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by StarDeAzul Starostin
Second Life has become a growing source for artists to showcase their creations. Artists are able to enter in-world and start galleries or become involved with others from all around the world; Second Life allows an artist’s work to be sold and enjoyed by many citizens in-world. GM Nikolaidis, a real life and in-world artist, is looking forward to an opportunity to host other Second Life artists in his gallery, opening on December 1, 2007, at the Enchantment Art Center; he and Jezebel Bailey, artist and clothing designer, both own the center, and will be hosting artists Kade Klata and Syene Cela when the center opens. Nikolaidis has difficulty labeling his art but would consider it “architectural.” (Among his work is a photograph he took of the Kymulga Grist Mill, a historical mill built by Confederate Army Captain Forney, on Talladega Creek, Alabama, USA.) In Second Life his artwork is able to surround him, and even more so with his in-world sculptures inspired by real life. He feels people seem to gravitate toward what they know, and finds his real life photography is valued more than his in-world work. “(I) recently began shooting in-world, but (I) have not found that audience,” he explains. Jezebel Bailey believes in-world creations can be anything you can imagine. “The skies the limit,” she quotes in-world friends involved in the musical arts. Bailey believes Second Life is all about art, “everything you see is texture…so everything has layers of artistic value.” She believes Second Life is an extension of who one is in real life. In Second Life all genres and styles seem to be as popular as the next. Nikolaidis feels Second Life is so diverse that there are no real trends. For the most part, in-world citizens are intrigued by items created to replicate real life; the more lifelike an item the likelihood it will be desired. The benefit of Second Life is that anyone may learn to create and build, and artists like Nikolaidis and Bailey have found the art community to be generous and supportive. Art is able to be personal and self motivated, without concerns of real life funding as a serious hindrance or influence.
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