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| Kristine Schomaker |
Kristine is the brains of this operation. I am the beauty.
No wait; she will kick my ass for saying that…LOL Kristine and Gracie are the same person. We don’t role play other characters; just
wear other ‘masks’ per se from time to time. When I speak about Kristine or Gracie, I normally use ‘I’
because that is who we are, an I. I am a new media, performance artist and painter in both worlds.
When I came to Second Life, I found it an amazing place for artists to show
their work to a universal audience plus I saw the capacity for new art made
entirely using the tools within Second Life. I love using the medium of Second
Life for my performance art, for meeting new people, listening to my favorite
singers and DJs and sharing my vision of art. I am not much of a shopper.
(Shhhhh don’t tell my friends!) I love watching people discover and share Second Life with
the real world; mixing realities. Using SL with the Oculus Rift is going to be
a game changer. I am so proud to be a pioneer artist among many others bringing
Second Life to the real Art World. It’s scary right now, because a lot of
people still don’t understand it, but we are working on that.
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| Gracie Kendal |
My aunt and uncle actually brought me to Second Life. They
came into SL in 2006 after reading about it in SPIN Magazine. They loved the
idea of hearing musicians streaming concerts from their homes to people from
all over the world. They met a few visual artists and thought it would be an
amazing place for me to bring in my paintings. Within a week of being in Second
Life I had a gallery with my paintings, a condo, the Avatar I still have today,
a closet full of clothes, and well, ummm… a boyfriend…LOL.
Kristine, what's your history with the arts?
I have always loved art. Going to my grandparents I was
always looking through their coffee table book of Norman Rockwell images, or
admiring their faux Rembrandt hanging over their couch. My aunt and uncle
collected contemporary art and I always loved visiting and looking at the
brilliant color, design and patterns in the world they collected; Maxfield
Parrish, Miripolsky and Mark Mothersbaugh.
My other grandparents were in construction and real estate. I wanted to
be an architect from as early as I can remember. I used to go to their office
and draw the plans of houses on graph paper. When I was in school, I realized
how much I hated math and wasn’t very good at it. There went that dream. So I
decided to take an Art History class. The professor was so inspiring and
brilliant; her class made me want to continue on in the world of art. I started
taking painting, drawing, color theory classes and more Art History classes. I
have my Bachelors in art history and my Masters in studio art. I also had the
pleasure of teaching art history at a community college for a few years. Over
the last few years, with the help of Second Life, I have ventured out of my
comfort zone of painting to performance art, installation and new media/digital
art. It has been a really wonderful ride and I am looking forward to what the
future inspires.
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| a scene from LEA16 |
Oh gosh, there a quite a few. A major inspiration is the 2nd
Generation Abstract Expressionist Sam Francis. In 1998 my painting professor
took us on a field trip to MOCA in LA for his retrospective. I stood in front
of these immense colorful abstract paintings and knew that was my direction.
Then I saw artists such as Gerhard Richter, Helen Frankenthaler, Pia Fries and
Beatriz Milhazes. As I got more into conceptual and performance art I was
totally inspired by Cindy Sherman and Yasumasa Morimura.
Tell us about your art work in real life, Kristine, and does
it tie in with your work in Second Life?
I believe my art work in Second Life is my art work in real
life. Everything I do in Second Life is meant for a real world audience. I am
just trying to figure out how to share it in galleries etc. Before I started
Second Life, I was only painting and doing mixed media/collage work. Last year
I was awarded a sim as part of the Artist in Residence program through the
Linden Endowment for the Arts. I created a full sim immersive installation
inspired by my paintings and mixed media work called Ce n’est pas une peinture. I wanted the viewer to get a feeling
that they were floating through my colorful abstract paintings. I think it was
very successful.
In real life, the painting I do cannot be translated in
Second Life. It is very messy, watery and drippy. The application of pouring
paint and using a blow dryer cannot be duplicated in its physicality over the
computer. I hope it stays that way. With some things, the lines should not be
blurred.
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| Kristine in My Life as an Avatar |
When I was working on my Master’s Degree, I showed my
painting professor my work in Second Life. I showed her my avatar, the art
galleries and the life I created in Second Life. She was absolutely blown away
by what I was doing here. She asked me some very telling questions about my Avatar.
Why did I create my avatar to look like she does; tall, thin, elegantly
dressed, etc? She wanted me to explore this aspect. As I delved deeper into the
psychological aspect of having an ‘ideal’ avatar, I started to see the
potential for performance art. I started
comparing myself with my avatar. I took pictures of both of us every day,
transformed into her and did a 9 min video and most of all, learned so much
about myself and learned to accept myself for who I am rather than who I want
to be. The whole project has been a life changing experience.
There was a performance that you did, challenging society's
standards of beauty, called The Bald and the Beautiful. Tell us about this, Kristine.
One day over a year ago, I had opened up yahoo, and the
first news item was about how Portia Di Rossi cut her “signature” locks. I just
thought, wow, how is that news??!!! So what if a woman decides to cut her hair.
I started thinking about how women are mostly seen as objects for their physical
attributes. They are defined by their bodies rather than their talent,
personalities, intellect, wit and character. That is normally the first thing
that people see when looking at a woman. So I decided to challenge those
notions of the woman as object and do a performance where I had my head shaved.
There was the perfect moment when I was invited to give a talk about Second
Life in a series called Artist21 at the Brewery where I live in Los Angeles. I
performed a skit with a friend where we talked about body image, female
sexuality, physical appearance vs. character, etc. Then she shaved my head. It
was THE most liberating thing I have ever done. I was ready. Over a year later,
I still wear my hair buzzed and every day I consider the question why. I still
have people telling me it looks better longer or asking when I am going to grow
it out. I also don’t get asked out on dates, I am thinking mostly because of my
hair. Having a buzzed head has some stereotypes associated with it that I am
trying to break. Anyone can have short hair.
This wasn't so much a performance as a whole project/installation.
After dealing with My Life as an Avatar, I wanted to pursue the idea of
identity in virtual worlds. I decided to take portraits of avatars and showcase
them in a huge installation. It started out with 100, then 200, then 1000 and
eventually 2000 individual portraits. All of the avatars are shown from behind,
because I wanted to focus on the idea of anonymity within Second Life. So many
people keep Second Life separate from real life, mainly because they can. I
wanted to show the diversity and the creativity that each and every one of us
brings the Second Life table. I ended up publishing a 2 volume set of books
featuring all 2000 portraits.
You have a blog, as well, what is the focus of your blog?
My blog is a place that I share what I am doing, or feeling
or finding. Most of the time I share stories based on art that I am working on.
It is mostly editorial pieces that get people thinking and asking more
questions that offering answers. I talk a lot about body image, stereotypes,
art and Second Life.
The Linden Endowment for the Arts is an organization put
together to help artists in Second Life with land and resources. They have 20
sims that they award to artists who submit proposals for unique artworks. They
offer them for either 5 or 6 months.
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| a scene from LEA16 |
Funny, I can’t remember what the first thing I rezzed was…LOL
Do you remember? LOL this was the beginning of a 5 month
performance/installation called “Binge and Purge” where I am going to rez my
whole inventory on an LEA sim I was awarded. Since we are only allowed 15000
prims per sim, I am rezzing a little bit of my inventory at a time every 3
weeks. When that 3 weeks is up, I will delete the sim entirely and rez 15000
more prims until my inventory is completely empty.
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| a scene from LEA16 |
I can’t say what the exactly inspiration was. I am always
conscious of consumerism and materialism. I try to live a more minimal
lifestyle and don’t feel the need to own expensive stuff. I thought about
reality TV and shows like Hoarders. I have an eating disorder, so I understand
how people do stuff like hoard, drink, smoke and shop excessively. I eat to
excess sometimes. I have learned through therapy and an eating disorder support
group that it isn’t about the food but about an underlying need for something.
For me it may be comfort or its filling a void. I am still working on that. I honestly don’t have an exact answer to this question. One
day, just like that, I thought, I have to purge my inventory. I have to delete
everything. I know there are some deeper philosophical/theoretical concepts
behind this piece of art, but I will leave that to the critics and historians.
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| a scene from LEA16 |
These are the rules I typed up on my blog. Of course,
remember, rules are made to be broken!
Rules of the game:
Rules of the game:
- Buy Buy Buy. I will spend the 20,000L I currently have in Second Life until it is gone. (Done)
- I will rez 15000 prims worth of ‘stuff’ from my inventory every 2-3 weeks. (Sunday morning 9am SLT/PST)
- After the 2-3 weeks, I will delete all 15000 prims. (This will include all my art, presents, furniture, houses, clothes, pictures, notecards, landmarks, calling cards, collected art, etc.) EVERYTHING.
- I will take pictures of my inventory window/the interface after each purging
- Each Binge and Purge will be documented through filming and photography.
- Everything I own in Second Life will be on this sim and eventually deleted.
- Then what?
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| a scene from LEA16 |
I had the pleasure of being there for most of the items that you rezzed on 8/11, as did Kiki Szetey and several others. What was it like to have an audience?
It was really a lot of fun. It was nice having a sounding
board. It was great hearing the comments. “I remember that.” Or “I had that
when I was a newb.” Etc. Even with the embarrassing moment when I deleted the
clothes Gracie was wearing, I felt it was important to have an audience. It wouldn't have been the same if I was alone.
I needed people to be there who understood, who asked questions and who
supported me. Would it have been a performance if I was alone?
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| Overview of LEA16 |
On Sept 1st, probably about 11am slt, I will
delete all of those 15000 prims. They will go into my trash in my inventory
where I will delete them again and they will be gone from SL never to be seen
again. Well except in photos and video.
So you said that you will "empty out and delete EVERYTHING from your inventory". Surely there will be a few items that you want to keep for sentimental reasons, yes?
Nope, everything will be gone. Notecards, calling cards,
textures, landmarks, all objects, clothes, etc. I would like to say, I want to
be a newb again. I want to bring back the naiveté from our SL youth, but I
don’t believe that is possible. Everything is sentimental and nothing is sentimental.
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| a scene from LEA16 |
Ziki is a great promoter and supporter of the arts in Second
Life. She is a lovely friend and I am honored she wrote about the project. It
is important for people to write about it. It has already brought up some
controversy questioning one-of-a-kind objects in SL and what happens when they
are gone etc. Writers like ZIki are important for keeping these conversations
going.
What's next for you, Kristine? Do you have other projects in the works?
I don’t really have any projects in Second Life in the
works. Currently I am creating some new mixed media pieces in real life,
getting my art ready to sell at an upcoming Artwalk and planning a new
performance. It is going to be the bravest performance I have done yet. It will
involve me being nude (in RL of course). Stay tuned into my blog for more
details!
Kristine thank you very much for your time today, for
letting us get to know you better, and for sharing your work with us.
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