Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Sometimes when browsing Flickr, I encounter a picture than makes me wonder if that can possibly be Second Life? How did they do that? The creative imagination revealed by SL artists always amazes me, and none more so than Spanish SL artist Kimeu. His work is varied and difficult to characterize. Frequently surreal, sometimes absurdist, often abstract, his photostream is an adventure in imagination. Although very different, when I see “Icon”, the picture above, I think of Egon Schiele’s “Kneeling Male Nude” – not just because of the pose, but the elongated and exaggerated musculature. It seems so perfect that it is a reverse of Schiele’s work, as Schiele focused inward on the emotions, while Kimeu focuses outward on society.
For more about Kimeu’s art and inspirations, keep reading.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Most of my inspiration comes from daily life.. Nature and Music are my muses. I think I take pieces from there often.
What artists appeal to you?
Lot of them, specially painters: Goya, Rubens, Dalí, Turner, Bosch, and photographers too, of course. Capra and Halsman. Musicians like Mozart, Satie, Chick Corea, and Peter Gabriel. Writers like Umberto Eco, Tolkien, and Saramago.
How much is shot in SL and how much is done in Photoshop or other editing/digital art software?
I don’t use Photoshop... All is done in SL. Lately I started to cut and add images like layers. It depends on what the pic is asking. A raw pic sometimes is better.
Without giving up your secrets, what can you tell us about your process?
Sl is a fantastic platform to play with images, with limits, but fantastic anyway. Usually I start with an idea, a scene on my mind, then I build the scene with the elements I need, sometimes with a background (I build too) rocks, trees, sometimes just the sky. I love sky and clouds. I don’t make more than two or three shots of the scene, with different angle and light, then edit – take off some lines, give more or less intensity, add some shadows. Sometimes I start with my mind in white, so I rez a cube on the ground and sit on it waiting for inspiration. And what begins from nothing maybe ends in a baroque scene.
Can you pick a favorite picture and tell us a little about your inspiration and how you went about creating...not at tutorial level, but just a general idea.
Sometimes it happens that my fav pic is not one of the most liked by the people so, but here is a pic I love so much. “Recycle” came to my mind after reading a news article about the plastics in the sea. I wanted an ugly fish and the deep of the sea with trash so I found that piranha. It was perfect!! The rest just followed my instinct.
Anything else about your work you would like people to know?
I started taking pics on SL while traveling, landscapes, houses, and people, until I got a bit bored of it, so was the time for me to build my own pics. Since then, I try to show my own image of life.
How did you come to join SL?
Searching for new adventures I suppose. SL is a world full of possibilities for artists (even if I don’t consider myself an artist.)
Has SL changed your life?
Changed my life? No, but it helps to just bear my RL better.
Meet Kimeu in SL and visit his in-world gallery here.
Cajsa Lilliehook joined Second Life in 2007 and has been enjoying the art of SL ever since. Disliking the common practice of critiquing poor photos, she decided to highlight good ones and explain why they work in hopes of inspiring with praise instead of criticism. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.
fabulous work!
Posted by: Harbor Galaxy | Thursday, July 06, 2017 at 05:21 PM