Moya, The Artist and Location

 
By Gemma Cleanslate

When I was serving as Ranger back at the Burn2 I visited a parcel that was giving away gifts of art. I took the art home and looked at it an wondered who was the creator? I met the artist who was amusing to talk to and became interested in learning more about him.

I came to find out from my friend Lee1 Olson, a fellow Ranger that this artist is most famous in his homeland France. The artist is known here in Second Life as Patrick Moya ( Moya Janus) and variations of that name. He is really one of the most interesting people I have met in SL in a while.

Lee1 has a whole section of his huge museum,  filled with works from Moya that I visited . The works are fun and engaging. I decided to go to see Moya’s own Second Life museum on his recommendation. This museum covers several regions showing  his art here that he has brought in from real-life and created here in real-life also. Amazing stuff! It took Moya Janus 11 years to build up his museum, starting with a floor plan. Moya owns four islands, about 256000m2

What fun we had visiting. My fellow reporter, kayly iali (Kayly Iali), who is also an artist, and I made an appointment for a tour. Moya came himself and took us for a tour in one of his cute cars. and Kamerina (Kamerina Kamala) came along with us.  We went first to a model of  his latest real-life exhibit which was like a curiosity cabinet that he painted in 20 days . Sadly the real life exhibit had to close because of covid 19. But here it is in Second Life though!

 

 We then visited the models of his first works back in 1975. “From 1974 to 1977 Patrick Moya theorizes the consequences of television images on art. He thinks that when the artist is alive the creature hides the creator.” Moya Janus attended the Villa Arson in Nice. The Villa Arson is an art school devoted to contemporary art in France. When Moya discovered Second Life, he realized it had potential to realize his dream. Since he worked in so many different mediums, he is able to show all of his works in its entirety. He believes that Second Life will allow artist avatars to create comprehensive works that will survive their creator.When asked who were his influences were  his answer was “I have none....  me and my name.” 

I came to realize that Moya is his art and his art is Moya. Moya loves dolly the first cloned sheep and she is everywhere.

He calls his works the opposite of pop art but using the same methods. He is an original. It is obvious in his eclectic works  in so many forms, paintings, sculpture, pottery, .His attitude toward Second Life is that it is a place to prepare more art for the future  and gives him a place to work expressing himself using many forms available.Kayly asked if he did all his painting in real life and then brought it to Second Life. He does, and  thinks how can he use it in SL when he brings it here . Second life has given him an extension of his life works . Moya also has a section on his region near his museum for anti-Moya. The anti-Moya avatars are 2D figures who are protesting the 3D avatars of Moya  who has created an area of 3D avatars that he scripted. I had the nerve to enter and check out the area.!

He does much live painting in real life in museums , many in as little as 40 minutes.His works are used by towns for festivals. Now that Covid has stopped these activities temporarily second life gives him an outlet to perhaps prepare for real life presentations when they are possible again. It is easy to see he is much loved in his homeland, France, and popular in other countries in Europe, and Asia.  Check out his  website that show so many past exhibits everywhere .

To see his museum it will take days, weeks maybe since you will have four regions of art in so many forms to wander through and experience. There is a marvelous teleport center where one can pick and choose which part of the museum they would like to visit that day .. some samples, Ceramics, Fashion, Street art, special exhibits of real life art such as his exhibit in Korea, The Hospital, his real-life  home,
( where or when or how he sleeps I have no idea),  and so much more. He told me that I would be writing ten pages to cover it all and he is right!  I will let you discover all that I did not write about. The tp center is here :  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Moya/118/108/22

I bet if you want a personal tour it will not be hard to get Moya to take you all around, just ask. You can find free cars to rezz if you like. I did see some construction going on in case you find that a TP might not work or looks different than you expected. 

If you would like to watch the curiosities cabinet being created in real life you can see it all here. 

 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oeb8Lp4FeDE&feature=youtu.be

 His website,,,  http://www.moyapatrick.com/

Youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/c/PatrickMoya/featured

*Waves*: Kayly Iali

Gemma Cleanslate

The Moon Stew Cafe

New Roadside Cafe is Inspired by a Jazz Musician and a Recipe

By Klaus Bereznyak

Since January 2016, Cafe Klaus has been welcoming casual passers-by and regulars to a magical little corner of the Mainland Continent of Heterocera. The location had instant appeal and seemed the perfect place to build a roadside cafe, alongside Route 1 and well served by regularly passing Yavascript Pods. Many of the surrounding parcels are tastefully maintained by Prokofy Neva of Ravenglass Rentals and have ensured that there's been a sense of life and habitation at a time when much of the mainland has been abandoned.

As it was, it proved a great place to entertain guests and enjoy a regular Cocktail hour as the shadows lengthened and the Linden sun set over Patagonia. When it came to decor, I indulged a love for jazz and old-world aesthetics with a touch of colonial Africa. However, on the June full moon, 2018, the cafe underwent a radical re-build. It felt like the right moment to dive deeper and bring an earthier, more rootsy feel to the place. The tipping point leading to the transformation was the discovery of a stew recipe by the brilliant and eccentric jazz pianist, philosopher and bandleader who went by the name of "Sun Ra".

Through the 1960s, Sun Ra and his Arkestra lived in a commune in New York. Surrounded by deprivation and a heavy drug culture, the Arkestra became an informal rehab of sorts, presided over by Sun Ra, who was creating experimental music that seemed to emanate from other-worldy sources. He explained that he had been told during a visionary experience while at college that should give up his studies and focus on speaking to the world through music. When times were hard, Sun Ra would take over responsibility for cooking meals for the band, and this was when he dished up his "Moon Stew".

Many things came together at once to make Moon Stew Cafe a going concern, and we are now open for business. Avatars who swing by the cafe can pick up a free Moon Stew Bowl and a copy of the recipe from the bar. They can enjoy the sights and sounds of the Arkestra on a screen above the rice cooker, relax and drink cocktails, and it's still a great place to enjoy the sunset.

The inspiration for this place has been drawn from many corners of Second Life, including rugs and furniture from the Worlds Collide shop (also on Heterocera), and various pieces of artwork by SLartists. The aim has been to create an eclectic theme that I hope is in the spirit of Sun Ra's endeavours. It celebrates life, roots (cultural, spiritual and edible), wholesome food, creativity and self expression in the face of adversity. Aruba DeCuir's "African Moon 2" dominates one wall of the storeroom-lounge. Visitors can also enjoy vegetable art by Tea Gupte on the walls, and there is more to come. Like its predecessor, the cafe will continue to promote artistic creativity on the grid. Information about current exhibits can be found in the smaller room of the cafe.

By pure serendipity, local parcels came up for sale at the same time as the re-build, so the whole region of Patagonia has been augmented in the past month. There is currently a farm over the road (supplying some of the essential stew ingredients) and plenty to explore in the locality.

SLURL:
Moon Stew Cafe: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Patagonia/118/153

Klaus Bereznyak

"Air" at LEA 27

By Gemma Cleanslate

“Without music life would be a mistake”:....."there are no facts only interpretation,”  admonitions you hear at LEA Air by FreeWee Ling on LEA 27. This region will be ongoing and changing until May. I found it both an experience and a real education. 

There is an eclectic collection of areas. In one place I wandered through a gateway into a tunnel passing  by a bloody giant monster raging bull and through a bone yard to find myself at a Greek temple. Outside there stood a Greek Chorus where I heard the above quotation among others. Inside there is a collection of ancient art pieces of Greece and some lovely sculptures.  I found the one of my favorite sites there is the Theatrum Instrumentorium. This is  a wonderful collection of information about many superb instruments that will rezz for you in front of a picture and give you an information card to explain the history behind it. Some may be fictional ,some real but you will learn so much with each card. I found it absolutely fascinating. 

I moved from that museum on up a winding slope to find a massive statue named Liberty chained which I found rather ominous. I passed up a ramp to the roof of a building where I became part of an shimmering globe and part of a story. I will leave it at that. 

Freewee says of herself in a statement, “I'm not really (an) artist. More like a  kid in God's Legoland. I'm an idea manipulator.  A conceptual cubist. Most of my work is clearly derivative. I see something interesting and I want to know how it works, so I deconstruct or reconstruct the idea or combine it with some tangential idea to make something new. I am often working on some random project with no particular purpose in mind.” 

I have seen Freewee’s work at many events and places  and always appreciate it. I plan on making return visits to see the additions and changes and it sounds like there will be many. I have been there three times so far and finding new things to look at and interact I found a chameleon flyer to ride this morning. This region is right next to the Madtone by Lorin Tone,  also so full of instruments and fun.  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA27/38/105/27

Gemma Cleanslate

Tales From the Ghost Forest – LEA14

By DrFran Babcock

I had seen the Linden Endowment for the Art’s Tales From the Ghost Forest mentioned on the log in screen several times. Usually, that means it’s a build about which I won’t write, because I figure that promoted sims get a lot of coverage. I decided to visit anyway, with a friend, and decided to tell you about it.

First, after a few visits, and some photography, I am not really sure I understand Uan Ceriaptrix’s build. However, the mood he creates, and the post-apocalyptic feel made me feel immersed in another dimension. I believe that’s what art is supposed to do.

The build is composed of four different parts. You are greeted by a giant spider when you teleport into the sim. Be careful or you may end up in her web. Instead, follow the colored balls over the long bridge, up a ladder, and enter Junk City, which is just what it sounds like. According to Ceriaptrix, this area, which is a barren path studded with garbage and pollution is the point at which things started to transform through a change and restructuring of technology. Humans have been transformed into avatars and holograms, and homo sapiens are extinct.

Leaving Junk City, you enter the Ghost Forest, which the artist labels as Mother Earth. This region is filled with science, technology, and devices that have been left to the trees and fishes, to provide them with energy. In place of the machines, odd vegetation sprouts along the canyon path. Twisted, odd vegetation, that is tended by alien creatures. Boggy greens submerge your feet in tiny plants as you walk along and tiny bubbles float up through the ooze, hinting at the possibility of new life.

When you leave Mother Earth you will find yourself in Election (or die trying), which is the hope for the regeneration of the world. The luminous beings have kept collections of biology so that the ecosystem can be regenerated.  UFOs, chairs with teeth in their seats, aliens, and giant insects hold court, bringing the damaged land back to life.

At the end of the path the land ends, and the water beckons. Under the water in the unconscious that contains a carousel, a sand castle, a display of Uan Ceriaptrix’s, and other items.

I loved the build for it’s look and the builds that were on it. The terraforming created a land that was at once familiar and alien. Uan is a skilled creator, and his palette of sandy-colored ground, and green toxic or leavy touches. The windlight setting creates a smoggy sky that reminds one that this is a dying land, trying to regenerate.

I have always believed that despite what the artist or the art is trying to say, once the public views it, what is perceived becomes their truth. As I said, I don’t think I understood what was intended, but I liked it, and it made me feel strong emotions of loss.

You can come and visit The Tales From the Ghost Forest at LEA14: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA14/128/128/15 and decide for yourself.

DrFran Babcock

Rust and the Goonies

By Bixyl Shuftan

One of the LEA sims was given a new look and a new name, Rust. A surreal-looking land of abandoned machinery, it was described in the destination guides,  "Rust is a world with a strange mix of machines, chained trees, rusty mushrooms, birds, balloons, butterflies, spiders, elephants, and gear flowers. Watch as the corrode, flake, and sway in the gentle breeze." Credit for the build goes to Cica Ghost.


Dropping by for myself, the place was quite an experience. The sim had a look of abandonment and decay, as if the people who made the place were no more or having to move due to some unknown disaster. There were various buildings and structures around. While rusted, there was no shortage of movement as gears still turned around, conveyor belts still moved parts, and other examples of mechanical motion. There were also metal animals there, or rather statues of. There were rusted metallic elephants one could stand and pose on, in addition to metallic birds. There were also rust color trees with metal bands and chains on them, and grass swaying in the wind, also the color of rust.

I was still close to the entrance area when I heard some youthful-sounding chatter nearby. Looking around, I noticed a number of child avatars rezzing. "This place is full of tots," one lady commented. I wasn't sure what was going on until I noticed a couple names: Everest Piek and Loki Eliot. The Goonies had dropped in.

For those who don't know, "The Goonies" was a movie in the 1980s about a group of kids who go on an adventure in search of a pirate treasure to save their parents' homes. While the SL Goonies home in the Escapades sim is just fine, they still have a great love for exploration and adventures on the Grid. Gemma Cleanslate wrote about them a couple years ago (article here), and they're still going at it, led by Loki.

Everest saw me and greeted me, "Hey Bixyl, what's new? … We're just on a Goonies adventure. …. gotta run, c'ya around." He smiled and left. The kids then began looking over the place, "Helephants!" "I think we found Loli's old trumpet." "Really?" "It's inside." "Great to have you on the adventure, bro, even if you are still asleep, hee-hee." 

It wasn't long before they were on their way again, their leader Eliot saying, "Goonies second location, meet you all there, Tamarillo Island." And they all began heading there, "GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!" And just as quickly as they appeared, the kids were gone. And Rust reverted to it's usual quiet.

If you have the time, even if its just five or ten minutes, Rust is a must-see location, located at LEA 13 (212, 49, 22). Draxtor Despress recently visited and made a film of the location (below).



As for the Goonies, their sim Escapades is welcome to visitors. They do take occasional new members, any child avatar interested should talk to one of the group about initiation. Loki has been recording their adventures on blogs. While his more recent site seems to have crashed, his older one at (http://lokiboy.blogspot.com/ ) is still up. He's also know as a builder in Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan

AM Radio to Close His Places in Second Life in Six Months

AM Radio is an artist in Second Life whom has worked several places like a canvas. Some of his builds are small, others larger which take a little time to go about. His wheatfield, also known as The Far Away, is perhaps his best known work, and was shown to me by a few friends when I was new to Second Life, notably in Voss’ Second Life Tours. It was at the tour group I saw the artist himself, a tall avatar dressed in a rustic black coat and stovepipe hat.

Unfortunately, these classic places now have a time limit. In the Prim Perfect blog, it was announced AM Radio had made a group statement saying his places would be gone after six months time.



Dear Friends,

I know there are folks who visit my sims daily, weekly, or monthly and that these spaces have become a part of their experience in Second Life. I am announcing the closing of my spaces 6 months in advance so that it won’t come as a surprise, drama, or rumor.

It is merely the end of a series of artworks. I continue to paint, sketch, photograph and write about my time here on this little rock collection that’s spinning and hurtling through space.

IDIA Labs of Ball State University has been gracious to host my work without demand or requirement. The sunsetting of the IDIA Lab sim is the result of positive and thoughtful input from IDIA, myself, and many of you.

I have archived the work already, and I appreciate the impulse to want to save the work.

The work though was as social as any avatar in SL, making friends with many of you and enabling so many positive experiences many of you have let me know about. ALL OF YOU are what the artwork really was. It isn’t in the prims, the textures, or scripts. It was in your willingness to explore and experience the world in a way I tried to share it. My time in SL has been like having hundreds of people analyzing my dreams every morning. I have learned so much about many of you, but truly learned so much about myself.

Please feel free to continue to visit. Please encourage anyone you know who will miss the spaces to visit them with you. See my picks in my profile for landmarks. The extent of my estate is a foothold by the water. All are welcome to the infinite within it.

Sincerely,
AM Radio

In an interview by Rowan Derryth, AM Radio described his grandfather as one of his major influences, working on the Gemini space program’s fuel cells, “He was doing a lot of the prototype work in his own basement.” His father’s interest was in old time tube radios. In many of AM radio’s places, one can find an old radio in a corner.


AM Radio has places at the following:

The Quiet – IDIA Labratories (150, 79, 23)

The Far Away – Dreamworld North (220, 130, 22)

A Little Further Than Before: IDIA Labratories (145, 229, 3476)

Superdyne: Surface: IDIA Labratories (164, 183, 3024)

Surface: IDIA Labratories (137, 110, 2058)

The Ferry: IDIA Labratories (133, 160, 1309)

Checking out these places for myself, they certainly had the feel of a work of art in three dimensions. One on which one can walk about, and sometimes be a part of. In the Wheatfield (The Far Away), by touching part of the windmill one can float around, for instance.

Perhaps not as large as some places, but Second Life stands to lose a classic.

::: I never stopped sketching you.
::: The smooth flesh on your cheek,
::: the gentle wave in your hair
::: dictating calculations of graphite onto paper.
::: The blurry trees behind you
::: drawn like baby's breath
::: in a wreath around your portrait
::: growing like vines
::: in stop motion animation
::: until you're gone.
::: The memory is left behind,
::: imprinted with a chemical mix
::: in a grand collection
::: of landscapes upon a life
::: of sketches as memories
::: looking to incorporate the next.

::: -- AM Radio

Source: Prim Perfect

Bixyl Shuftan