Diomita Maurer’s Blog

Melusina Parkin invited me to her newest exhibition “Art Deco Ladies” at Melu’s Photo Gallery.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melusina owns a store for Art Deco furniture called “Melu Deco“, that is just below of Melu’s Photo Gallery. So it is quite obvious that Melu likes Art Deco. Last year she had a whole series about Art Deco. I wrote a blogpost about this series (read Art Deco Symmetries by Melusina Parkin).

Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. It influenced the design of buildings, furniture, jewellery, fashion, cars, cinemas, trains, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as radios and vacuum cleaners. It took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925.
Art Deco combined modern styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, it represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.
(source: wikipedia)

Impressions of “Art Deco Ladies” by Melusina Parkin (1)

On a first glance I had the impression that all pictures at “Art Deco Ladies” at Melu’s Photo Gallery are all the same. On a second glance I saw that they are all different. And of a more detailed look I saw that they are very different! It is this optical illusion that makes this exhibition so outstanding.

Impressions of “Art Deco Ladies” by Melusina Parkin (2)

All “Art Deco Ladies” pictures clearly are art deco. The women and how they are  shown with just some lines, the colours and the symetry fit perfect to this art style. But all women are very different, have different noses, different earrings, some have short hair, some long hair, one wears an headsquare, one is black.
Melusina just used 4 colours: Black, beige, white and red (and brown for the black lady). She used similar round forms. All pictures are minimalistic and at some pictures you need a second look to recognice the woman’s face.

I don’t know how Melusina made these pictures. They are not taken in Second Life. They might have been generated by AI, as I know that Melusina experimented with AI. Anyway, very intriguing. Well done, Melu.

Melusina Parkin’s style is minimalistic. She usually takes her pictures in Second Life. The minimalism forces the spectator to focus on details, that might stay unseen when too much distracts the view. Lately she tried out different things, but still her style is minimalistic and “Art Deco Ladies” fits also into this category.
Don’t forget to grab the free gift picture of one of these “Art Deco Ladies”. I grabbed one for my personal art collection.

Impressions of “Art Deco Ladies” by Melusina Parkin (3)

Melusina Parkin is in Second Life since September 2008. She has been a fashion manager, a journalist, a furniture creator, a builder, a decorator and a photographer. Her work as a photographer has been showcased in more than 50 exhibitions – from which I saw just a few. Melusina has a flickr account which counts more than 13,000 (!) photographs. Extensive collections of her photos can be seen also on her blog Virtual Exhibits and on some slideshows on Youtube (links also under this post).
There’s also an online book with her Second Life exhibits 2011-2019 here.
Melusina Parkin has an own gallery at Time Portal, “Melu’s Photo Gallery” and an own store for Art Deco furniture called “Melu Deco“. Melusina also owns a second place (Melu Space) with another gallery (Minimum Gallery), a bookstore and another “Melu Deco” inworld store.

Thank you for your June exhibition. I enjoyed my visit!

Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Melu Photo Gallery – exhibition “Art Deco Ladies”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/129/107/621
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s store for Art Deco furniture “Melu Deco”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/243/99/1930
Melusina Parker’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusina_parkin/
Melusina Parkin’s Virtual Exhibit blog
http://meluphoto.blogspot.it/p/home.html
Melusina Parkin’s youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
On line book Second Life exhibits 2011-2019
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d