Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Known as Mr. G. takes deceptively simple pictures. There are few elements, usually his avatar and a relatively barren landscape of sand, rocks, and sometimes ocean. He eschews the bucolic, tamed landscapes of pastures and cottage gardens. In his work, the landscape is vast and powerful. His avatar is often quite small in the distance.
In “What Do You Want From Me?”, he’s closer to the viewer and yet still you sense the power of the land. The wind batters and blows his clothing about. There is this constant in his work, appreciating the awesome power of the land. There is no sense that he is out to conquer the land, but just to see and acknowledge it like a man on a pilgrimage.
For more of his work on the wild side of SL, click here:
“Pour l'instant, j'suis dans la poussière, dans l'désert” or “For now, I'm in the dust, in the desert” illustrates his: accord with nature, how he does not resist it for you see he is running toward the dust devil, not away from it. There’s no sense of him running into a battle with the storm but into the experience of the storm. He wants to know what it feels like to be in it, not to stand afar.
“Cloud Edge II” seems like the apotheosis of Mr. G.’s work. Where can we observe the vastness of the Earth more clearly than from this overhang so high it feels like we can see forever. Yes, the clouds obscure the landscape for the moment, but they will move on and as they move they will cover and reveal, cover and reveal, almost flirtatiously, and whether obscured or made plain, the view will be a vast panorama. Even with the obscured view, we can see he is a cordillera of volcanic mountains and all there is of man is this avatar and that small rope lying on the ground.
Known as Mr. G. is an artist I have written about before. I love the constancy in his style. I have mentioned the paradox of constraints before, about how creating a clear “style” or set of constraints actually can lead to greater creativity. A famous example of that at work is the 48 Hour Film Project. Filmmakers are given three required elements and 48 hours to create a film and many of the films are ingenious. The three elements, rather than limiting them, spark new and fresh ideas and creativity.
That’s how it is with Mr. G. You can describe many of his pictures as a silhouette of a man in the distance against vast landscapes or sometimes cityscapes. But that does not mean his pictures are all the same. In fact, it is the opposite. His pictures all feel fresh and illuminating.
All images copyright Known as Mr. G.
See all Cajsa's Choices here. Want to recommend an artist to feature? Tag Cajsa with your favorite pics on Flickr, on Primfeed, and Facebook. (Self-promotion welcome!)
Cajsa’s Choices is devoted to unique, artistic, and innovative virtual world-based images and screenshots that showcase the medium as an art form and Second Life as a creative platform. (Generally not images that fit on this Bingo card.)
Cajsa Lilliehook is a seventeen year resident of Second Life, where she owned a photo studio, spent several years as a DJ at The Velvet, and for her first SL job, cleaned up prim trash. She co-founded and runs the It’s Only Fashion blog with her best friend Gidge Uriza. She also has a book review blog, Tonstant Weader Reviews and a cooking blog, Single Serving Recipes. She spends a lot of time researching and reporting on Republican sexual predators. In her first life, she is a retired grassroots leader who has worked for economic and social justice issues most of her life. She is also the minion of a cat named Nora.
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