Second Life (SL) Art Educator, Dan Yapungku, has revolutionized fine arts instruction using SL's abundant artworks and SL's infinite 3-D canvases to empower artists. In a stunning show of artworks featuring a dozen of his colleagues and students. the Regional Expertise Network (REN) is hosting a special art exhibition, called REN Festival 2009, now through September 30, 2009. See the artworks in person at this SL location:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/226/186/24

Dan explains about the REN Festival 2009 artists, "Some are people in the TLE art course... TLE is The Learning Experience Group is an SL group and website."
http://users.telenet.be/kunstwand
View view TLE activities on this web site:
http://tleinsl.blogspot.com/

The REN Festival, REN SL Group and the associated SL region is sponsored by the Flemish Ministry of Education. At Virtual Holland, Dan conducts frequent TLE classes in art analysis and the artistic creativity process. He uses the hundreds of art galleries and SL art regions for his class experiences. Caihlyn Tatsu explains, "More art is possible in SL than in RL" because SL let's us build huge galleries and art installations at minimal cost. See my CNN iReport about a mile-high art installation at:
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-264566

Picture Captions - Click on the numbered links above to view.

Picture 1 is Art Educator and highly respected and accomplished artist, Dan Yapungku in SL, founder/curator of the REN Festival 2009 and TLE. Behind Dan is Golden Child, the next picture.

Picture 2 is the SL sculpture Golden Child IV by AuraKyo Insoo. Notice Aura's distinctive style of modeling the human form with textured ribbons in flight. This is one of several Golden Childs that Aura has built at different scales. Aura publishes an SL artwork newsletter (contact her for details), and you can see more of her artwork at Crossworlds Gallery, here in SL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/lynto%20land/120/137/149

Picture 3 is the REN Festival 2009 billboard in the art classroom at Virtual Holland.There are numerous art resources available there for free, including lists of SL art galleries, SL art regions, class notes, and Internet resources for artists.

Picture 4 is Franchella Milenna's artwork, entitled, Heart Of The Universe 2 With Egg 3. Franchella is a TLE student. I admire her work for its colors and motion. In person, this sculpture resembles a colorful, playful version of the space machine from the movie Contact. Franchella adds, "I have very much been enjoying the inspirations, both in art and poetry, that I have received from my wonderful friendships in Second Life!"

Picture 5 is TLE student Penelope Parx's emotionally moving interpretation of a famous poem, Citations de Alphonse de Lamartine. Her sculpture is a pathway to the sky, with captions of the poem along your way. In English, this poem translates as:

And so, driven on ceaselessly toward new shores,
carried beyond return into eternal darkness,
shall we never cast anchor for a
single day in the ocean of time?

In Picture 6, Rozamyndi Brim of TLE brings us a rotating sculpture, Are we poisoning the universe too? It comprises a rotating globe with various realistic and abstract debris in orbit. This moving sculpture is a must see in person.

In Picture 7, Elizabeth Spieler of TLE brings us her animated sculpture, Mini Golden Wheels. I find this moving sculpture very intriguing. It resembles a miniature architectural landscape, with walkways, waterworks, green spaces, and buildings, and contains a surreal set of animated rings which dance up and down rhythmically. See Elizabeth's full scale version of this building in SL, it is dedicated to the original Wizard of Oz movie, wonderful:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Devonshire/156/230/123

Picture 8 - Artistide Despres has modeled a gold mining operation with dollar bills set in flight through the exploitation of the Earth's resources. See more of Artistide's artwork at New Caerleon art region, here in SL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caerleon%20Art%20Collective2/211/81/23

Old arguments are settled in Picture 9, through SaveMe Oh's sculpture about a sad Belgian singer. Dan Yapungku explains: "You never know when hate is love or love is hate. SaveMe had a place here before our school came to rent it and SaveMe had to find another free place [in SL] ... So we made her homeless... we broke her heart I suppose." Medora Chevalier added, "Well artists do have to suffer to inspire them... so maybe you may have inadvertently helped her art."
Dan concluded, "Yes... and as special friend also SaveMe participated in the festival" by contributing this broken heart-themed sculpture.

In Picture 10, Dan Yapungku dives into advanced art concepts with SL art interacting with real life (RL) art. On the left side is an RL design idea that Dan sketched, an imaginary house. Dan then built a full scale model of his sketch in SL. From the SL model, Dan now see's whole new possibilities for his concept house. Dan explains rather mystically, "Inside becomes outside and RL SL, but always strangers." I love Dan's sense of contradictions... and how they meet.

REN Festival 2009 is a very fun art show; I hope you have a chance to experience this art too, and meet TLE students and their talented friends. Virtual Holland is the place to be through September 30, 2009, in Second Life here:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Holland/226/186/24

--- Any1 Gynoid Reporting for CNN in Second Life, Contact me with story leads via In-World IM or email me at any1 (at) gmail.com