One of the things I like about Second Life is that people show their works there. I try to have a look at them whenever possible to learn about making imagery. One day I ran into the Bohemian Eclectic Gallery (BEG For Short). This gallery interested me because it showed a wide diversity of pictures all made in or with the aid of second life. Since I use Second Life to make my pictures, this of course interested me.
I normally don’t review art as I don’t want to end up in some kind of pointless discussion. However I wanted to post a few paintings here and discuss them because these paintings have a kind of story behind them.
For me that makes such paintings interesting, because I am interested in combining images with stories.
The first picture is called The rape of liberty made by Meryll Panthar. I send a mail to Merryl Panthar as I think an arists should at least have an idea of what I am writing about them. She pointed out that I made an error by laying blame with deviantart (for which I am sorry). The blame goes to Koinup. The story is that Koinup seemed to have one day decided to ban male nudes while at the same time allowing female nudes. As an act of protest she made the above picture. It was made in three hours. Not bad 😛
Personally I think the above image is not all that shocking either. I can imagine a much more deviant ways of representing a rape.
The interesting thing for me is that it is made with Second Life and smartly avoids to be called a total nude because crucial parts are covered. I like the way it is made and the feeling about the painting. It also reminds me that there is a certain breed of people in the world who like ‘power’ for it’s own sake and these people strive to get positions where they can exercise power. They of course will defend their behavior by pointing out that rules (we all made) have to be followed (the way they want it). But you know what they really are when they do so with an overwhelming sense of glee or self-righteousness. And don’t think that people who like power are automatically opposed to liberty. In fact people who like power might be the greatest supporters of liberty, because they don’t really care for what cause power is used as long as it is exercised: exercised by them.
The interesting about this picture is also that it shows a few limitations of Second Life. The cloth is going through avatar, the avatar is a 3d design made by Linden and has certain unnatural aspects, such as the shoulders. In addition the part where the legs join the body has a clear line where you would expect the flesh to fold or crumple.
The lighting combined with the shadows is well done and makes for half the mood. The other is the little rusty bloody look.
For more Meryll Phantar:
http://www.koinup.com/MeryllPanthar/
http://meryllpanthar.deviantart.com/
Link to the gallery in Second life(note: the sim is Adult rated)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Uthers%20Tarn/64/234/27
Notice: the above picture is copyrighted by Meryll Panthar and used here to showcase her art.
