There is a lot of moaning in stories and blogs about SL that for a virtual world of endless possibilities, most of what goes on lacks artistic merit. There is some valid truth to this notion. A great deal of Second Life centers on people fulfilling very modest escapist fantasy. They build their dream home on a tropic island with palm trees and waterfalls. They open a little mom & pop store. They slip into trendy, flirty clothing and type naughty words to total strangers. It’s all pretty mundane if you put it up against, say, the Italian Renaissance.

Of course what is left out of that comparison is that not every Florentine of the 15th century was a Medici. Most of them were just ordinary people – peasants, merchants, farmers – toiling through the hours with their families and their chores to get through their days with as little hardship as they could muster. My best is that most of their daydreams involved pretty things they’d never own, fine houses they’d never live in, and attractive mates they’d never lie beside. There was only one guy dreaming of painting masterpieces on ceilings. That’s why we remember him.

Not everyone can be an artist and not everyone is stirred to create art. No matter how much PR we lend to slogans like “you can be anything you put your mind to” the truth is that most people’s attempts at art is mediocre. The world is full of half-rate musicians, wanna be painters and bad poets, and usually the worse they are, the more desperate they are to share their mediocrity with you. Second Life (like the real world) is overflowing with art — it’s just that so much of it is unremarkable that we don’t recognize it as such.

So where are the artists? Well, they’re about. There are creative, glorious builds, pretty baubles, fascinating visuals, and wonderful music hidden among the less remarkable fare. The ratio of gifted folk to average folk is about the same as it is in the real world. But just as you might attend a local theater group when Broadway isn’t in your backyard, some people in SL choose to celebrate the simpler pleasures. So I squee over pretty dresses and others play with make-believe pirate ships.

Art is not easy, and having vision is not always a pleasant gift. Being driven to create can consume individuals and wreck the lives of those around them. Creating art is also generally an expensive obsession – especially for those who strive to be superior. Instruments and tools are not free, and, while having an SL account might be, having a blank SIM for a canvas certainly is not. Having $2000 to drop on a SIM and $200/month to upkeep it might seem cheap to some people, but I’ve known lots of artists in my time, and believe me when I tell you that they’re not the people you call first when you need to borrow a few bucks.

The good news is that the fundamental core of all art is communication. Artists themselves often don’t realize this because some (writers, painters, illustrators, etc) often develop their skills in isolation. Performing artists have higher profiles and more interaction, but still have a barrier between them and their audiences. Still, creation is about imparting something of yourself into a medium, and allowing it to speak things that cannot be spoken. Expression and communication will always be married, and commerce will always be their double-edged inlaw.

And while it may get lost amid the virtual strip clubs, make-believe mansions, and other amusements that distract us from the ins and outs of daily life, there is communication, expression, and commerce at the heartbeat of all that is Second Life.

It’s okay to pine for Michelangelos amid the prints of dogs playing poker so long as you don’t forget that it’s a paint by number world and the people who color outside the lines are vastly outnumbered. Even here in metaspace.

I know many people who would snicker at the notion of establishing a blog under the guise of a digital persona. For these people the terms “real life” and “online” have solid separation. The grocery conveyor belt of their virtual and meat-based selves have hard plastic spacing bars that make sure their mental and physical sundries do not overlap.

Having no such borders to speak of, my “real life” and my “online” existances are very blurry at their edges. This is likely the result of being a thirtysomething, single spoiled shrew of some education and experience who was born into the privileges of living in an industrialized nation that allows such opportunities as working from home via teh interwebs. My meat and my metaverse are all intermingly and scream like wet cats over the notion of being ranked or pulled apart.

So, Ms. Salome Strangelove, who is an established presence in the online world of Second Life is the author of this blog and it is her voice and her mind that speaks here. To what extent Salome is a part of her typist’s whole is something neither of us are quite sure of any longer. And, for the record, yes, the notion that both of them might be barking mad has been presented for consideration and is not completely ruled out.

Such schisms of the human mind are common, even if we do not always recognize them. In the “real world” most people do not don the same behavior at all times. Different groups of business associates, friends, or family can alter our manner. In teenagers and online circles this is called “influence” (as in, “I don’t want you talking to that tramp anymore, she’s a bad influence”) but usually it is simply referred to as “appropriate behavior.” I could go on, but by now you either know what I mean, or you don’t. I’m sure far more brilliant minds than mine have written plenty of psychobabble and published thesis after thesis on this little nugget of the human oddity.

In summary, this is Salome’s blog, established as a place to voice ideas separate from (but I’m sure often related to) my SL business ventures. It may very well end up a short lived vanity experiment, but just now it’s a forum for brainstorming and expression. Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.