The art community within Second Life is as diverse as its
real world counterparts. Is art an
embellishment or ornament of life though?
I read that “psychological investigations have revealed that
art is the supreme centre of biological and social individual processes in
society, that it is a method for finding an equilibrium between man and his
world, in the most critical and important stages of his life.” This view therefore completely refutes the
approach that states that art is purely an ornament. Art is at the leading edge
of the consciousness of any community. The possibilities of the future, for art
as well as for life, are inscrutable and unpredictable and that holds very true
for Second Life as much as it does for real life.
Meet Luke N Fortacos, a gallery owner and artist in SL. He hails from Northern California and lives
relatively close to Linden Labs. His
curiosity was piqued as to what they did some three years ago. At the time he was playing another online 3D
game with a friend who had started playing Second Life and who in turn introduced
him to SL. His initial foray into our
virtual world did not gel with him.
Then in RL he hurt his back and was laid up for over a
month. With time to kill he decided to
try again. A couple of ladies helped him
with the look of his avatar and he began taking classes at Builders brewery and
Caledon Oxbridge.
He spent some time building a house and some other bit and
pieces, but he desperately wanted to combine mesh with prims, which led to
Blender and Blender Classes. He said “I
could not understand what is was, but everyone spoke of it "like
Photoshop"."
Luke also took photography classes at Caledon Oxbridge and
with Kajia Chrome, at Blue Nile. He tried to get around the Photo shop expense
with freebies like IPiccy, Pixelator and Gimp.
He says they helped but to get where he wanted to be he had to subscribe
to the Adobe Creative Cloud. He said “its
been terrific.....$10 per month, includes a file management program called
Bridge that might be worth the $10 alone.”
I went on to ask him why he wanted to own galleries in SL. He said “I started my first gallery at Xaara
to get feedback on my art - what I was doing. It is still my main objective.
Artists in SL, where I opened my 2nd gallery, I wanted to do the same thing
with different kind of art. Xaara is a BDSM sim with several galleries
representing a wide variety of artists.
The owners of the sim wanted the art to keep to the theme. Artists in SL also represents many artists,
some of which also do Adult, but I wanted to do like many others and explore portraits
and SL Life pictures.”
He added that the galleries aren't going to make him rich, but
they can be self-sustaining. He enjoys
owning them as a means to obtain feedback and from the people he meets.
Luke has a Gallery at SSC Coffeehouse, where he displays his
own and work by other artists from Xaara. The Coffeehouse is also at a
"Lifestyle" type resort and he has brought over Elbereth Exonar,
HisOne Desire and Carley Noonan to display their art too. He plans to expand
the gallery throughout the coffee house, he said “it’s going to be a very
exciting art venue when it is finished.”
His mission is for the SL art community and those that support it to get to know his brand ‘L Fortacos’ as a place to get art for your SL Home or Club. He said “I believe as art improves, and it is really good these days, more customers will buy more SL art for their homes or Clubs. Rather than using RL imports, which is cheating and more than likely a copyright violation. For instance, part of the draw of a place like Fogbound are the pictures of patrons taken by Serendipity Dyrssen. I would like to see other clubs at SL Artwork showcasing unique styles of art. Art that showcases all that SL has to offer.”
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