Fuschia Nightfire has an exceptional talent. One need only explore her dreamlike projects.
I learned about Fuschia’s special contributions long before booting up InWorldz. Eager to see a venue she created a few years ago, I accepted an invitation from Liz Haley, the owner of SL’s popular Key West. Fuschia was commissioned to create a unique venue for Liz. The finished project was a larger-than-life virtual artist. The audience was impressed with the many storied white prim build and its clever elements. His palate had a sample of yellow, blue, lime green, red and fuchsia paint squeezed from the tube. It served as the venue’s floor. The stage was a cup with a paintbrush awaiting the artist’s attention.
There was much to learn about this multi-grid-popular artist so I invited her to Unforgettable’s former office on Lyrica. I knew Fuschia’s appearance would be as creative as her artistic builds so I wasn’t surprised when she teleportated in the office in a multi-colored purple top, short black skirt, mismatched socks and grunge boots. She looked adorable and clearly sporting her own look.
Fuschia, who is originally from London, is a mural artist who specializes in trompe l’oeil. Her public art projects have been featured nationwide, commissioned by various councils including Luton, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Southampton, Isle of Wight, Dorset and Poole. She has won two design awards for her subway murals in Luton, in the U.K. One of her latest commissions was for a school playground, which she completed in only five days.
Speaking of playgrounds, she seems to have found the perfect one for her creativity. When her husband had become a devoted “World of Warcraft” lover, she wanted something equally interesting, but more creative. When she learned about Second Life, she told him she was going there in search of a new husband. She was joking.
“I didn’t think about staying on SL and I certainly didn’t know about art being on here. It was actually four or five days before I discovered an art gallery. I wanted to find a way to bring my real life art in-world.”
The only way for her to learn how it was done was to talk to a gallery owner. She asked the procedure for displaying one’s art. A contact was offered and was helpful in sharing the technique for applying textures to a prim and displaying them on a wall. It took her a long time to learn, but in time she was given space to exhibit six of her paintings. The gallery owner then took a commission on sales and that’s how it all started for Fuschia.
Then came her desire to build. It took patience and endless hours to learn about basic building tools in Second Life. She didn’t experiment with sculpties for years. Rather, she made layered versions of her real life paintings. Gradually, she moved on to sculptures. Having rezzed her early work, I was simply amazed with “The Embrace,” a $900L sculpture with a lovely animated flame. This was no simplified version of early building art. It was a work of art in color and form. It really had a life of its own and only took her a few hours to create.
She tells me, “I kept getting invited to show my work at different galleries. I was always trying to create new work every time I had an exhibit anywhere. I did different exhibitions, one in Slade Gallery about five years ago. I did a sim wide installation about two and a half years ago. The theme was just black and white. It was a shame the installation was only up for a month. I was offered a permanent space for it in InWorldz. It was somewhat different because she didn’t have space on the ground for it, so I had to redesign it to put it in the sky.”
According to Graine MacBain, a true art lover and artist supporter, “Not Everything Is Plain Black & White,” was an interactive 3D installation which allowed the observer to feel as if she was in a surreal, dreamlike setting. By using the windlight sky, the installation offered a “foggy” element, further enhancing the virtual mood. Fuschia took it a step further by offering skins, shapes and clothing so that one could be an animated part of the environment.
Photo courtesy of Graine MacBain
Graine described “Winter Outlined,” an installation created by Fuschia, hosted in her Gallery Graine’s Sculpture Garden parcel, Jan. 12-Feb. 2, 2013.
“I had known Fuschia for years and she had shown at my main gallery before, so when I thought of having a separate parcel where I could host larger art works, I thought of her,” said Graine. “She created a domed winter scene centered on an iced-over skating pond surrounded by fenced snowbanks, trees and a large snowman. There was also a giant icy winter goddess to preside over the scene. It was somewhat like being in an old black-and-white photo of winter fun. In addition, Fuschia created several avatars, skaters and winged-fairy skaters. She encouraged visitors to wear and participate in the interactive art, as is Fuschia’s specialty. These avatars were either free or available for a small fee in a gallery set up for the purpose, where copies of almost all the pieces in the installation were for sale.”
–Photo courtesy of Graine Macbain
Graine noted that a unique feature of the avatars was that they were scripted to skate and they lacked facial features. They simply appeared to be outlines of the human form that when worn appeared to be “a living sketch.” Nearly 30 avatars attended the event at one time, many were popular SL musicians and artists.
A search in Second Life’s Marketplace will allow you to experience her art. Featured are several versions of electric dancers. You’ll find them in neon yellow, pink and blue. She even has an invisible outlined purple fairy to satisfy your whimsical personality. I believe it was featured in the Full Sim Art series at LEA 6 entitled “Fuschia’s Fantasy Fairyland.” Her wearable art “Tempest” dress vividly illustrates her “wild and free” nature in purple tones, which include not only the dress but jewelry, as well. As a way of featuring her real life watercolor paintings, Fuschia used her illustration software to cutout leaves from one of her paintings and reworked it into the base layer of a dress. The leaves swirl upward as if a wind rustled them from their fall blanket on the ground.
If you have the opportunity to check out Fuschia’s work, do so. You won’t be disappointed.