Update on my digital-virtual art exhibit in the Cahners ComputerPlace at the Museum of Science, Boston

The Museum is currently accepting applications for two Digital Art Exhibit Spring Internships for my exhibit.

Please find the info for the Flash Programmer Intern here: http://www.mos.org/visitor_info/about_the_museum/internships&d=4750

and for the Open Sim/Second Life Developer here:
http://www.mos.org/visitor_info/about_the_museum/internships&d=4752

My exhibit consists of a semi-permanent digital/virtual art exhibit for the Cahners ComputerPlace at the Museum. The exhibit will further visitors' understanding of digital image creation and manipulation (http://www.marthavista.com/). It will also introduce people to the idea of making virtual art. The physical design of the exhibit will be an immersive installation employing sound and video projection to simulate the experience of being inside one of the immersive art environments that I create as an avatar named Alizarin Goldflake in Second Life (R), a virtual reality platform. Bob Johnson (Thoth Jansen in Second Life) is currently working on the technical design.



Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35

Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/
YOUTUBE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake

The Winter Bear

Another fun crossover project! I recently constructed Second Life sets for a Real Life play, The Winter Bear, that will premiere in Anchorage October 29, 2010. My machinima of the SL sets will be projected on a cyc (cycloramic backdrop) as a major component of the RL stage.

There is a teaser for the play made up of short clips from the machinima that just went up on YouTube. A/V production by Alfred M. Ajami.

View it here:



Or take the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMYSYJNkm1E&list=QL&playnext=1

The sets feature my digital drawings, done with Corel Painter and a Wacom tablet, and my Second Life building skills, including sculpties (unique 3-D shapes created in Blender) , scripts (code), and particles (temporary phantom images) which I also use to make virtual Immersive Art.

about THE WINTER BEAR
Written by Alaska State Writer Laureate Anne Hanley and directed by Jayne Wenger. Troubled Athabascan teenager Duane “Shadow” David is considering committing suicide when he’s sentenced to cut wood for elder Sidney Huntington. It’s only by combining the elder’s knowledge of old hunting ways with the boy’s expertise in video games that they stand a chance against a marauding Winter Bear. The Winter Bear delivers a message of hope that a young man can become a leader by using the wisdom of his traditional culture to transcend the traumas of his past.

Previews of the play in Galena and Fairbanks were enthusiastically received, and I am very excited to be flying to Anchorage for the official premiere.

Gala opening Oct 29th, 2010 at Cyrano's Off-Center Playhouse: http://www.cyranos.org/
Performances Thursday through Saturday at 7 pm and Sunday at 3 pm through Nov. 13th. Special added WEDNESDAY performance Nov. 10th.



============================================
Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/
VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/
YOUTUBE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake
Anza Borrego Oak:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/1/5s_KRMi55v8
Acquarella:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
Acquarella:the Fable ( a Chantal Harvey machinima)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX1eFMtjV6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhO2Rf88uM (Chinese narration)
Metemspyche's Garden:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/2/GfQGuNXWvLo
Studio Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/XDjrLmPpopA
The Maze:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/4/OEa9rtEiINE
The Mysterious Forest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/5/c6Xv_pAf0Qc
The Winter Bear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMYSYJNkm1E&list=QL&playnext=1

"Acquarella: The Fable" showing at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai now!

It gives me great pleasure to announce that my digital and virtual art is now on view at the World Expo in Shanghai!

Chantal Harvey brought her awesome machinima skills to filming "Acquarella: The Fable," and I did the story, storyboard, art, set, costumes, props management, direction, production, and acted the part of Acquarella. The parts of the three Nymphs were acted by soror Nishi, BridgetMarlane McDonnell, and Yman Juran. The sophisticated and lovely Chinese narration (in Mandarin) was translated from the English and performed by Wei Yin. Our collaborative effort is now showing in the Air Tree Exhibit in the Madrid Pavilion of the World Expo in Shanghai, curated by Spanish curator Cristina García-Lasuén (Aino Barr in Second Life), founder of the virtual arts group Open This End.

You can watch the English version of the machinima, narrated by Alfred M. Ajami, here:


and the Chinese version here:



To see the list of accepted machinima on the Madrid Pavilion web site, please go to
http://www.madrid2010shanghai.com/calendario.asp?evid=79&id=1 (click on the English flag in the upper right corner). Scroll down to 3rd Exhibition, September - October 2010 . Our video is under the name of the machinimist, Chantal Harvey.

"Acquarella: The Fable" was inspired by one of my immersive art creations by the same name: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
============================================
Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/
VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/
YOUTUBE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake
Anza Borrego Oak:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/1/5s_KRMi55v8
Acquarella:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
Acquarella:the Fable ( a Chantal Harvey machinima)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX1eFMtjV6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhO2Rf88uM (Chinese narration)
Metemspyche's Garden:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/2/GfQGuNXWvLo
Studio Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/XDjrLmPpopA
The Maze:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/4/OEa9rtEiINE
The Mysterious Forest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/5/c6Xv_pAf0Qc

July Update

The Museum of Science Boston recently hired Bob Johnson, an acclaimed virtual artist with specialty in unique video installations, as the Technical Design Intern for my Digital/Virtual Art Exhibit project, and I am very much enjoying working with him.

NEW VIDEO:
"ANZA BORREGO OAK: a Digital Drawing in 89 Days"
a short, humorous video about the daily progress of one of my digital drawings
video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8


SHOWS:

"Hermione," one of my "Big Pixel" drawings, is included in The Museum of Computer Art "Summer Festival 2010." The show runs from July 6 to July 30. The gallery is located at 139 11th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in Brooklyn (718 788 1313). http://moca.virtual.museum/festival10/contestpages/page031.htm


"Virtual Treeline," Noosa Regional Gallery, Queensland, Australia, opened on May 21st. The exhibition features a slide show and a book of images and documentation of the work and thoughts of all artists who participated in "Virtual Treeline" in Second Life. Show curator Juanita Deharo gave a 'live' presentation on June 5th from my Second Life studio.

PUBLICATIONS
Painter 11 WOW Book, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis, Peach Pit Press, 2010, page 199

Virtual Treeline: a Celebration of Trees in Virtual Space, Juanita Deharo/Judy Barrass, 2010, pages 14 - 16

Metaverse Art 2008 - 2010 Number 2a, published by Artspace Diabolus Cybernetic Research Project (CARP) 2010: Josina Burgess (Jose den Burger, Amsterdam Holland), Nazz Lane (USA), and Velasquex Bonetto (Laszlo Ordogh Diabolus, Stuttgart Germany), pages 17 - 24
http://issuu.com/diabolus/docs/metaverse_art_book_02a_internet
============================================
Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/

VIRTUAL ART:
Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake
Anza Borrego Oak:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/1/5s_KRMi55v8
Acquarella:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/a/u/0/u-lo6JosN0M
Metemspyche's Garden:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/2/GfQGuNXWvLo
Studio Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/3/XDjrLmPpopA
The Maze:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/4/OEa9rtEiINE
The Mysterious Forest:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlizarinGoldflake#p/u/5/c6Xv_pAf0Qc

"Acquarella" Documentary Machinima now up on Youtube!

"Acquarella" is a machinima documentary about my Second Life (R) immersive art build by the same name. I did the filming, and Cobalt Zeplin/Alfred M. Ajami did the editing and sound remixing.

When I was a child, I kept an aquarium and I would stare into it for hours, mesmerized by it then as I am now by Second Life, a magical weightless world also populated by strange and beautiful creatures. These memories were the inspiration behind the creation of "Acquarella." An aquarium on a cosmic scale, "Acquarella" is filled with swaying, lacey aquatic plants, schools of neon tetras, animated angelfish and goldfish, drifts of diatoms, and huge green lily pads that bob up and down in the invisible current. The build echoes with the songs of whales. Pose balls invite people to swim to their music, and throughout, there are traces of an untold story. A fragment of a submarine that torpedoed itself hints at an apocalyptic destruction that could possibly be a metaphor. Who is hunting whom with those ghostly sonar pings? Why does color sometimes creep into a largely monochrome vision? How to explain the fact that the black and white tetras school, while their rainbow-hued counterparts are solitary? Who is Acquarella? Is she a giantess or are we liliputian?

"Acquarella" employs highly-detailed digital drawings done with Corel Painter software and a Wacom tablet. It uses scripts, animations, and sounds to provide an immersive art experience that is intended to create visual and psychic pleasure for the participant.

The music was remixed with SmartSounds SonicFire Pro software, which lets you map the mood and the tempo, pitch, chording, phrasing and instrumentation to events and other sounds in the video. Doing the sound track this way adds extra power to the visuals, more so than just a straight line remix.

Come visit Acquarella inworld here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/204/203/333
============================================
Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/
VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake (Metaverse avatar of Martha Jane Bradford)
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Acquarella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lo6JosN0M
Anza-Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8
Metempsyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQGuNXWvLo
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9rtEiINE
Atelier Alizarin Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjrLmPpopA
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc
Museum of Science Project Concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YYMJANpZs

MOCA hosts an Alizarin Goldflake/Martha Jane Bradford Machinima!

The Museum of Computer Art in Brooklyn, New York is now hosting Alizarin Goldflake's "The Mysterious Forest" in the New Media Gallery section of its web site: http://moca.virtual.museum/newmedia/bradford/bradford.htm. There is also a link on MOCA's splash screen, upper right corner: http://moca.virtual.museum/. Visit this site to see all kinds of other interesting computer art as well.

About "The Mysterious Forest:"
The subject of this machinima is a large-scale piece of immersive art that I did as a member of The Caerleon Artists Collective "Interactive Collaboration." The textures are all adapted from my digital drawing "Anza Borrego Oak." Artistide Despres was the project leader, and the Caerleon Sims in SL are hosted by Georg Janick/Gary Zabel, professor of philosophy at UMass, Boston, founder of the Virtual Artists Initiative, and organizer of "Through the Virtual Looking Glass" show (see my previous post). I filmed the footage using Fraps and a Space Navigator mouse and the AV production and SmartSound (R) remix were done by Alfred M. Ajami.

About MOCA:
The Museum of Computer Art is a nonprofit US educational corporation chartered by the NYS Department of Education and part of the University of the State of New York. It is first and foremost an online museum but it is also a physical gallery located in Brooklyn NY.

The MOCA site is host to hundreds of world-class digital artists and thousands of their images. It is one of the most heavily-trafficked, comprehensive, frequently-updated and respected computer art museums on the Web.

MOCA was established in 1993 by computer artists Don Archer and Bob Dodson to promote digital art in its various forms and manifestations, including 3-D rendered art, fractals, enhanced photography, animation, mixed media, computer-painted and -drawn art, etc. In September 2008, MOCA established a brick-and-mortar physical gallery in Brooklyn NY showing advanced digital art in print and on-screen.

Don Archer is MOCA's co-founder, director and administrator. He operates MOCA out of his studio in Brooklyn and Prattsville, NY. He welcomes your comments. Write to: admin@moca.virtual.museum Don is also a digital artist whose work may be viewed on his personal webpage at: http://www.donarcher.com

About Alizarin Goldflake:
Alizarin is Martha Jane Bradford's avatar's name in the virtual worlds of Open Life, Open Sim, Reaction Grid, and, primarily, Second Life (SL). There I specialize in making immersive art, so called because it is meant to be experienced from the inside. Many of my sculpture are 3-D reinterpretations of my digital drawings. I create my work using the 3-D building tools of SL to shape the component objects, called prims; to texture them using images I draw with Corel Painter and/or manipulate with Photoshop; and to animate them with SL programs, called scripts. Most of my builds include sounds that I record myself or download from the internet and then remix using Audacity and also particles, which are phantom, temporary images that I draw with Painter.
============================================
Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake
Second Life avatar of Martha Jane Bradford
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Acquarella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lo6JosN0M
Anza-Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8
Metempsyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQGuNXWvLo
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9rtEiINE
Atelier Alizarin Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjrLmPpopA
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc
Museum of Science Project Concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YYMJANpZs

Through the Virtual Looking Glass: A Mixed Reality Exhibition of the Art of Virtual Worlds

One of the most unique art events ever in Boston's history is about to happen!!

Through the Virtual Looking Glass: A Mixed Reality Exhibition of the Art of Virtual Worlds opens at the Harbor Gallery, UMass Boston, April 7, 3 pm to 8 pm. The show will run through April 30, 2010. Please visit http://www.umb.edu/harborgallery/ for info and directions to the gallery or visit the show in Second Life at (link to be added).

Hosted by the Virtual Art Initiative on the web and the Caerleon Sims in Second Life and OpenSim, the Boston exhibition is part of an unprecedented international collaboration which will exhibit the work of artists from more than twenty nations simultaneously in real world galleries in six countries: Italy, France, Holland, Germany, Brazil, and the USA. Check out the Virtual Art Initiative at http://www.virtual-art-initiative.org/Virtual_Art_Initiative/Virtual_Art_Initiative.html.

Virtual Worlds are computer generated, immersive, three-dimensional environments that allow people from around the globe to interact with one another through "avatars" (digital bodies) and to shape their environments, both individually and collectively, by using graphical and programming tools.

In process of development since the 1980s, virtual worlds now have more than 12 million participants, and include such venues as Second Life, OpenSim, VastPark, Blue Mars, and World of Warcraft. Virtual worlds are like photography, cinema, video, and electronic music were in their early years in that they provide the opportunity, in the form of a new technology, for radically innovative forms of aesthetic expression.

A "mixed reality" exhibition brings virtual art into real world spaces where it becomes accessible to wide audiences.

The Harbor Gallery exhibition will bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds through a variety of innovative methods, including digital projection of artworks from the virtual worlds Second Life and OpenSim with interfaces permitting real world audience interaction; images and machinimas (virtual world videos) shown on computer screens and in digital frames; prints of virtual artworks; physical sculptures and paintings inspired by virtual art, some with embedded electronic components; and musical performances occurring in the real world gallery space and streamed live into Second Life where they will be translated into avatar performances.

Please join us for this unique event at one of the most advanced borders between art and technology.

New England Artists participating with real life artwork in the Harbor Gallery show include Martha Jane Bradford (Alizarin Goldflake), Bob Johnson (Thoth Jantzen) , Mary Linley (Feathers Boa), Karina Mitchell (Misprint Thursday), Jason Pramas (Sunseeker Miklos), and Gary Zabel (Georg Janick). Also a New Englander, the real life art of Jeffrey Lipsky (Filthy Fluno) is a painting that will be exhibited in France at MUUSEAV in Nice.

Other VAI artists include Adam Nash (Adam Ramona), Brigit Lichtenegger (Evo Szuyuan), Phillip Mallory Jones (Jacque Quijote), Thorsten Küper (Kueperpunk Korhonen), Dr. Andrew Burrell (Nonnatus Korhonen), Piotr Kopik (Olza Koenkamp), Seogwang Snim (Snim Hanley), Stephen Beveridge (Sowa Mai), and Second Life avatars Artistide Despres, Aurakyo Insoo, Botgirl Questi, Bryn Oh, Four Yip, Fran Benoir, Glyph Graves, luce Laval, marnie Reinard, Pete Jiminy, Pixels Sideways, Sabrinaa Nightfire, Trinity Halberstadt, and Ub Yifu.

=============================================
Show Links:
Harbor Gallery: http://www.umb.edu/harborgallery/
Virtual Art Initiative: http://www.virtual-art-initiative.org/Virtual_Art_Initiative/Virtual_Art_Initiative.html.

My Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake
Second Life avatar of Martha Jane Bradford
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Acquarella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lo6JosN0M
Anza-Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8
Metempsyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQGuNXWvLo
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9rtEiINE
Atelier Alizarin Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjrLmPpopA
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc
Museum of Science Project Concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YYMJANpZs

A Taste of Second Life comes to the Cahners ComputerPlace at the Museum of Science, Boston

I am pleased to announce my latest project - to design a digital/virtual art exhibit for the Cahners Computer Place at the Museum of Science, Boston . The exhibit will further visitors' understanding of digital image creation and manipulation (http://www.marthavista.com/). It will also introduce people to the idea of making virtual art. The physical design of the exhibit will be an immersive installation employing sound and video projection to simulate the experience of being inside one of the immersive art environments that I create as an avatar named Alizarin Goldflake in Second Life (R), a virtual reality platform.

The Museum is currently accepting applications for a Technical Designer Internship for this exhibit: http://www.mos.org/visitor_info/about_the_museum/internships&d=4367. The designer will research the technology and equipment best suited to realize the artist's vision, culminating in a technical design for the project.




The picture above shows the latest SL mock-up of the design for the exhibit's visitor-interaction area. The kiosk in the center is an easy interactive - it allows the visitor to select various colored underpaintings for an upper layer containing a black-and-transparent digital drawing comprised of lines and tones.



The kiosk on the left provides the visitor with graphic elements to assemble into a finished digital collage, introducing the aesthetic decision-making process.



The most difficult interactive on the right will allow the visitor to experiment with a digital drawing program and with a virtual reality environment, using Open Sim local.



The backdrop to the kiosks is a video of Alizarin's SL immersive art, "The Maze," and it is framed by panels displaying two of her digital collages. The mock-up of this proposed visitor-interaction area can be found in Second Life at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/205/175/1201



The overall proposed exhibit, “Digital Art – Martha Jane Bradford,” may also include some or all of the following: a display of framed digital drawings with wall text explaining various aspects of creating digital drawings and collages, framed SL photos of Alizarin's immersive art, LCD screen presentations, videos of virtual art displays in Alizarin's SL studio, pod casts, video casts, and live demonstrations. An introduction to virtual reality via Open Sim is also being considered.

About the Cahners ComputerPlace: "Glimpse the Future; Encounter Cool Stuff; Engage Computers, Robots, Communications; Inspire Active Learning; Talk Tech with People." Here teachers, students, and visitors explore many aspects of computer science, technology, engineering and math via personal hands-on learning experiences. The exhibit space receives over 350,000 visits annually.

A brief video of the visitor-interaction area can be seen below:


Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake, Second Life avatar of Martha Jane Bradford
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
AG Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Acquarella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lo6JosN0M
Anza-Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8
Metempsyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQGuNXWvLo
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9rtEiINE
Atelier Alizarin Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjrLmPpopA
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc
Museum of Science Project Concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YYMJANpZs

New Video Up on Youtube!

"The Mysterious Forest" documents my contribution to the Interactive Collaboration of the Caerleon Artists Collective. Artistide Despres was the project leader, and the CAC is hosted in Second Life by Georg Janick/Gary Zabel of UMass, Boston. I did the filming, and Cobalt Zeplin/Alfred M. Ajami did the editing and sound remixing. The film features soror Nishi, along with Cobalt, Viridian Nightfire, and myself.

The scenery is derived from my digital drawing "Anza Borrego Oak," which can be found on my RL web site at
http://www.marthavista.com/DigiDrawHoriz1.htm (scroll down to the bottom row of images).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc

Art New England February-March 2010: Innovative Printmaking

I am pleased to have been quoted in the Art New England February-March 2010 issue on page 20 in an article titled "Innovative Printmaking" by Andre van der Wende. It is an informative article about new methods and materials in printmaking, with a large focus on digital printmaking. The author lays out the issues clearly and articulates the various positions that can be taken on them. http://www.artnewengland.com/

Here is the full text of my response to his email interview:

1. When did you first start making digital prints? and do you still make prints using traditional methods?

I started experimenting with digital drawing in 1992 using Painter software and a Wacom digitizing tablet and stylus. In the beginning I used it for prototyping ideas for paintings, but in 1997 I published my first digital print, "Marigold."

Since you can do anything digitally that you can do with traditional media, plus a great deal more, I no longer use traditional media.
2. By making digital prints what do you feel you are both gaining and losing by trading in traditional methods for digital?

The most important feature I gain by working digitally is the ability to use layers, which can be conceived of as transparent drawing sheets stacked on top of each other. The artist can put lines on one layer and tones on another and then can change one without affecting the other. To create negative space, you can simply draw with white on top of dark. Layers also offer the artist much more control; you can make subtle adjustments to the opacity of a layer, to it's position, and to it's color. By turning a layer on and off you can see whether a change is an improvement or not, which facilitates experimentation. Once the drawing is finished, you collapse all the layers onto the canvas, or bottom layer.

Other advantages of digital drawing over traditional are the ability to "undo," to use a reference photo on a layer in lieu of time-consuming cartooning (I work in a photorealist style), to combine multiple paper textures and multiple drawing tools in one image, to have brushes in infinite sizes, and to be able to save stages and variations of the image as you draw. From a marketing point of view, digital drawing combines the creative freedom of unique work with advantages of multiples (prints), so that the artist can both keep a complete portfolio of his or her own art for artistic reference and promotion, while reaching wider audience at the same time. Creating digitally can obviate the need for expensive photographic documentation, and jpegs are far easier to work with than traditional slides. On a purely pragmatic level, you are free of dirt and toxic fumes; there is no heavy lifting; and cleaning up the studio consists of hitting the "Off" button.

The only thing I lose by working digitally is that, because it is a new medium, people are slow to recognize it as a valid medium.
3. What has your experience been in terms of people being more open or more reticent toward digital technology and digital prints?

It is finally becoming more acceptable to work digitally. People, oddly, have had no problem regarding their digital bank accounts as real, but there has been enormous resistance to digital prints on the grounds that somehow they are not "real," this, even though they consist of pigment on paper caused to be there by the artist's hand, just as with traditional media.

Another obstacle to the recognition of digital art is the giclee, an ink jet reproduction of an artwork done in another medium. Many people assume that all ink jet prints are giclees, which is not the case.
4. Does digital technology further blur the distinction between printmaking and photography?

In the hands of serious artists, rather than blurring a distinction, I think digital technology creates new options for combining printmaking and photography.

An illegitimate (in my opinion) blurring of the two media is the practice of running a photograph through a Photoshop filter or using an auto-paint brush, where the finished art is actually made by the computer, not the artist.
5. Given that traditional printmaking techniques are often labor intensive, is the relative freedom of digital techniques liberating?
You must be joking! Working digitally is actually more difficult in many ways. You have computers and printers to maintain, software to learn and keep up with, the retraining of hand and eye to work on a tablet while seeing the results on a monitor, not to mention the difficulty of zoom levels to overcome. If you are zoomed in enough to see what you are doing, you are too far in to see the overall effect. If you are zoomed out to view the whole image, you can't see what you are drawing. In the end, my digital drawings end up taking slightly longer than my ones in traditional media used to, but I feel compensated by the advantages I cited above.
6. Within New England, who are some other printmakers you consider innovative and forward thinking?

Deborah Cornell, head of the Printmaking Department at BU

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Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
search "Martha Jane Bradford"
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake
Second Life avatar of Martha Jane Bradford
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Acquarella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lo6JosN0M
Anza-Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8
Metempsyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQGuNXWvLo
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9rtEiINE
Atelier Alizarin Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjrLmPpopA
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc
Museum of Science Project Concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YYMJANpZs

Marthavista News

My latest hanging scroll, "Hermione," has now been published, and since Marthavista is at long last transactional you can buy it online! Click here to purchase: http://www.marthavista.com/dayfornightshow.htm

About Hermione: from January 2008 to the present I have been working in a direction that is entirely new for me, constructing digital collages out of sections of my digital drawings using a creative approach I discovered in Second Life, an on-line virtual reality environment. The method is similar to process art in that the final image is not envisioned at the outset but emerges as a result of assembling, layering, and composing visual elements.

The physical presentation of the collages was inspired by Japanese art, specifically paintings which are displayed as hanging scrolls called kakejiku. The collages are printed in separate panels on Epson canvas with an Epson 4000 ink jet printer. The panels are varnished and then glued together to complete the image. The wall hanging is constructed with a pockets for hanging rods, and the finished art is meant tobe displayed unframed.

The digital drawings that are the source material for the wall hangings are drawn just like traditional charcoals, lithographs, or pastels except that I use digital tools, including a software program called Corel Painter 10 and a Wacom digitizing tablet and stylus. I create a file of the right size and resolution to produce the final image desired and select a paper texture, a brush-tool such as “Charcoal” or “Flat Pen,” and a color. As I draw, the tablet and stylus electronically translate the motions of my hand into virtual brush, pencil, or pen strokes which I can see on my monitor real-time. I do small, limited editions of the finished drawings using archival inks on fine art rag paper. On the splash screen of my web site (see the links below), there is a downloadable PDF that explains in detail how to do a digital drawing.


Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
search "Martha Jane Bradford"
MJB Blog: http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake
Second Life avatar of Martha Jane Bradford

Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio):
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Acquarella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lo6JosN0M
Anza-Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8
Metempsyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQGuNXWvLo
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9rtEiINE
Atelier Alizarin Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjrLmPpopA
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc
Museum of Science Project Concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YYMJANpZs

Featured Artist on The Art Connection Homepage

I have the honor of being the new featured artist on The Art Connection homepage. Check it out at http://www.theartconnection.org/. There is a very good article about my work and photos of some of the donated art.

Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
search "Martha Jane Bradford"
Blog:http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake
Second Life avatar of Martha Jane Bradford

Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio):
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog: http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Acquarella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lo6JosN0M
Anza-Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8
Metempsyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQGuNXWvLo
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9rtEiINE
Atelier Alizarin Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjrLmPpopA
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc
Museum of Science Project Concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YYMJANpZs

Art Conservatory Show

A virtual show of hanging scrolls and new digital drawings by Alizarin Goldflake, my Second Life avatar, will open on Saturday, January 23, at 3 pm PST in The Art Conservatory at Sapphos Commons in Second Life.

This is a show of many Firsts. It is the Grand Opening of The Art Conservatory, featuring RobertSteven Smythe of Artemisia fame as the curator. All of the new digital drawings will be seen in Second Life for the first time. And also for the first time, all of the work inside the Conservatory will be available in Real Life at http://www.marthavista.com/dayfornightshow.htm

Centerpiece of the digital drawing installation on the second floor, the "Day for Night Series" consists of scripted images that change their time of day before the viewer's eyes. These four variations on a an image are of a summer cottage overlooking a wildflower meadow, with a glimpse of the ocean in the distance. They come from a RL series of digital monoprints in which the black & white drawing is constant throughout the two dozen prints, while the color is unique to each individual print. The four scripted drawings are accompanied by a selection of four new non-scripted images. To view the monoprints, please see http://www.marthavista.com/DigiDrawHoriz2.htm and scroll down.

My hanging scrolls are on display downstairs (also outside in the park as wind-interactive banners). These scrolls represent an RL direction that is recent for me and uses a creative approach I discovered in Second Life. The physical presentation of the collages was inspired by Japanese art, specifically paintings which are displayed as hanging scrolls called kakejiku.

Links:
DIGITAL ART: Martha Jane Bradford
Web Site: http://www.marthavista.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
search "Martha Jane Bradford"

VIRTUAL ART: Alizarin Goldflake
Second Life avatar of Martha Jane Bradford
Atelier Alizarin (Second Life studio):

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/222/189/35
Blog:

http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/
Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizaringoldflake/

YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
Acquarella: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-lo6JosN0M
Anza-Borrego Oak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s_KRMi55v8
Metempsyche's Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQGuNXWvLo
The Maze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEa9rtEiINE
Atelier Alizarin Studio Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDjrLmPpopA
The Mysterious Forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Xv_pAf0Qc
Museum of Science Project Concept: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YYMJANpZs