Art in Second Life 2023 (42) “Kisses” and “Broken Mirrors” by Melusina Parkin

08 Aug 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

Melu has opened two new exhibitions that – once again – follow seamlessly from her exhibitions “Art Deco Ladies” (read here) and “100 Retro Ladies” (read here) and continue the thread. The two new exhibitions are shown at Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery. 


“Kisses” is the exhibition on the 1st floor, “Broken Mirrors” is shown on the 2nd floor.

I didn’t count the pictures, I estimate that both exhibitions consist of roughly 40 pictures. I started my visit with “Kisses”. As the name implies, the pictures show couples who kiss each other, in this case two females kissing each other. All woman fit into the art deco era. And all pictures of “Kisses” have a calm neutral background, making the spectator focus on the kiss and the faces. Taking a closer look you can see how different the faces are, how different the kisses are, some full of passion, in other pictures the lips don’t even touch each other.
Melusina wrote a text about “Kisses”:
“Kisses don’t need any explanation, or introduction. Just look at these glamourous ladies and at their love. These images celebrate the short era when all did seem possible. Later hte tragedy ome on, and then many years had to pass before freedom and desire would be allowed again. They are a tribute to all those brave woman who had taught us the actual meaing of the word ‘love’.“

All featured pictures can be purchased at the exhibition itself. There’s a vendor at the end of each of the four series.

On the 2nd floor is the exhibition “Broken Mirrors”. Melusina wrote about this exhibition:
“Mirrors are fragile and it’s very easy they get broken. Nonetheless even a broken mirror can be helpful. Try to look at your image on a broken mirror, You could be frightened or intrigued: you can think that the fragmented image you see says that your are overwhelmed, destroyed, cut in pieces by your problems, traumas, issues. Or you can see those fragments at the different part of your self, and seeing them can be helpful for knowing each of them better and trying to make them living together and interacting successfully.
The power of AI images allowed me to show many ways to be reflected in fragments. The retro ladies depicted in these images wear different dresses and different hair, they have different expressions: they represent the many ways you can approach and unusal and maybe unsettingly image of yourself.“

The images of “Broken Mirrors” are quite different from what I saw of Melusina so far. Each of them takes the theme from another view. Some are very serious, make you think of the the thoughts the woman might have looking ito the broken mirror, others are funny – and all are very artful. It’s for sure an unusal theme – and again Melu used AI in a very creative way.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. 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, in particular she explored the possibilites of creating art based on AI generated pictures.

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 these exhibitions, Melusina. I enjoyed both, “Kisses” and “Broken Mirrors”

Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery – and to “Kisses” and “Broken Mirrors”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/129/107/621
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Melu Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
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

Art in Second Life 2023 (36) 100 Retro Ladies by Melusina Parkin

05 Jul 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , ,

Melu has opened a new exhibition that follows seamlessly from her exhibition “Art Deco Ladies” and continues the thread. It is called “100 Retro Ladies” and it is shown at a new gallery “Melu’s Black Gallery”. When I went there, the provided landmark brought me to Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery. From there I had to take a tp pad to get to “Melu’s Black Gallery”.


It’s been less than 2 weeks since I visited “Art Deco Ladies” (read more here) and the exhibition can still be seen. At first glance, “Art Deo Ladies” shows nothing but the same pictures, but at second glance you can see that all the pictures are different and show different ladies, very different.
“100 Retro Ladies” is a kind of sequel under different auspices.

The “100 Retro Ladies” are shown on the 4 walls of a skybox gallery. Each wall shows 5 pictures under a different general subtitle/colour: “Red, Ivory, Teal and Black”. When you click the pictures, the next series of the same subtitle is shown. All pictures show – surprise – “Retro Ladies”, ladies that fit into the era of Art Deco.
Melusina wrote: “AI images manipulation allows to create series of similar pictures inspired to a theme. I used them to build a rich exhibition of 100 portraits of retro ladies in four different color tones and shown in groups of five. Explore this extensive collection of facinating retro images. A selection of images is also available for sale.”

Impressions of “100 Retro Ladies” by Melusina Parkin (1)

In the center of the exhibition space you can grab a free gift. Don’t miss getting it!

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. 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, in particular she explored the possibilites of creating art based on AI generated pictures – like the “100 Retro Ladies”.

Each portrait is a piece of art. each lady is different, they wear different hats, have different hair styles (though mainly comparably short hair cuts), the background and the clothes they are wearing fit to the overal subtitle of the series. The background of the prtraits is not too distracting and the style of the portraits is still minimalistic. I was excited to see this variety of portraits, all fitting to one era. All ladies look outstanding in their own way. Don’t miss seeing them.

Impressions of “100 Retro Ladies” by Melusina Parkin (2)

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 this exhibition, Melusina. I enjoyed the “100 Retro Ladies”!

Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery
Take the teleporter pad to Melu’s Black Gallery and to “100 Retro Ladies” by Melusina Parkin from there
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/129/107/621
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Melu Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
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

Art in Second Life 2023 (34) Art Deco Ladies by Melusina Parkin

20 Jun 2023 2 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , ,

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

Art in Second Life 2023 (20) A minimal gaze by Melusina Parkin @ UASL

16 Apr 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

Melusina Parkin invited me to her newest exhibition “A minmal gaze” at United Artists of Second Life (UASL) Galerie Principale on the 1st floor.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’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 Melusina has tried out herself and other themes and techniques. She made pictures of ladies (read here), she played with AI generated pictures (read here and here), or she reduced her pictures to black&white only (read here). With “A minimal gaze” Melusina returns once again to her traditional pure minimalistic style.

Impressions of “A minimal gaze by Melusina Parkin @ UASL (1)

Melusina wrote about “A minimal gaze“:
“At this moment I’m experimenting AI generated images, but I don’t give up my passion for minimalistic photography. So I selected this series, collecting images of details seen in many SL places, to whom I wanted to give the dignity of photograph subjects. That’s what I always have done in these 10+ years of photography: enhancing and proposing what all of us could see and very often don’t “feel”. Minimal details talk of solitude, of uniqueness, of a kind of strangeness, like when we repeat a word until it looses its meaning, or acquires another one. Without a context, a detail can appear meaningless, but this senselessness can be rich of different possible meanings. Isolating a detail – making the usual unusual – does mean taking possess of something and giving it the meaning we want.“

“A minmal gaze” consists of 20 of these objects, which Melu gave a prominent place for us to look at them. That might be the view on a calm see from a window, a fence, a chair with a piece of clothes at the beach or a bus stop. It might be a pipeline, a warning beacon, the branch of a tree, a sun umbrella or a washling line with some clothes drying outside. No matter what it is, simple everyday objects in Second Life (and in Real Life) are the stars of the exhibition.

Impressions of “A minimal gaze by Melusina Parkin @ UASL (2)

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.

UASL is a unique artist group in SL that hosts opportunities for visual 3D, 2D and performance arts in it’s full region area at no cost to the artist. UASL is funded primarily by donations and by Riannah Avora. Thank you for enabling this exhibition.

Landmark to A minimal gaze by Melusina Parkin
United Artist of Second Life – Galerie Principale
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Karpov/128/53/64
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Melu Photo Gallery
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

Art in Second Life 2023 (9) Reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) & Onceagain Art Gallery

06 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I got an invitation to visit Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s latest exhibition named “Reflections” at Onceagain Art Gallery. A good reason to visit Onceagain Art Gallery (once) again, as it is more than one year since I my last visit there (read Art in Second Life 2022 (2) Onceagain Art Gallery).

The landmark leads you to a small gazebo within a park. From there you walk through the park, cross the gate, turn left twice and walk a path upwards to reach the exhibition “Reflections” which is shown in kind of a cloistered court.

Impressions of “Reflections” by reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) (1) – from the landing point to the exhibition

Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) wrote about “Reflections”:
“I’m really pleased to host in my gallery a delicate artist, who I discovered last year by chance when I won one of her works at an auction.
In life you don’t always need to look for deep meanings, sometimes beauty is enough to reconcile you with the world and Maddy with her works is what she manages to do.”

The exhibition consists of 11 pictures all showing woman, mainly portraits, in their beauty. Most of the pictures are monochrom (not all) and the women are all dressed beautiful and they wear flowers, ornaments, jewelery and other accessories underlining their beauty and attracting the spectator to look for details and to get pulled into the picture.

Impressions of “Reflections” by reflections by Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) (2)

Maddy wrote: ““Reflections” is a journey of portraits that experiments with new ideas using A.I. technologies. The exhibit showcases photos created with Midjourney and Second Life Avatars, combined with the use of A.I. to create a melancholic and dark atmosphere that captures the essence of the subjects portrayed. The soft colors and blurs emphasize the intense emotions and intimacy of the portraits, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in the images.”

Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau) is in Second Life since 2009. She’s passionate about photography in RL and SL. She writes: “I’m not an artist but a researcher of images to be developed… a dreamer with open eyes of this world “out of time”. In SL always open to new possibilities of experimentation trying to convey the magic that I see.”
I’ve seen Maddy’s art the first time back in 2017 at Enchanted Art where her exhibition “Maddy 2017” was showcased (read here). Further on I saw Maddy’s work at La Maison d’Aneli in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 and at GenovArt Glass Gallery in May 2021 (read here). You can see more of her art at her flickr page.

Once at the gallery I took the teleporter, where I landed for my visit to “Reflections” and visited the Onceagain Art Gallery.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (1) – Two buildings / Two sculptures (Cherry Manga and Bryn Oh)

The place has changed quite a lot, the concept is still the same. In a large park are several buildings. The park and the buildings are full of Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s art collection. In the park you find 3D art as well as inside of the buildings at windows or larger spaces. The buildings are galleries and feature the art of many artists.

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (2)

I know and wrote about most of them, though I admit that there’re some, who I didn’t come across yet. The following list of artists is certainly not exhaustive, but it testifies to the size of the art collection and the many styles:
Moki Yuitza, Mihailsk Syros (mihailsk), June Langer, Kika Yongho, Eviana (eviana.robbiani), Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau), Milena Carbone (mylena1992), Filthy Fluno, Marina Münter (vivresavie), Melusina Parkin, CioTToLiNa Xue, Zia Branner, Maloe Vansant, ZYNTHEA, Mareea Farrasco, Celestial Demon (celestialdemon), Gully Rivers (gullyrivers), Karma Daxeline (Karma Weymann), Cad (cadwallader), Lika Cameo (LikaCameo), Scylla Rhiadra, Mara Telling, Frank Atisso, Cherry Manga, Harbor Galaxy, miu miu miu (miumiumiusecond), Therese Carfagno, Bryn Oh ….

Impressions of Onceagain Art Gallery (3)

onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) ist in Second Life since 2007. Manoji is Italian and lives and works in Tuscany, Italy. She “likes photography, art, landscapes, animals, visiting strange places, most of these things she also does in RL“. You find more of her also on her flickr account.

Thank you for showcasting so many artists in a great environment and for enabling Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s exhibition “Reflections”.
And thank you Maddy for your art.
I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Onceagain Art Gallery and to Reflections by Maddy
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Peaceful%20Mountains/51/173/3502
Maddy (Magda Schmidtzau)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/magdyne/
Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69389809@N03/

Art in Second Life 2023 (8) Melusina Parkin’s February 2023 exhibitions

04 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , ,

Melusina Parkin invited me to her February 2023 exhibitions. She has two new exhibitions: “Ladies” shown at Melu’s Photo Gallery and “Outskirts” shown at her Minimum Gallery.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’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. I visited “Ladies” at Melu’s Photo Gallery first and this exhibition fits perfectly into the exhibitions in which Melu pursues her minimalism.

Impressions of Melusina Parkin’s February exhibition “Ladies” at Melu’s Photo Gallery (1)

No wonder “Ladies” shows pictures of women, more precisely of ladies. The women are all adult and gracefully depicted. Often you see them only unreal, either blurred or only from the backside, sometimes a no contrasting uni background is selected, furtheron they don’t wear any colourful clothes. Thus you have to focus to see the details, the secret behing these ladies. You can speculate about their age, or there origin. Are they happy or depressed? What do you conclude from their posture?

Impressions of Melusina Parkin’s February exhibition “Ladies” at Melu’s Photo Gallery (2)

At Melu’s Minimum Gallery is the exhibition “Outskirts”. In this exhibition Melusina Parking worked with Artificial Intelligence once again, like in her exhibition “Wrong Mirrors” which I saw last month (read “Art in Second Life 2023 (1) Wrong Mirrors by Melusina Parkin“).

Impressions of Melusina Parkin’s February exhibition “Outskirts” at Minimum Gallery (1) – Melusina Parkin herself was there

At the exhibition is a board explaining more about “Outskirts”:

“This exhibition shows 80 images based on AI generated ones, depicting scenes of everyday life in the outskirts of a big city. Each of the 20 panels shows 4 images, available by clicking on them.
Years ago, I did an exhibit titles “Outskirts, Images of a neglected world”, showing photos of SL places. Now I tried to do the same using the AI tool. Maybe the introuction to the former show can be suitable for this one, so I reproduce it here below…..”

The pictures at “Outskirts” are not necessarily minimalistic, yet they all express a bit of depression and sadness. No strong colours appear, mostly the world in the outskirts is grey and hazy.
I clicked on a few of the 20 pictures to see the other 3 pictures of the same frame. I admit, that I didn’t find a scheme. The 4 pictures have no common motif, at least I couldn’t recognize it. Instead all 80 pictures show typical scenes of the outskirts. Very intriguing as the conditions of life in the outskirts can be felt when looking at the pictures.

Impressions of Melusina Parkin’s February exhibition “Outskirts” at Minimum Gallery (1) – examples of 2 frames with 4 pictures each

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 February exhibitions. I enjoyed my visit!

Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Melu Photo Gallery – exhibition Ladies
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s Minimum Gallery – exhibition Outskirts
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

Art in Second Life 2023 (1) Wrong Mirrors by Melusina Parkin

08 Jan 2023 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , ,

I visited Melusina Parkin’s newest exhibition “Wrong Mirrors” at Melusina’s Minimum Gallery.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’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.

“Wrong Mirrors” is once again an exhibition featuring something new from Melusina, something that I didn’t expect from her. Melusina played with Artificial Intelligence. Each exhibited picture consists of one bigger and four smaller images. My fist thought was that the big picture was taken in Second Life and provided the source for changes by the AI. But I was wrong.

I talked with Melusina about “Wrong Mirrors” and she revealed a bit more about her work:

Diomita: I’m curious ….. Is the large picture the one you took in SL and the smaller ones is what the AI made of it?
Melusina Parkin: All the images have been generated by AI, then I worked on them… I’ve thought to show them that way to put more similar images in the exhibit 🙂
Diomita Maurer: but the AI must have got initial settings, right?
Melusina Parkin: yes, they work after a “prompt” written by me. I describe the image I want to generate, adding some parametes about light, style, size and so
Diomita: Do you use Midjourney?
Melusina Parkin: Not only Midjourney, mostly Stable Diffusion
Diomita Maurer: The result looks very “Melu”-like. It sounds so easy, but it isn’t! In the end it is still the artist, who selects what to keep, what to further develop
Melusina Parkin: yes, AIs are totally driven by the author, who decide style, subject and other features
Diomita Maurer: well done, Melu. I like the result!
Melusina Parkin: Thank you!

As mentioned in the conversation with Melusina, the pictures clearly show Melu’s style even though generated by AI. And they made me smile. Imagine you’d look into such a mirror, what a surprise not to see yourself in the mirror but someone else, or your backside! Look for all the details and enjoy Melu’s art.

On the second floor of the Minimum Gallery is Melusina’s exhibition “Art Deco Symmetries”. I wrote about it in June 2022 (read here).

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 “Wrong Mirrors”, Melusina. I enjoyed my first gallery visit in 2023!

Landmark to Melusina’s Minimum Gallery and to “Wrong Mirrors”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/129/107/621
Melusina Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/130/107/621
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

Art in Second Life 2022 (94) Forgotten Things by Melusina Parkin

27 Nov 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

I got an invitation of Melusina Parkin to see her newest exhibtion “Forgotten Things” at Kondor Art Square.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’s style is minimalistic. She 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.

The exhibition “Forgotten Things” is shown at Kondor Art Square.
The Kondor Art Square is an open court surronded by neoclassical buildings. Melu’s pictures are shown at large boards at three sides of this court. I have seen a few exhibitions of Melusina in which she tried out new forms or techniques. “Forgotten Things” is an exhibition coined by Melu’s passion for minimalism. And this time she focused on single objects, that were “forgotten” by their owners. In some of the pictures Melusina blurred the background and just focused the forgotten object.

Impressions of “Forgotten Things” by Melusina Parkin at Kondor Art Square (1)

What are these things? I saw several glasses, wallets, books, newpapers, still glowing cigarettes, a package, luggage, or empty mugs and bowls. While the glasses were forgotten (most probably), the empty mug was just not forgotten, but intentionally left to clean up later or to be cleaned up by someone else. Quite surprising is missing earphone of a phone booth, you just see the cable. Someone has forgotten the earphone in the picture?

Close to the landing point in the center of Kondor Art Square you you find a table where you can purchase a photobook about “Forgotten Things”. Those who are regular visitors to Melusina Parkin’s exhibitions know these books already. Melusina makes one of every exhibition. The book about “Forgotten Things” is sold at the exhibition, all others are sold under her brand “Melubooks” in a seperate book store: Melubooks shop.

Impressions of “Forgotten Things” by Melusina Parkin at Kondor Art Square (2)

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.

Impressions of “Forgotten Things” by Melusina Parkin at Kondor Art Square (3)

The Kondor Art Square is owned and curated by Hermes Kondor.
Hermes Kondor (aka Luis Vasconcelos) is from Lisbon, Portugal. He’s a former teacher of photography and photojournalism and looks back on 40 years of photography experience. Hermes likes to see and shoot and he loves street photography. Hermes is in Second Life since 2007.
Thank you Hermes for enabling the exhibition “Forgotten Things” by Melusina Parkin. And thank you Melusina for another great exhibition focusing on the little forgottent things, be them left intentionally or accidentially. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Kondor Art Square and to Forgotten Things by Melusina Parkin
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waka/235/129/1905
Melusina Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/130/107/621
Landmark to Melu Space (Minimum Gallery, Melubooks, Melu Deco)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/173/25/22
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

Art in Second Life 2022 (91) Greyscale Magic by Melusina Parkin

11 Nov 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

I got an invitation of Melusina Parkin to see her newest exhibtion “Greyscale Magic” at Artsville.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’s style is minimalistic. She 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.
For Greyscale Magic Melu tried out something different again. As the title implies the pictures of this exhibition are monochrome. There’s an accompanying text at a board right where you land when you visit. In the text Melu gives an historic abstract about photography and films in black and white and later in colour. And while films are all produced in colour nowadays, black and white photography is still widely spread in art photography. Thinking of it, one reason is that the spectators have to add the colours in their mind and thus translate the greyscales into colours.

Impressions of “Greyscale Magic” by Melusina Parkin @ Artsville (1)

Processing pictures taken in Second Life into monochrome pictures make them look very real, in particular if the pictures are a bit blurred. As the spectator compares the picture with known patterns, a picture of a “real” situation or view appears. It’s quite facinating. For example cars do look always a bit unnatural in Second Life photography. Maybe we miss the dirt, the traces of usage. In black and white picture we add that in our mind – and they look real!

Impressions of “Greyscale Magic” by Melusina Parkin @ Artsville (2)

The exhibition is shown in one large exhibition room with two smaller rooms. I didn’t count the pictures, it might be roughly 20. And every picture is a piece of art. I was quite intrigued.

Next to the board with the accompanying text you find a table where you can purchase a a photobook about “Greyscale Magic”. Those who are regular visitors to Melusina Parkin’s exhibitions know these books already. Melusina makes one of every exhibition. The book about “Greyscale Magic” is sold at the exhibition, all others are sold under her brand “Melubooks” in a seperate book store: Melubooks shop.

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.

Impressions of “Greyscale Magic” by Melusina Parkin @ Artsville (3)

Artsville was created in collaboration the Art Korner blog, owned and founded by Frank Atisso. Frank is also the curator of exhibitions at Artsville.
Thank you for another great exhibition, Melusina. I enjoyed my visit and seeing again something different from you.

Landmark to Greyscale Magic by Melusina Parkin @ Artsville
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caribbean%20Ocean/49/59/2251
Art Korner blog
https://www.artkornersl.com/
Melusina Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/130/107/621
Landmark to Melu Space (Minimum Gallery, Melubooks, Melu Deco)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/173/25/22
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

Art in Second Life 2022 (80) Fading Melu by Melusina Parkin

13 Sep 2022 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , ,

I got an invitation of Melusina Parkin to see her newest exhibtion “Fading Melu” at Melusina Parkin’s Photo Gallery.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’s style is minimalistic. She 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. “Fading Melu” is a different exhibition, something I have not seen before from Melusina Parkin. The exhibition consists of 22 portrait pictures (if I counted correctly). I assume from the title that Melusina selected for this exhibition that all portraits show Melusina herself.

“Fading Melu” is shown at Melu’s Photo Gallery right above store for Art Deco furniture “Melu Deco”. In the center you find a table where you can purchase a photobook about “Fading Melu” as well as a free catalogue of all photobooks published 2021-2022 and a free book with the exhibition posters 2010-2021.
Those who are regular visitors to Melusina Parkin’s exhibitions know these books already. Melusina makes one of every exhibition. The book about “Fading Melu” is sold at the exhibition, all others are sold under her brand “Melubooks” in a seperate book store: Melubooks shop.

Impressions of “Fading Melu” by Melusina Parkin (1)

The portraits are all blurred – faded. That is another way to force the spectator to focus on details. It is also a technique to inspire the spectator to add details that are not visible from own experience. For me personally in most of the pictures Melusina looks a bit mysterious. And if I were asked to estimate a time period I’d say that most of them look a bit 1920/30ish. My personal favourite picture shows Melusina with big sun glasses and a red scarf. The blurring makes the portrait look very real and you can see that there’s something in the background  (other people?). Quite intriguing. Melu picked the backgrounds for her portrait picture intentionally, some are also just plain black.

Impressions of “Fading Melu” by Melusina Parkin (2)

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“, where “Fading Melu” is presented 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 another great exhibition. I enjoyed my visit and seeing something unexpected different from you, Melusina.

Melusina Photo Gallery
Landmark to Fading Melu by Melusina Parkin
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/130/107/621
Landmark to Melu Space (Minimum Gallery, Melubooks, Melu Deco)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/173/25/22
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

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