Caloundra City Private School - Virtual Vegetation

As part of Treeline 2012 I'm working with a selected group of students from Caloundra City Private School over four workshop sessions. Together we are going to create textures for virtual plants that will be the basis for a machinima that will be shown as part of the Treeline exhibition at Caloundra Regional Gallery in May/June.

It's a big learning curve for anyone to get their head around the intricacies of virtual reality, so the first day was both exhausting and exciting. Each student now has a standalone simulator installed on their laptop, courtesy of the school's IT guru Mr Steven Rattey. For the students, their first taste of a virtual world showed them just how much fun it could be, and just how frustrating it could be when your avatar got stuck. In the picture to the right I'm introducing the students to my avatar Juanita Deharo and the world of virtual artworks.

It was a steep learning curve but lots of fun. The students at this school are well supported in their understanding and exploration of technology, and there's a philosophy that encourages enrichment through new experiences. For me as an artist it's a dream school to work with and I'm looking forward to what we can produce together as a collaborative work.




 
I'm already doing a collaborative project with artist Vic Keegan from the UK who is making textures on his ipad for me to use in creating a fantasy garden. The image above shows the students looking at some of this work. We also looked at the inspirational work of Soror Nishi and hope we can talk via live stream with her at one of our later sessions.
The last part of the day was used to begin creating some drawings that can be used as plant textures.
I've already started playing around with some of these, although it's in the early stages. Here are some very crude beginnings.

These are some plants I made from a drawing by Alex. I played around with the drawing in Photoshop and applied it to 3D object. The texture on the tree leaves is also made from Alex's drawing.

This one also includes Alex's images but also some of the plants and the foliage on the tree are made with an image drawn by Bronte.






Thank you to the students and teachers of Caloundra City School who have made me so welcome. I will be posting more pictures here as I continue to experiment with the students' drawings.
The next session is in a few weeks.

The best Of Soror Nishi Opens at Treeline

Soror Nishi's retrospective 'The Best of Soror' opened yesterday at Virtual Treeline Galleries, with a bumper crowd treated to the usual awe inspiring work of this talented artist.

The exhibition is over two levels, with some of Soror's latest trees mingling with earlier works at ground level, in a profusion of colour and texture that somehow seems to come together as a whole.

In the sky galleries Soror has created a sort of visual tour of her work and the way it has developed in Second Life. A roomful of her favourite prims created in Blender demonstrates her considerable talent in making sculted forms. For those interested in the making of plants and the development of this artist's work the exhibition is a must.
I will be doing a full review of the show with more images in a later blog.

Pictured above at the opening, Isabella Alphaville, who greatly admires Soror's work and took the opportunity to add to her collection.
Below is staunch Treeline supporter Asmita Duranjaya whose costume(s) on the day blended perfectly with Soror's works.

Opening of Treeline3

The third exhibition at Virtual Treeline opened today in Second Life. It features an amazing array of diverse works. At ground level Jedda Zenovka's installation built around an enormous tree delighted everyone. Congratulations Jedda- this is an amazing build.


At sky level paintings by shellina Winkler and Trill Zapatero are in the gallery, an installation featuring the work of Richard Newport, and a fabulous bubble tree from Soror Nishi.



Way up in the sky Olmia Tenk's Wollemi installation pays tribute to a tree forgotten by time. Olmia was there hiding amongst the work if you looked hard enough you might have found her.

Thank you to all who came to the opening and to the wonderful artists for putting on such a show.I will be blogging about each of the artists and their works in the coming weeks.

Treeline - Official Launch

The real life Treeline project will be officially launched at the Bunya Dreaming Festival at Baroon Pocket Dam in Queensland, Australia on January 30th. This is a low tech event without computer access, but Virtual Treeline has provided several printed brochures to be handed out at the festival.
Bunya Dreaming is an small festival celebrating the connections indigenous people from this area of Queensland have with the Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii). Festival organiser Beverly Hand says:
The Bunya tree was so special to our people that there were laws that precluded people harming it in any way.
The festival shows that the tree is more than just an icon, it generates understanding of Aboriginal culture, provides a forum for networking and information sharing, and strengthens community partnerships.
The Virtual Treeline brochures outline the project and show images of work from some of artists who have shown at our gallery in second Life, including RAG Randt, Alizarin Goldflake, Em Larsson, Araminta Kroitschov, Bocan Undercroft and Soror Nishi.
A separate brochure is dedicated to images and information about Araucaria, the work of Chilean artist Anyunie Daviau, which is currently featured at the Treeline ground level.http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/80/214/22
Anyunie's work (above) is about a tree from the same genus as the Bunya Pine, which is of special significance to the indigenous people in Chile. What a great link from across the oceans to the local indigenous population through the Bunya Dreaming Festival.

SOROR NISHI CHEMIST'S TREE AT TREELINE

The first artist to be featured at our location in Second Life is Soror Nishi. Soror is well known as the creator of beautiful virtual plants, trees, gardens and forests. The Chemist's Tree makes a wonderful centrepiece to the watery site at Lie.

Enjoying the light show from the Chemist's Tree with Juanita Deharo, coordinator of the Virtual Treeline Project, are Innula Zenovka and Dave Ruby from the UK, and XXXGabiXXX Miami from Chicago