Avatrait Board

Dedication to a new art form takes more than just an interest - takes a perseverance, dedication and passion that goes well beyond cursoray interest. Avatrait is pleased and proud to acknowledge the following individuals who have given their time, expertise and passion to guide and steer Avatrait.

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The Avatrait Gallery Board of Artistic Directors
SHOSHANA EPSILON Shoshana Epsilon has been taking photographs in Second Life since March of 2006. She specializes in "raw photography", that is, SL photography with minimal post-processing. She opened her first gallery in May of the same year. She was the first featured artist at the University of Texas at Dallas' Art and Technology show. She has displayed her work at SL's 3rd, 4th and 5th birthday events; she also ran the 4th and 5th birthday art celebrations. She has participated in Artropolis and the Cannery. Ms. Epsilon has been a Second Life Mentor since 2006. She teaches classes in Second Life photography.	CORBETT HOWARD
LOOKER LUMET Looker Lumet has been a SL photographer from his start in Second Life, back in January 2007. He worked his way through post processing, but there will be no end in this learning process. Mr. Lumet has been a member of the Avatrait Gallery from the very beginning in 2007, where he was introduced to the board in June 2008, as a temporary rotating member, but is now a permanent member of this board. He has exhibited his works in many galleries during this period, and also during SL4B and SL5B, and he is amongst many other activities active as the photographer of CYD Records, although these works are not seen on “flickr”, nor at the Avatrait site.	KIMBERLY MIRABEAU
KEIKO MORIGI	CIENEGA SOON Shortly after landing in Second Life® I got very excited to find the snapshot button at the bottom of the screen. Creativity has to happen everywhere I go or I don't stay long. My first year in SL was a lot of fun map hopping laced with hundreds of snapshots quickly filling the hard drive, getting the second one was a necessity. I am an artist in all mediums and now with the virtual world becoming something of a necessity, I fell in love with SL. Its environment can be made to be what ever you want, just as in RL photography, painting, sculpting and stained glass. Setting up backdrops, lighting, and building what ever you want for a scene is exciting. To me this was RL photography that I didn't have to send in to have developed … My creative juices overflowed. It was because of this medium that I eventually tried my hand at post processing. I felt that the screenshots were flat, not only in depth and color, but I needed to fix the jagged edges as well. I am a self taught PS addict. I joined SL December 2nd 2006 got my first PS program in June of 2007 and my Avatrait show was December 1st 2007. Its truly been a fun ride. The Avatrait show was the beginning for me as a virtual photographer/snapshooter artist. I have many awards and many exhibits connected to SL under my belt over the last two years, which thrills me to encourage new SL digital virtual artists any way I can. This medium is not going to go away. I do get a bit tired of hearing that this is not RL "Real Life" art. What does that really mean? I'm a RL human and its my RL hand and eye making these pieces and you're a real life human looking at them. So to me this is just one more medium of RL art. So I say digital virtual art or expressionism … all real. I look forward to seeing all the creativity and new ideas of every new artist here. And yes you seasoned artists as well. I also look forward to encouraging anyone with an artistic eye that has an insatiable appetite to create in this medium. Its possibilities are endless. I love the human mind and its deep-need to create. You know like when you create something and when its finished, you just stand there staring and think… "wow did I just do that?" Creativity Rocks! Artists are the creators of their environment and truly make the world beautiful. This virtual world is the way of the future. Come on lets make stuff to hang on the walls. Remember this kind of communication all started in caves with stick figures :) Juicy ~by Cienega Soon @ Misali ~an intoxicating chartreuse land. Avatrait Gallery Artist Permanent Avatrait Board Member SLphoto Artistry / portraits and commissioned work Artist Mentor

Artistic Directors Emeritus

CODEBASTARD REDGRAVE (2007-2008)

STEPHEN VENKMAN (2008-2009) I had been inworld for over a year taking snapshots and starting to turn my daily images into works of art when Greg Houston sent me an e-mail inviting me to Avatrait. At first I rejected the invite, thinking it was some hoax to extort me from my lindens. This happens in second life as much as first life if not careful. Eventually I joined and was signed up withing two weeks to provide 25 exclusive images to the gallery. Can you image that? Expecting an artist to spit out 25 images in just two weeks that no one had seen before. It was a rush to get these completed and at that time I had no control over what would be shown in the gallery. That was to be picked over by Greg and his inworld manager. After my show in October, the gallery took a pause and decided to look for an inworld manager to run the "Gallery Openings" and assist the artist in what was needed to set up a show. I had already been invited to join the board at this time and felt that I had the inworld knowledge, connections and real world know how to run the openings. I eagerly accepted. Since that time, I and the assistance of many board members, have put on more then 15 gallery openings for Avatrait. Each one presenting it's own challenges and joys for myself and the Artist. My own art has taken a back seat to this work, but I've found it most satisfying to open the doors on a Saturday afternoon and watch the rush of patrons fill the gallery with their oohs, aaahs and frequent blue notice of a purchase. We have as a board developed many things for the gallery and artist to make this process as smooth as possible. We have also joined together to review and invite over 40 artist to the gallery since opening. Many of us giving up our weekends to get these shows up and running, we do it with the passion on which the business was founded... "For the Art". With the new gallery opening, and the increase of two shows a month, the traffic has doubled for each show and the openings are more popular then ever. I am proud to have seen us come this far and to be a part of the art history that is "Avatriat".

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