The Virtual Worlds Story Project

Eight artists from four countries around the world have joined forces to collaborate on a series of sculptures and photographs designed to celebrate the lives of those dealing with HIV/AIDS.  The artwork, which ranges from a magical Story Tree to a path of healing lined with photographs, will debut on World AIDS Day 2009 on the island of Karuna* in Second Life (SL).

*Karuna is a word from an ancient language of India and means to ease suffering.  Karuna is funded by a generous grant from the National Library of Medicine written by Lori Bell of the Alliance Library System in Peoria, Illinois.

Madcow Cosmos was born May 23, 1978.  A chef by trade, he resides in the pacific northwest of the USA and apparently talks in the third person.   Initially drawn by the simple-to-use creation tools in Second life, he was soon fulfilling his lifelong desire to make three dimensional virtual art.  Madcow has no formal training in any 3D rendering software or other artistic skills aside from the culinary, but enjoys working with art of almost any nature at an amateur level.  The inspiration for much of his art comes from an overactive imagination and a love of fantasy and myth.  When not hopelessly distracted by building, Madcow enjoys helping others build and petting the cats that are walking across his keyboard.

Sledge Roffo is a well-known, high prolific, and exceptionally gifted artist who is best known for helping develop, "Primagery," a process he fondly refers to as "torturing prims."  Roffo is the Resident Artist at Karuna*, the Second Life island devoted to HIV/AIDS, and as such was responsible for finding and coordinating the work of all but one of the artists working on the World AIDS Day Project.

The centerpiece he made for this event is called "I AM HERE".   It was created to spread the word about ending discrimination of people with HIV/AIDS.  The beam extends up to the clouds.  World AIDS Day participants can take the "Art Traveler" to the top of the sculpture and hear it proclaim to the universe, " I AM HERE."   It is best experienced at with the environmental settings at midnight.

Though best known for Primagery - the creation of sculptures for the express purpose of taking snapshots of them with an SL camera - he has recently added scripted, immersive sculptures to his repertoire.

Suzanne Graves

Suzanne is from Geneva, Switzerland. She is a brilliant mathematician.  She must be, she creates spectacular pieces 200-6000 prims or more.  She is making prim portraits too..expressing herself outside of geometry. 

Jewel MacMoragh

In addition to sculptures, photograher Jewel MacMoragh from California has lined the

Path of Healing with beautiful photos especially for this event.  She started holding a camera very early on in life and then at 19,  experienced a renewed enthusiasm and appreciation for photography while living in New Zealand.  Her passion and joy are in capturing the unexpected, the spontaneous, the magical.   These days in SL, she is enjoying taking portraits.

Shellina Winkler and Solkide Aeur

Shellina Winkler initially joined the Second Life community out of curiosity and because she was interested in education.  After looking at other avatars' work she decided to make building a priority, and the creation of works of art became her main goal.  From "Prim Paintings" to sculptures, she expresses herself quite elegantly in Second Life.  Her work, as all the others in this exhibit, is well-known throughout the Second Life world of art.

Winker has teamed up with her Italian friend and artist Solkide Aeur to create a unique piece.  Solkide started building and found he enjoyed expressing his artistic side.   He started creating geometrical shapes using a variety of difficult techniques such as "the shade."  which gives allows him to manipulate a unique prim in a very complex way. As a result, he has obtained unexpected and different shapes quite unlike any others to be found in Second Life.

Artist, photographer, Second Life (SL) builder, and SL volunteer, Quadrapop Lane is undoubtedly one of the more colorful artists in SL today. Quad co-hosts the University of Western Australia's Art and Design Challenge in SL.