being a periodical publisher. Having always been on the production side, I did enjoy being able to direct contributors and distribution. Set up to be a quarterly, what I learned fast is that it isn’t a good idea to tie a publication in SL to sim property. Things change too fast.

Yet that wasn’t enough for me. I had gotten a taste of having a gallery in Chicago and I yearned to express my excitement about vintage presentations. With a generous sim owner for space, I set up an exhibit of paintings created by American artists in 1957. It is a show that could not actually exist in reality due to the complexity of assembly. But it can easily exist in SL and is a vehicle for presenting art history in a new way. This, true to form, led to a book inspired by the show. This book is now for sale at Book Island, the gallery, and soon on Marketplace.

Vintage gallery shows works created simultaneously but never shown together. The book is like interviews of the artists in their studios

My sim role play in Serenity Point ended with the owner deciding to move and redo the whole place. A periodical or a gallery, whether in RL or SL, needs a solid organization behind it that can sustain. I came in at the end of the first group of players in this vintage sim. I also learned that these settings go through generations of players—not a roller coaster I can ride. Still, I will be watching how it redevelops and wonder if my vintage gallery approach will fit in. Stay tuned, though, because I have some other ideas to explore that fit my own foundation.

It is cathartic to wrap up this phase of mine in SL. I move on to apply all the skills and develop the threads from these projects that have the most relevance. Offshoots from these beginnings could keep me busy for years—writing vintage publications, presentations, and exhibits. I continue with a few because of the potential I think they have. What impresses me in this process is the amazing educational value of role play. I can’t think of a better way to learn about history than to experience it. As a reporter, publisher, and presenter, the lessons I have learned color everything I do now. I am affected thus by the past and draw from times I did not live!

I initially embarked into Second Life for creative reasons. The surprise became the kinds of deep relationships that formed. Yet my initial impressions still hold. I had joined the Chicago Roaring 20′s role play with an open mind to see possibilities. The very first thing I wanted to do there was reproduce the Art Institute in its early days. That is a project I could have fun with in research and display as I developed skills. But the owner of the sim wanted a publication, so I became a reporter and did that for a year. At the same time, my partner encouraged and even built for me a gallery and hence, rather than do this for someone else, I develop it for myself.

But a gallery feels limited. Art should really be viewed where it belongs: not in a display, but in homes. Nothing affects the mood or the style or the feeling of a room more than the artwork hanging. Nothing engages imagination, contemplation, or emotion the way a compelling image can. Art can even change the world! Music brings people together. Satirical comics can stir uprisings. Novels often help fuel revolutions. And paintings can shake up intellectual circles internationally. Expecting effects from the arts in virtual reality is a given! Yet it is a new way to see visuals—to leave the gallery and become part of experiential environments!

With two successful shows under my belt, I met Doc Droverson who is building a sim of Grand Haven Michigan for the surfing association. Having vacationed in the real Dunes often, I was excited to see his design. There, I discovered he is trying to rent houses and they desperately needed furnishing. He hadn’t really figured that out yet, so I proposed to hang art in them, then get photographs for my gallery. He sure liked the idea of having art in his houses! So as I was happily placing pictures on empty walls, I realized how dominant the floors are! So much visual space under-utilized! That isn’t tolerable to a visually-demanding person. Waste is a tragedy and an opportunity lost!

This led to designing rugs for the floors that carry the theme of the artwork and then, of course, the wall pattern behind the art. The three elements work together! Rooms can have themes! Furniture can be chosen to accent art rather than typically the other way around!

Living room of the Huron House. Series: Teal and Purple Tango. Paintings: Harmonic Moment and Dejá Vu. Rugs: Squares Shuffle and Square Strings. Accent walls: Squares Weave and Squares Stripe. Furniture by Selo Wozniak, Cullan Suntzu, and Peterly Weezles.

Because Doc’s theme is the future, circa 2034, I chose artwork that fits a sleek, efficient, and elegant potential. Looking through my body of work, I had done some cell vinyl paintings on plexiglas. They are quite futuristic because they use high-tech materials. Cell vinyl is animator’s paint formulated for movies and video, so this seemed an obvious choice. Also the soft geometry lends itself particularly well to pixelization and translation into complementary patterns.

Den from the Huron House. Series: Blue and Red Square Dance. Paintings: Chromatic Convergence and Spectrum Shuffle. Rug: Squares Shuffle. Accent Wall: Squares Stripes. Furniture by Peterly Weezles, Omegamus Janus, Wulf Kierstrider, and Furr Burt

Three sample rooms resulted from this series. Doc’s benefit is to show the houses with furnishings. My benefit is to develop the products and shoot photos of them. Little did I know that this direction would blossom into new tentacles of creativity!

Apartment from the Michigan House. Series: Red and Blue Seranade. Painting: Squares Shuffle. Rug: Squares Dance. Accent wall: Squares Weave. Furniture by Selo Wozniak, Zion Volos, Ambber Enzo, Daffy Proto, Adi Weirsider, and Dyslexia Jinx.

Naturally SL attracts the wannabes. I have always wanted my own gallery and now I have one. I have always wanted to be a journalist and to explore writing historical fiction, and now I do. I have always wanted to self publish my own books in beautiful pages and now I can. I have always wanted to design environments that support the visual dynamics of art and now I create that. And I also have accessibility in a new way to other creative contributors everywhere!

In working on an article for Matters of Music Magazine, I interviewed Bones Writer who is a musician in real life and an amazing entrepreneur in Second Life. He has found a way to make the two balance where one supports the other, to the enrichment of each! When I first dropped into SL, Elvera Lerner, a popular performer, gave me this advice: “You will find your place.” Not only has Bones “found his place” but he has defined new places and new ways to use SL that show its ultimate potential to change lives.

First he performs as a musician and has learned to have new connections with other musicians where he can help them advance as well. Soon he was teaching musicians how to use their equipment to perform in SL, how to stream, and how to find opportunities. He opened a center where they have listening booths to promote their careers—good and bad. He sponsors Alex’s Lemonade Stands throughout the grid, to gather awareness for children’s cancer research.

Interviewing Bones Writer in his center for music advancement.

What this demonstrates to me is that I am on-track. There are so many new ideas to explore, I almost don’t know where to go next, like the kid in the candy shop. But one thing is very clear to me: virtual reality will be the internet browser of the future. In ten or so years, everyone will log on into a 3D program that will access the internet. It will overcome the learning and technical capacity problems we have now. It will become the way people interact with all cyber content and business relationships. It will take the place of needing to meet physically.

What Bones said that inspired this reflection confirmed what I believe:
“Second Life is the only place in the world where people really do get together.”

He agrees with me that this virtual platform has formed its own international culture—quite defined, tangible, and very difficult to explain to those with no experiences in a virtual world. He described how Rand Corporation came in and opened a business center. ‘Griefers’ learned of this and created a jetliner to crash into Rand’s largest buiding, scattering avis and prims everywhere. The corporate officials did not find this amusing, needless to say, and pulled out of SL saying “‘it is harder to start a business in Second Life than it is in Iraq’” quoted Bones. Sadly, this friction holds back development—but that is only a temporary state.

Listening booths where fans and venue owners can sample three songs, receive a performance calendar, and find links to websites.

Magnolia opens as an art center featuring musicians, artists, and authors.

The good news is that Maryrosella has taken the baton and now is running on her own! Sweet Magnolia Blues has just opened, devoted to the blues and also carries the New Orleans charm. Taking me with her, she built a lovely art gallery that accents color and expression in a charmingly traditional way: The Magnolia Art Center. Downstairs, I hung four large paintings that I can rotate with eight others. Showing four at once and changing them each week can keep the exhibit fresh. This is a place for friends to sit and chat; changing the walls often gives an inspiring backdrop to their visits.

Downstairs has a rotating collection of a dozen large paintings.

Showing in Second Life® offers opportunities to have multiple themes and venues—each show a little different. Going from one to the other can be a journey in itself because with one click, the viewer can drop into another location. Signage is important to direct visitors to my other exhibits—I am getting to that project next!

Upstairs is still under development but begins with the art, a more intimate collection than the large works on the first floor.

Upstairs will be a Reading Room as Mary will be inviting authors of in-world books. After the show at Thothica, i have learned from their inspiring library. It offers a great opportunity to see a variety of what authors are doing with the in-world formats. Magnolia’s Reading Room can offer another kind of selection, as this is a growing medium. I am happy to have books in both places—with my Ways of Wisdom series at Thothica and my first fictional works, City of Contrasts and Vintage Visions at Magnolia. As this develops, I have hung smaller works on the second floor to have a more intimate atmosphere for when the library is developed. I did show the drawings previously at Gallery Medier, but there are four smaller paintings as yet not shown.

I had thought of having a painting show at Gallery Medier and even had one set up for a while. But I chose not to have an event because I have ideas that incorporate the paintings in new ways under development. Magnolia will have a Grand Opening in a few weeks that will expand audiences through this new collaboration.

In the meantime, Mary will be busy developing her Art Center and expanding her horizons. I am honored to be part of her efforts and her first featured artist.

The Thothica Walkway Gallery feels like it is floating.

Since my first showing in April of a drawing series and the launch of my own gallery, the enthusiastic receipt of my work is also heart-energizing. Artists get battered around a lot in real life by conditions beyond control. But here in Second Life, perfection is attainable in presentation, at least. Ideas can be debated. But beauty of presentation is something everyone can relate to.

Since that initial show, I have received three invitations to exhibit in gorgeous places. The most recent opportunity is to hang a show at Thothica’s Walkway Gallery. Located in a sim infused with intelligent and thoughtful members, Thothica runs regular exhibits. The space is elegant and ethereal. It shows off the work making the viewing easy and allows just the right amount for most people’s attention—twelve pieces.

Gallery exhibit shows off the drawings of Eleanor Medier.

I have chosen to show works directly inspired by words from those smarter than me. My attempt is to turn these quotations into visual expression:

“The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.” —Bernard M. Baruch

“The most immutable barrier in nature is between one man’s thoughts and another’s.” —William James

“For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself.” —Henry David Thoreau

“Knowing others is intelligence. Knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.” —Lao Tsu

“A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure.” —Oscar Wilde

“The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest, are near to virtue.” —Confucius

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” —William Shakespeare

“The great poet draws his creations only from out of his own reality.” —Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“The great poet draws his creations only from out of his own reality.” —Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.” —Chinese Proverb

“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.” —Alfred North Whitehead

“I don’t run a hundred miles; I run one mile—one hundred times.” —Soren

By using these quotations, the images fall in the realm of illustration as well as drawings. What is the difference between a design, an illustration, and a work of fine art? These pieces are all three. And I am releasing an in-world book called Ways of Communication that shares my collection of wisdom about improving communication—misunderstanding being one of the most dangerous of social maladies. The book aims to express visual representations of past great thinkers, who offer ideas towards progressive thinking.

The opening of the show on September 11 was enjoyed by guests from all over the world.

I  hope that you will stop by Thothica and see the show this month and check out their future shows as well. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Clemson%20University%20Dev/133/221/29 Feel free to IM me—if I am free I would be happy to join you there!

The Thothica SIM offers the ideal environment for discussion, contemplation, exhibition, and reading.

Exemplifying the best of what SL has to offer—fantastic environments, facilities to meet and discuss, a library of in-world books, and a multitude of places to sit and think, Thothica is the perfect community to enrich artistic and philosophic dialog. Run by Jen Dix, Elaine Lorefield, and Simulat Almendros, the gallery represents the potential of in-world media.

One of my favorite places in the RL United States is New Orleans—specifically the French Quarter. It possesses an ambience that combines aspects of what I love about Europe with what I love about the U.S. Dripping with history and charm, inspiring in rich visual textures and character, and exuding a unique personality, I have wandered the streets there for hours and hours. I visit whenever I have the opportunity and always fall in love again—enjoying the music, the small gallery art, the antiques, and the food.

Hanging three small paintings on the fence mirrors how artists show in real New Orleans.

Other than the food, Kingfisher Island in Second Life captures everything else!! And something in addition: the opportunity for me to show my work there! Nez Darkfury has used his considerable talents to capture what is so lovable about the jewel of New Orleans. He has re-created the charm of the street artists, showing his growing collection of virtual artists. He and partner Maryrosella invited me to have a show there, so I have placed three of my smaller paintings that can fit on the fence and six drawings with two more paintings inside the adjacent building.

Drawing show in virtual New Orleans, in the French Market Faubourg Marigny.

Please visit and enjoy the show, the ambience of the swampy SIM, and especially don’t miss the great DJ’s and live music at Kingfish Blues Tavern!

Kingfish Blues Tavern in Second Life is fantastic for enjoying great tunes.

Building the Chicago Loop from the 20′s has captured the style, setting, and character of the real city, complete with the Chicago River, State Street, Grant Park, near north and near south warehouse districts, the elevated train line, trolley cars, vintage shops and clubs, alleys, cathedral, police station, hospital, and restaurants.

As a shy newbie in Second Life, the very second day of arriving in this new culture, I instinctively sought a home—some place to learn and get my bearings. On the first day, I learned to change clothes and move around. Then doing a search on the word “Chicago,” the listing with the most visitors, read: Chicago Roaring ’20s.

Curiosity propelled me transport there even though I was clumsy and SL naive. It reminded me of moving to real life Chicago when I was 23 years old to attend the Art Institute of Chicago and to begin a career (though the last five-generations of my family lived in the city, I grew up around the Midwest). Wide-eyed and innocent, I sat in the Tribune Plaza, surrounded by tall buildings, with a view down the river, edged by skyscrapers. Gazing at all the twinkling windows, I felt overwhelmed by not knowing a single person that occupied all those spaces!

In Second Life, after first obtaining a free 1920′s outfit, I began to explore the Chicago 1920′s sim. As in the past, I stood overwhelmed on a recreation of the Michigan Avenue Bridge (a bridge I have crossed a thousand times in real life).  Looking at all the tall buildings—but without the newer ones I also know well—I felt transported back to the time of my ancestors. And again I felt those knee-shaking shy and nervous feelings! But then I was more than welcomed in this virtual world; I was swept into taking both steps back in time and forward into an innovative international collaboration! This story chronicles my journey, as I assume the role of a young ambitious journalist who has the knack of being in the right places at the right times. The group plays out real events that defined the character of an era and of the great city I call home in both worlds.

Cover of the 100-pages e-book that grew from recreating major events of Chicago in the 1920's.

Murder, Mayhem, & Music chronicles the first part of the decade that inspired an escalation of every enticement begun from speakeasies, to innovative fashion, to rising mob control, to an artistic renaissance, to the building boom. It begins with my arrival in Chicago and a sketch of the cultural backdrop.

The story is supported by images and stories from the real history—in black and white contrast. The historical back bone is presented, giving both authenticity and a deeper exploration into the color of the era. Opening with the setting, the darker pages present the historical facts and the lighter pages chronicle the recreation.

In meeting Gigi Gartenberg early upon my arrival—two friends could not be more opposite. Yet she helps me on my way to learning how Chicago works and to establishing myself as a professional.

Brand new in town, a friend and I (a lady would never go alone) wander into the Boom Boom Lounge, the only place open in the Loop on a sunday afternoon. There we meet the soon-to-be-famous Gigi Gartenberg.

My first break through assignment as a journalist is the beauty pageant patterned after Miss America, which began in 1921. Earning an instant reputation, like the historical figures my role reflects, I find my dream job: editor and chief of The Chicagoan.

Falling into my dream job, I open my own publishing office. But soon I am visited by a well-dressed fellow offering me "protection" for a monthly fee.

As one of the country’s first women journalists, I become famous when I witness the murder of the mayor and have the scoop on the headline story. This murder combines the first real life major mob killing in 1920 of Big Jim Colosimo and the later assassination of Mayor Anton Cermak. Chief Shepham Moorlord investigates the murder while his beautiful entrepreneurial wife Starla Huntress Moorlord takes control of the city’s social agendas.

Entertainment and clubs bring everyone together on equal footing—those feet dancing to jazz and blues or attending the nightly burlesque shows.

The book is written and designed for a reader who knows nothing about virtual reality, as it is the story woven that has relevance both “in-world” and without. The illustrations are snapshots from the events taking place virtually, showing the creativity of the avatar characters and the atmosphere of the setting. The photographs tell a story visually, balancing with the story line that is easy, albeit rather sarcastic, to read.

The decade is relived through history that made Chicago famous.

The story continues—see The Chicagoan blog for infamous murders, prisoners, controversy, and romance.

Available as a download PDF for $.

[this is the first notice of the book for initial comments prior to publication.]

Please enjoy reading a free sample chapter. [to come]

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