Always a sad moment to be at the other end of a show, just before it is taken down; feels like the carnival’s leaving town. This is a shot of the exhibit at Pirats Omega Gallery last night, just before it was all packed up and shipped out. On to another show, somewhere down the road. Oh… yeah. Studio 33.

Checking in to report on recent activities around here that don’t happen to have anything to do whatsoever with comic books, webcomics, graphic novels or any other linear/narrative verbal/visual forms of communication. No discussions about mermaids, flying red porsches, ground-to-air missiles, cannibalism – or any other such subject, for that matter – will be found here today. If you want to know what it feels like to wear a translucent red motorcycle between your legs, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Like, say, over at mojozone.

But what I will talk about are all the other non-linear, somewhat-verbal-but-extremely visual activities I’ve been playing around with. By the way, I put that picture of myself riffing with our band cherrybomb up there, one, because I thought I look pretty cool, and two, because a friend said not long ago that I looked like Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy. I came across this shot last night and suddenly got her point. Here’s Andrew:

See what I mean? May have to go out and buy a pack of virtual cigarettes, but other than that I’d have to agree that there’s a strong resemblance there. But I digress, and once again attempt to focus on that non-linear thing in spite of my burned out state of mind. Where was I? Oh yeah….

Over the past weeks and months, I’ve created a half dozen new avatar paintings, had several major exhibits in Second Life, have begun writing the graphic novel Chromium and Juliette, started working on a machinima film about my art, started that webcomic, and in conjunction with my new web gallery have begun moving my paintings out of SL and into RL in the form of giclee prints. Of course, the SL photography goes on and folders overflow (gotta get back to koinup and flickr.. been too busy for that too).

Finally, the band… cherrybomb is quietly ticking in the background (I know cherrybombs don’t tick, but it works for me). Initial studio recording has begun in the real world, and will continue as time allows, but it seems Botgirl is even busier than me these days, so it appears things will be moving pretty slowly until sometime after the holidays. Then, hey, the sky’s the limit.

Thought it might be time to focus once again on Juliette, the lovely and loyal subject of much of my attention in Second Life. She is the face and figure of all of my digital artwork, the focal point of my search for the human heart and mind within the avatar. Fortunately for me, though, she is kind, generous, and very, very patient. She has to deal with an obsessive perfectionist, after all, and pulls it off with grace and poise. Can’t figure out how she does it, actually.
Suddenly, however, a new side of her personality has begun to emerge. To give her a break from the lights and cameras I began a series of photo shoots using myself as a blissed-out rock star for the subject of my next painting, and Juliette took one look at those shots and decided she was not gonna be left out of this party. She has long wanted to be on stage, she claimed, and not just as a pretty face. She wants to be a rock star herself, dammit, and then went on to inform me of her considerable musical talent and experience. I was floored. We then, of course, had to go shopping. Women.
The photo above was taken at Bowling Green State University, where she began to unpack and test her new guitar – a classic Stratocaster from KLP Productions, one of the best musical equipment builders in SL. She has been rocking the house ever since; the studio will never be the same. We also picked up a gorgeous set of drums, btw, since she is multi-talented, and, well, drumming runs deep in this family. We’ll talk more about that later, though; looks like this story line has just begun.

During the long flight from Los Angeles to Amsterdam, where we caught a connecting flight to Berlin, my physical counterpart and I spent some time contemplating the significance of our long journey. One of the more interesting tidbits we stumbled upon was the fact that his father had entered Berlin as an American infantryman many years before and was at the center of the final decisive battle that crushed Hitler’s army, liberating Berlin and the rest of Europe from the Nazi nightmare. Now, at the dawn of a new century, his son was entering this vibrant cultural capital to participate in an international celebration made possible by that victory: the opening of an art exhibit at the Austrian Embassy. If only Daddy could see him now.

From the first evening we were there, it felt as though we had arrived at a large, cosmopolitan dinner party. The city itself, like all great cities, has an air of excitement about it, but Berlin seems to have a special kind of energy; it is filled with a sense of its own renewal. After all, how many metropolises have been bombed into oblivion, only to arise from the ashes a few decades later as a thriving center of art and commerce? This was indeed a special place with much history and you could smell it in the air; even under those cold, grey, snow-laden skies. Within hours we were enjoying wienerschnitzel and pilsner at Cafe Einstein with fellow Second Lifers KK Jewell and Jaynine Scarborough; and this was just the beginning. The following day we paid our respects at the Bauhaus Archive, just a few blocks from our room at the Hotel Berlin. The likes of Klee, Kandinsky and Mies Van Der Rohe had all walked and talked in these hallowed halls. What a country.

Later that evening we attended a dinner reception at the Twelve Apostles restaurant in East Berlin for the participating artists, generously provided by our host, noted architect Bernd Boetzel, aka Vision Planer. It was a real international cultural exchange, with El Bocho, a grafitti artist from Berlin; Mario Dalpra of Vienna; Iskren Iliev, a painter hailing from Bulgaria but now living in Vienna; Nina Maron, a painter from Vienna, Rob Steenhorst, a digital artist from the Netherlands, and yours truly, Chrome Underwood, frontin’ and maxin’ for the USA and Second Life. The words and the wine flowed in endless streams until the late hours of the night. We then climbed into the back of Rob’s van (haven’t done that in a few years) and headed out to visit Billy Wilder’s bar, where we finished off the evening’s adventure.

The following night found us at the Austrian Embassy, mingling with a pretty good-sized and highly-energized crowd in the upper level gallery. This had been preceded by a series of short performances by two well-known Austrian actors which, as far as I could tell, went over pretty well. I didn’t have a clue what they were saying, but it was a chance to sit back and listen to the German language in the raw; I found myself marveling at its expressiveness and, well, to be honest, its musicality. Without understanding a word, I was moved by it, as I might have been by a jazz performance. Perhaps I had seen too many sneering Nazi officers on the silver screen over the years; this went a long way toward correcting that imbalance.

Since there were  many, many wonderful experiences, too numerous to recount here, I will leave you with the impressions of an American artist in Berlin…..

Grey skies and light snow as we walk the streets of recent history; bullet holes in monuments, church towers stand alone and broken, filling the air with sadness, pride, hope and a bright new energy braced with knowledge of an awful truth. Standing near the door of a Spanish bistro in the cold East Berlin night, smoking hand-rolled cigarettes with my new German friends. Everyone looks good in black, it says on my bag of Dutch licorice. The Berlin Wall, the longest running art show in the world, where graffiti trumps the Cold War. Cheap trinkets at Checkpoint Charlie, memories of the death and resurrection of freedom bolted to facades all around us, twisted rebar and triumphant images of German artists. A luminous Brandenberg Gate suddenly appears in the night as we weave our way to the Austrian Embassy. Throngs of passionate visitors surrounding each tiny jewel of a painting at the Paul Klee exhibit; the unbearable heroic sadness of Kathe Kollwitz; the pristine purity of the Bauhaus Archive rusting in the snow, a woman whose makeup is ruined by tears. A golden angel staring pointlessly at the memory of France. The exhilaration of liberty in the soaring, dancing, singing buildings of the New Berlin, where hope is made of glass and steel, and embedded in the hearts of its people. Ich bin ein Berliner.

Images, from the top: anonymous graffiti on what’s left of the Berlin Wall; LoveDot, giclee print on aluminum by Rob Steenhorst; and another anonymous work on The Wall.

Well, we been workin’ mighty hard over the past several weeks, crankin’ out one masterpiece after another… almost all of them involving Juliette and her considerable modeling, acting and dancing skills. She worked so hard during the holiday season, all in preparation for the upcoming show in Berlin, that I decided to reward her with a new chopper from MLCC motorcycles. She is one hot mama now, and has a surefire way to get away from the paparazzi quick as a flash. You go, girl. You really, really go.

Visit MLCC in New York City:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/MLCC%2C%20NYC/103/231/21/

Last night I threw on on a suit, jumped into my magic teleporter, and zap! presto chango! there I was, standing in front of Ruttan Gallery in Cetus, ready for my “Meet the Artist” event at exactly 7pm. I’ll bet Jackson Pollock wasn’t this punctual. To be honest with you, though, I had to brace myself as I walked in because I’ve never really enjoyed this part of my art career; standing around for hours, talking about everything but art with people that you might not otherwise be talking to. But this was not real life.

For one thing, it seemed clear from the start that everyone who attended the event seemed to really want to be there. For another, many obviously appreciated the work and went out of their way to let me know, and some actually wanted to talk with me about it. This is a lot easier to do in a crowd in SL, by the way, thanks to their chat features; the “exterior” or public chat, a free-for-all textfest that flies by just as fast as each person in the room can type. This takes a great deal of discipline and attention for me, because I’m not the best typist in the virtual world, and I’m a monotasker. Hey, I’m a guy.

Then there is the Instant Messaging feature, which enables you to have a private conversation in the background with another individual, while surfing the public, or local chat. I had several of these last night, usually beginning with a compliment or question about the work, and was amazed at how enthusiastic and knowledgable these folks were. But then, most of the longtime residents of Second Life are among the most adventurous, creative, and intelligent people you will ever meet . Some of the most interesting minds in the world are walking around in avatars these days.

Music was provided by the great Winston Ackland who, rumor has it, was once a member of a very famous band in real life. A great singer, a great songwriter and an artist in his own right, he struck the perfect note again and again, providing just the right mood for the festivities.

But it was as the party was winding down that lengthier and more serious conversations began. One of them was the one I had with DB Bailey, well-known rl architect and sl builder, in which we discussed the 3D possibilities embedded in an image such as cameo. The fact that all of my images have been created in Photoshop, using a composite of image sources, means that the many layers contained within each of them lend themselves readily to transformation into a 3-dimensional object, according to DB. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about this idea, and in fact can’t wait to walk into a room called cameo in the near future. Thanks, DB.

The exhibit will be up until the end of October. Drop by and visit, and feel free to drop me a line if you want to know more about the work.

Second Life photos by Happiness Merryman, from the top: DB Bailey and Chrome Underwood standing in front of cameo; Chrome, Harper Beresford and Xander Ruttan, owner of Ruttan Gallery, discuss the setup as things are about to get underway.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cetus/216/34/35/?title=Cetus%20Gallery%20District

Can’t keep his mind on nothin’ else...

Couldn’t help singing that old Percy Sledge classic, either, as I slowly put together my latest alt, Juliette. As a Second Life blogger, photographer and artist, it’s nice to have a stealth avatar to move smoothly and quietly – and anonymously – through the metaverse, in search of action. It’s become even more crucial now that Chrome has become so damn popular. I don’t know what it is about that guy, but he can’t log in without running ino a shit storm of IMs these days. Me, I prefer things a bit quieter. I like to be able to observe, think and create on the fly, without all the distractions of fame – or notoriety, as the case may be.

So, I decided a while ago that I would develop a pretty strong bench of backup avs that I could call on for a variety of roles, depending upon the state of play on any given day. Thus, la mia Capo di tutti capi, Chrome Underwood- handsome, young, mysterious and worldly – gets to do most of the heavy lifting. He’s the go-to guy for the paparazzi, the art openings, social events, business meetings and the like. Poor fellow.

Fortunately for him, though, he has an identical twin, Manhattan, who has proven to be more of an adventurer and is thus free to wander the seven seas of the Metaverse like a virtual gypsy. He’s the one who’s more than likely to be found slipping through cracks in the sidewalk in search of the original Nexus Prime, gliding down a darkened alley in Kowloon, or meditating in silence at Gion. He is l’artista in azione, the artist in action.

Next, I added Rooster, a leathery old former Special Forces guy who’s probably the toughest member of the team, and to be quite honest, doesn’t take too kindly to being bossed around by these younger guys. So, in order to soften some of the rough edges, and smooth some ruffled feathers, I introduced them all to Juliette. They immediately quieted down, and even got a little starry-eyed. It was, to be honest, a bit embarassing.

Though I’ve only been on a few shopping trips with her to set up her basic appearance thus far, I’ve already begun to learn that wherever Juliette goes, if there are any male avs in the vicinity, the temperature goes up at least a couple of degrees Linden. Since she is basically a lab rat, though (sorry, honey), I only allow her to flirt a bit and then provide her with a clever excuse to slip out of the conversation. Oops! Gotta run. Time for the kids to take their Ritalin.

I have a lot more sympathy for women already, though. Man, this is a lot of work. I wonder if there are any stores in Second Life that sell pepper spray.

Twin brothers Chrome and Manhattan are seen above meeting for the first time in over a year, earlier today. Read the heartwarming story of their reunion, The Light Brothers On the Road, at our twin site, Chrome Never Sleeps.

It has been many a Linden moon since Chrome and his twin brother, Manhattan, known collectively as The Light Brothers, had gotten together. They lead such busy second lives, you see; there just hasn’t been much room for family get-togethers. Today, though, on a quiet Sunday morning, they decided to hook up, if only for an hour or so, and catch up on old news, new shoes, and the state of the Metaverse. Busy boys.

They decided to meet at Waterhead and, not being big nature lovers, eschewed the nearby trails and explored some of the local roads by cowboy boot instead. Initially, they had intended to take a long ride in Chrome’s vintage WWII army jeep, but for some reason the owner of the land wouldn’t allow them to rez the vehicle. “Protected Land,” it said. Some guy named Linden, I think. God, what a jerk. What the hell are roads for?

One topic of discussion during the long march was the possibility of getting back together again as The Light Brothers. Chrome, the popular writer/artist, and Manhattan, the gypsy musician/photographer, had previously collaborated on a conceptual piece called Crash Landing, a minimalist interpretation of the flying saucer incident in Roswell, New Mexico. It was called ‘conceptual’ because it only happened in their own minds. They’re very avant garde, you know.

The day concluded by each of them sinking his teeth into the other’s neck and drinking about a pint of blood; an old ritual of theirs, which also happened only in their minds, because they actually have no blood. That’s also why they decided not to call themselves The Blood Brothers.

Seen in photo above: Manhattan on the left, and Chrome to the right. Photo by the photographer. Click image to see full size.

Last evening, just before dusk, I walked onto the plains at Help Island and came upon two young gladiators practicing their deadly moves. One, a spiky flaming warrior princess, fire-hardened metal to the core and brandishing a flaming sword, stood against her opponent, a large, lightning-quick robospider, his golden whiplash tentacles splaying in all directions.

I was fortunate to be there and be able to get inside the action, armed only with my trusty Kodak Brownie. The deadly dance, as you will see, was pure art. You can join the action at my flickr set, At play in the Cosmic Sandbox.

Click image to see full size.