Hypnagogia by Jaime Poutine

MindScape-artist Jaime Poutine is, according to her own words, "a traditionally-trained mixed-media artist based in Dallas, Texas. While having been an artist for most of her life, she has been working primarily with alcohol inks since 2016.  The various properties of alcohol (as opposed to water or oil based colors) work very well to create vibrant paintings that resemble landscapes, ethereal shapes, and visions that only the mind can understand. 
In the MindScape series, Jaime has created a number of works which resemble colorful scenes and phrases that she has seen and heard during hypnagogic hallucinations, a resulting symptom of her narcolepsy.  which is a brain disorder that causes a person to be unable to suppress REM (dreaming) sleep.  These vivid dreams that can occur at the twilight stage between waking and sleeping are often very realistic and strange.  Every phrase on the pieces in this series were spoken in a voice that did not seem to be her own, but originated from somewhere else within her own mind.  Generally these voices speak kindly or violently depending on circumstances in her waking life. As you can see, the mind can be a very strange place."
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/94/179/1003 .

Lena Kiopak: Mindfulness

Lena Kiopak says about herself: "SecondLife is a beautiful, virtual world, but it is always fleeting. Places come and go...sometimes within the blink of an eye. I love to explore and discover new, exciting sims, and try to capture special moments before they eventually disappear. Some of these special moments are the perfect feeling for the MindScape project, such as Mindfulness. I have been enjoying SL for more than 8 years, but only recently started sharing my photographs. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do."
And her statement concerning her contribution for MindScape is: "Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.
Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.
SL is an amazing platform for mindfulness. Because there are no physical barriers to how we feel, behave, or act, we can be our true selves in SL and explore new feelings and emotions. My SL photographs are such examples, since they portray specific events and how I was interpreting my feelings at the time.
I hope you enjoy, and embrace your own mindfulness in your SL adventures."
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/85/186/1003 .

Fluer Heartsdale: Freeing The Brain To Explore

The artist Fluer Heartsdale Chun says about herself:
"My journey into art began many years ago as a child while watching my grandmother paint. I experimented with many different mediums before falling in love with photography. Photography allows me to capture the world as I see it and show it to other.  When looking around my eye is drawn to the hidden and often overlooked common objects that surround us. With the aid macro lens I am able to capture and bring to light that which is often overlooked. My current work involves close-up photography of frozen water (ice) which when viewed by the naked eye looks clear or perhaps cloudy but generally without any color. With my macro lens I am able to take close-up photos which show that there is much more to ice than is visible to the naked eye.  In the future I will collecting water from different sources to freeze and photograph, so that I may document any difference in how they freeze and photograph."
And this is her comment about her MIndScape-pictures: "When we look at "traditional" art the brain immediately classifies and categorizes the artwork we are viewing such as "landscape, pretty colors, lots of trees" or "flowers......pink roses, yellow tulips".  All of this is done in a blink of an eye, without any conscious thought on our part.  When we look at abstract art it doesn't instantly fit into a predefined category allowing our brain to explore and search.   We will start to see things in the artwork based on memories, favorite literature, or movies.  Abstract art encourages  the viewer to slow down and give our brains the freedom to explore the depths of our memories.  That freedom  to explore our brains allows each person to form their own personal connection with the art they are viewing."

  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/60/163/1003 .

MindScapes by Xirana Oximoxi

Xirana Oximoxi / Nuria Vives is our first artist in the 2D-area; she says:
"I’m a Catalan artist. My works reflect my concerns and my different moods. They are based on my experiences and express a personal sensitivity nourished by impressions from the external world and my internal world. In this latter sense, I like to call them abstractions or  'mental landscapes'. The works reflect the influences of impressionism, expressionism, abstract expressionism, etc."
Mindscapes by Xirana: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/78/150/1003 .
"Can we see the landscape hidden behind the eyes of a lost child surrounded by destruction? Through our eyes we fuse and dissolve gradually with the world around us, losing our distinctive outline. These works show some human faces that become 'transparent' to let us have a glimpse to our inner landscapes, to how our experiences and environments come into us to shape our thoughts, our feelings and emotions.
I usually work with different mediums, oil, watercolor, acrylic, ink, charcoal and pastel.
SHOP
You can purchase original Art works, small format, at my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/es/shop/NuriaVivesArt ".

Aural Blossoms by Artistic Oluja / Littlewing

Littlewing (Artistic Oluja) is another artist participating in the MindScape-project and has created an audio-visual sculpture with the following explanation:
"This piece is inspired by the idea that music evokes a map of emotions in our brains, as demonstrated in a recent study https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327430#2-different-cultures,-similar-responses. The research mapped different emotions that are evoked by listening to different types of music, as demonstrated in this interactive neuro-map here: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~acowen/music.html#
"Aural Blossoms" is an visual-audio experiment in which I've played with a collage of colourful textures, incorporating kaleidescope patterns I created out of second life snapshots as well as music visualization wave patterns produced in the iOS beta app "Endlesss." The idea is to portray the sensation of music that blossoms in your headspace, evoking a landscape of emotion as you listen to different sounds that guide your mood.
The music was created in the iOS beta app called "Endlesss," By my artist name Littlewing, in collaboration with other musicians (Mostlyjustj, Modulargrey, Theau, Thesaxophonewarrior)  using multiple looping tracks that overlay each other and are controlled by user interaction in Second Life. The Endlesss app also produced visual wave forms which have been incorporated into the texturing of the piece. Special thanks to Zzyzx for his kind help with the scripts :)
Click the individual rings to turn individual layers on and off, click the lower half of the installation to dance inside the rings.
Hope you enjoy it."
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/145/95/3686 .

State Of Mind by June Clavenham

June Clavenham was born and lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. studied art with Alamón, Montani, Aroztegui, and Taller Subte. She studied photography at Taller Aquelarre and had exhibitions at both private and goverment facilities. She says about her work in Second Life:
"Many years ago digital art grew on me as a new and innovative way of expressing, as it is created in a non traditional way and seen in a different media.  Initially based on fractals, and using different software to bring shapes and colors to a new dimension, I am interested in exploring the options brought to us by the development of technology.
I had exhibitions in many places dedicated to art in SL, including UWA and LEA".
Her contribution for MindScape is a sculpture called "State Of Mind" and her comment says:
""State of Mind” intends to be a visual representation of how the thoughts we choose to entertain in our minds affect our emotions, the way we perceive our realitiy, the way we interact with others, and in general, all of our being and our lives":

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nice%20Atoll/114/80/3686 .

iSkye Silverweb and her art installation "Visible Rhythms"

Another MindScape artist is iSkye Silverweb. She explains her installation as follows:

"For most people, this is a world full of sound: birdsong, voices, engines, and music. MindScape is a perfect project to demonstrate just a little bit of the experience I have, navigating in a silent world.

For me and others who are deaf like me, the world is filled with seeing and feeling. With this installation you may get a taste of how people living in a world without sound come to see the rhythms of life. We can "see" many of the sounds that you hear."

iSkye is Deaf since birth in RL, and has been creating art since childhood. She studied art at university, but graduated with a different degree, she is driven to create and express herself through art, mainly in drawing and painting, weaving in RL and 3D installations of various sizes in SL.