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Tuesday I told you about how Afrofuturist artist Nettrice Gaskins was supposed to show off her Deep Dream-based portraits at a conference in Los Angeles, but because she couldn't travel due to the Coronavirus quarantine, showed them off in a virtual gallery in Second Life. Since then, as it turns out, the SL gallery has been deluged by visitors, many showing up to meet the artist herself in avatar form. (Nettrice is s "Nettrice Bethune" in SL.)
The New World Notes post itself has gone mini-viral, shared upwards of 1000 times on Facebook alone. "Many people are not familiar with SL," Nettrice tells me, "so they're interested... curious, especially now." In fact, one of the people sharing the post was Monty Ross, Spike Lee's co-producer on the masterpieces Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X and (my personal Spike Lee favorite), Mo' Better Blues.
It's fair to say her art is being seen in Second Life now by more people (or at least a far wider range of them) than if she had just showed them off in Los Angeles. So while the Coronavirus is among the worst things to happen to humanity in a long time, it is also leading to some wonderful creativity and new connections. Or as Dr. Gaskin puts it, "It’s times like this when you realize the world ain’t so big."
Nettrice, by the way, is making another appearance at the gallery around now (1pm-ish Pacific time), but even if you can't meet her in Second Life, you should definitely see the show there -- and read about how she created these works here.
Monty Ross, one of the people who co-produced such films as “Do the Right Thing” shared a post about what I’m doing in Second Life right now. It’s times like this when you realize the world ain’t so big. pic.twitter.com/WFmXnsXm1n
— Nettrice (@nettieb) April 1, 2020
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