Two prints in The Boston Printmakers North American Print Biennial 2011

"Hermione" and "Neon Tetra," two prints from my new Big Pixel Series, were selected by curator Jim Dine for inclusion in The Boston Printmakers North American Print Biennial 2011. The Biennial set a record this year with 811 artists submitting 2049 works from which 149 prints were selected by 105 artists.
http://www.danforthmuseum.org/boston_printmakers_2011.htmlhttp://www.bostonprintmakers.org/The show runs from February 27 to May 1, 2011. The Opening Reception is Sunday, February 27th, 3pm - 5pm, at the Danforth Museum, 123 Union Street, Framingham MA. All are welcome.

This show is one of the major print reviews held in the United States. The 2011 Biennial features prints created in traditional print processes that include lithography, woodcut, linocut, etching, mezzotint and screen printing, as well as works produced in new or experimental media such as digital, collage, artist books, and 3-dimensional constructions.

About my images: "Hermione" and "Neon Tetra" were originally drawn as part of my virtual reality installation "Acquarella," which can be viewed here if you have a Second Life account: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lie/205/234/301 or online here: http://www.marthavista.com/Acquarella_videos.htm Elements of "Acquarella" were used as the set for a machinima called "Acquarella: The Fable" written, directed, and produced by my second life avatar Alizarin Goldflake and filmed by Chantal Harvey. The machinima was shown at the World Expo in Shanghai in September and October of 2010. http://marthajanebradford.blogspot.com/2010/10/acquarella-fable-showing-at-2010-world.html

With the "Big Pixel Series," the pixel emerges from behind the scenes to become integral not only to the process but also to the visual sparkle of the drawings. This incorporation of my technology into my look also extends to the printing of the drawings. They are now output as multiple panels, which function as compositional elements that reflect the modular nature of the digital medium. The digital drawings are drawn just like my charcoals, lithographs, and pastels except that I use digital tools, including a software program called Corel Painter 10 and a Wacom pressure-sensitive digitizing tablet and stylus. The images are printed on canvas and presented as hanging scrolls.

Related events:
Opening Lecture: Sunday, February 27th at 1:30pm, "A Dialogue:" Artist Jim Dine and MFA curator Clifford Ackley at Framingham State University Dwight Hall. The presentation is free and open to the public and is funded by Framingham State University’s Arts and Humanities Council.

The Arches Student Print Show: a companion to the 2011 North American Print Biennial, this show will appear in second floor galleries of the Danforth Museum School. Since 1999, this exhibition has expanded the scope of Biennial activities to include printmaking from more than 20 New England colleges and universities. Sponsored by the Arches Paper Company, this show not only acquaints the public with emerging printmakers, but also gives students an opportunity to exhibit with some of our country’s most renowned artists.

Gallery Talk: exhibiting artists Don Gorvett and Sean Hurley, Sunday, March 6 at 12pm

Gallery Talk: Deborah Cornell, Boston Printmakers Executive Board Member, Sunday, April 3 at 12pm

Panel Discussion Remembering Mazur: Artists Michael David, Joel Janowitz and Betsy Garand present personal reflections on the life and work of artist Michael Mazur (1924 - 2009) Sunday, April 10 at 3pm
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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

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.



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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