In real life 'Apelles' was a Greek painter, who was court
painter to Philip II of Macedonia and his son, Alexander the Great.
Notable works included a portrait of Alexander, an allegorical picture of
Calumny, and a painting of Aphrodite
rising from the sea. Though no copies of his works survive, in antiquity he was
considered the greatest of Greek painters.
What has this to do with
Luna? Well everything actually. Luna is a highly talented highly creative
content maker in Second Life, so clearly that is why the name Apelles resounded
with her.
Lunaria is the name of her brand and she creates
everything from Castles and paintings to Steampunk Dirigibles and everything
else in-between.
In real life Luna has been a Kitchen Designer in Fort Myers,
FL USA for 16 years. She loves the work because it satisfies two of her pleasures
in life: creativity and puzzles. Being near the beach, satisfies her Piscean
nature, and a big plus is that there's a lot of great live music in the area as
well. As for hobbies, she likes drawing portraits, calligraphy, woodworking,
writing, and camping. See what I mean about being highly creative?
An article in Popular Science magazine in 2006 piqued Luna’s
interest and drew her in. SL was much smaller back then, but for her it was an
exciting new universe to explore. She
was overwhelmed at the time with the speed at which she became immersed in the
world of friendships, relationships, having a home, and the speed of life in
general on the grid, so she did not start creating until 2 years later.
Initially Luna began by trying to create small hard-to-find
items for her parcel instead of purchasing them outright, concentrating early
on landscaping. At that time, she found
two groups in-world: NCI and TUI, that specialized in building classes, and she
took as many of those classes as she could find time for. Most of her early
skills came from those classes, as well as the Ivory Tower.
Diversity is the name of the game for Luna and she enjoys
trying many avenues for creating content. She specializes in architecture,
landscaping, medieval, and seasonal items, but has also forayed into vehicles
and furniture as well. She creates all
of my own textures for use in her creations, and lately she is learning mesh
with Blender. Her vision is always how an
item will fit with the complete atmosphere for a scene, a room, a home, or a
parcel, so she works on the item inside a larger textured space that the item
will fit with.
The first item she created that really challenged her that
was not related to a class exercise was a castle she made for her home parcel.
Up until then, she had spent fortunes on castles made by others, but one day
she looked at one and realized that she too could do this. She said it was daunting, but she learned more
about building and about herself then, than she could have imagined from the
start. Laughing she commented “We lived in that poor castle for 2 years, but it
has since gone through 3 revisions and is in my store as the Joyous Gard
Castle.”
Asking Luna if there an item that she has created that she
is most proud of, she replied “My fondest item is the Star Empress Steampunk
Airship and its sister, the Star Maiden. I love the look and feel of them both,
along with all their details and parts. It took me a year to make, and in the
process I learned all about vehicles, sounds, and moving textures.”
Luna gains inspiration from everywhere and from seemingly
random moments. The airships started with a friend asking her if she thought
she could make one. The castles are
inspired by her love for real castles and are based on those; the ritual
circles are inspired by her connection with spirituality in all forms; the
cemeteries from a love of all things gothic; and she said that anything related
to Christmas is a joy.
She is always pushing herself into new creative areas. Her motivation is not money, she does not
build to sell, she creates for the love of creating, she adds “and happily,
others like them enough to purchase them. So if a random thought or comment
piques my interest, I chase the idea and learn any new skill I need in order to
bring the idea to life.”
Asking her what the hardest step in creating content for SL
was, she answered “Reinventing the wheel every time a new content creator wants
to learn the trade. Most seasoned creators are not willing to pass on
techniques and secrets to help new creators advance their skills, so new
creators are forced to stumble into skills and tools as they go, which is a
long, tedious process that often causes them to give up. I have a group of
newer friends that I am giving techniques and tools to in order to move them along
faster. This makes SL richer and does not take anything away from me in the
end, rather I am expanded by them in far broader areas as a result.”
I asked Luna if she had a fun story about an experience
involving her creations or her customers, she regaled the following story “Four
years ago, a customer messaged me that they did not get all that they paid for
and were tired of getting ripped off by vendors in general. After turning over
every stone, I could not find any record that she had ever purchased anything
from me. I apologized to her and told her so, but then I decided to go a step
further and refunded her the amount anyway and sent her the item she wanted at
no charge. She was astounded anyone
would do that. Soon after I became her first friend in SL and now we are best
friends. She gets everything from me for free now, lol, and we often build
together and go clubbing and shopping.”
When she is not creating content for SL, Luna participates
in spiritual enlightenment groups such as ACIM, and she still loves to go
shopping, exploring, and clubbing.
As for the future of Lunaria, Luna told me that it is bright,
especially with mesh now available. She does worry about what will occur with
her creations if something were to happen to her in RL though. She would probably choose a talented young
artist and pass all of it along to them to give them a solid base to succeed
on.
Links:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/5882?id=5882
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Lunaria-Second-Life/135956723145543?fref=ts
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