The other day I talked to quadrapop Tree, an incredible artist and one of InWorldz’ busiest people. Quad always has a project going on and I’m honoured she took she time to talk to me for this blog.
I’ve met people in InWorldz who wondered whether quadrapop is a girl or a guy because sometimes she roams the grid as a male avatar, sometimes as a female avatar. Personally, I don’t care. To me she is one of the most talented artists I’ve had the pleasure to meet.
The two faces of quadrapop.
Leanna Caerndow: You’ve been a huge part of the IW community, especially the art and the adult scenes – for 5 years and 8 months! What made you come to InWorldz?
quadrapop tree: In short LL 😉
Leanna Caerndow: Haha!
quadrapop tree: In 2010 I was looking for an alternative to SecondLifeâ„¢ that would be a good fit for my art practice, a place where the grid gods were a bit more responsive to the residents, and where the security and technical situation was a bit better than OS Grid (which i had explored in 2008-9).
I checked out a lot of the alternative grids and settled on InWorldz – liked the attitude of the founders. Not looked back.
Leanna Caerndow: I’m glad you stayed 😀
You’re a person who does a lot for bringing people together – events and art fests. Was it challenging to get started with that here?
quadrapop tree: Initially, I came to InWorldz to simply build and make my own stuff – happy to share it if and when…However my reputation preceded me and in 2011 Jeri Rahja and I started talking about doing an art festival to showcase all the cool work being made by people in InWorldz.
I had been founding curator of the UWA Art Challenges in SecondLife™ and a lot of the visiting artists and many InWorldz residents knew of me from that challenge. So helping Jeri with organising and running the Dreamz & Visionz Art festivals was easy.
quad’s gallery on Railroad Valley in InWorldz
Leanna Caerndow: When you create, what inspires you?
quadrapop tree: Oooh many things. I have a real life art and design background – my influences there are far and wide as well as very local (my local country).
In virtual worlds I found a place to make what would be really difficult to in real life so in a way the very building tools and scripting functions are my inspiration here.
Leanna Caerndow: I forgot about scripting! I learnt a lot from you – you gave classes, too, on how to reduce lag and particles.
quadrapop tree: I like to play with the abilities we are given – prims, sculpties, light, transparency, glow, and recently the projected lights and bump/shiny effects that come with “materials”. Since i was 4 weeks old in SecondLifeâ„¢ I have been helping others with what I know.
In 2008 I was a SecondLife™ mentor till they closed the programme. I helped real life friend Ember Farina to start and then did estate management for Fantasy Fair in SL from 2009 to 2013. I seem to be a born teacher and like sharing what knowledge I have with others
Leanna Caerndow: Wow, that’s amazing! And I agree with the born teacher statement – you are.
quadrapop tree: From all that estate management and lag reduction for Fantasy Fair I learned a LOT and so brought that with me to IW and share information that will hopefully help others see IW to the best of their system’s abilities.
I have to say a big Thank You to my real life partner CaptainCrunch who has taught me a lot about the technical side of [virtual worlds] over the years and without whom I’d not understand anywhere near as much about what creates or reduces lag in this environment.
Leanna Caerndow: There are a lot of myths floating around about what causes lag, so it’s definitely nice to have someone who can explain to people what really helps.
Glowing Cycad with Lens Flare
Leanna Caerndow: I LOVE what you do with particles
quadrapop tree: That one is a really old piece. [Glowing Cycad]
Leanna Caerndow: I’ve seen it before, still love it.
quadrapop tree: From 2011 but has been one of my best selling ones since then.
Leanna Caerndow: It’s cheap O.o [100 I’z] Why so cheap? I asked Tiana [Genesis] the same question. I can hardly believe that someone sells their art for basically nothing.
quadrapop tree: I settled on a price point that anyone can afford. Well, when you can sell thousands of copies of the same item for no extra effort why charge so much that only a few people ever bother to buy it ?
Leanna Caerndow: That’s a good point.
quadrapop tree: I see InWorldz as a cheap art studio and gallery space. I spend less in InWorldz a month than I would for a week of studio space in real life.
Random Shimmer
quadrapop tree: And I don’t have to give 20-50% of my earnings to a gallery. For that matter an InWorldz sim is about what it would cost to go out for dinner in a restaurant here so i see it as a good social option too 🙂
Leanna Caerndow: Where does the fascination with particles come from?
quadrapop tree: Oooh I think that might be from a visit (actually many visits) to Jopsy’s particle palace in Second Life ™ and where i picked up all the information.
quadrapop tree: Do you have advanced lighting active? If so you can see the effects of materials on the floor here. Cam or move around and you will see rainbow effects on the floor.
Leanna Caerndow: I see them, it looks lovely. [in quad’s gallery on Railroad Valley]
quadrapop tree: I have a small demonstration set up down the ‘back’ of the sim which shows what people are missing who cannot see advanced lighting.
Leanna Caerndow nods, everything looks so much more realistic…and beautiful.
quadrapop Tree
Leanna Caerndow: You like to play with gender, right? I’ve seen you in a male avatar many times (a very attractive one >.>)
quadrapop tree grins, Yes, I have had a fluid avatar appearance since day one in Second Life ™.Though these days i am getting old and lazy and seem to end up female more often than not (Mak [her partner]may have something to do with that).
quadrapop tree: I rebranded QT Wearables as Atelier Adagio last year. Will be moving to a lifestyle branding of the jewellery (but that means a lot of work :P).
The Prefabs store will slowly fill… the display level is a mess atm, lol. Never moved a sim so slowly in my life but i don’t seem to mind in InWorldz 🙂
Leanna Caerndow: I love the trademark quad rainbow colours.
quadrapop tree: It is a bit of a trademark of mine. I’m an ex graphic designer and worked in advertising once upon a time.
Jewellery Set made by quad
quadrapop tree: Skyrah [Rose] and Lexxy [Moore] came with me from Dolphin Bay [quad’s former region] and Thoth Jantzen joined us last month. He is an old artist friend of mine from SecondLifeâ„¢ who was in InWorldz briefly a few years ago.
quadrapop tree: TPs to all the venues are available from he sim centre.
quadrapop tree: You can see how far I got with the sim build…Here ends civilisation…
And over here…advanced lighting and ability to see materials advised 🙂 Try a few different dark windlights and maybe turn on show transparent so you can see the light sources.
Leanna Caerndow: Oh wow that’s gorgeous!
quadrapop tree: I gave a copy of the big disk to EC [Events Coordinator] for the birthday bash Materials display.
Ooh Shiny!
Leanna Caerndow: It’s so soothing
quadrapop tree: Lots of people say that about my work.That or “who needs drugs”.
Leanna Caerndow: By the way, that’s something I love about your artwork. I haven’t seen a single one yet that I didn’t find soothing and gentle.
They invite to keep looking, almost meditative. This piece is definitely meditative to me.
quadrapop tree nods. That’s the idea: Stop and actually look. I like messing with minds:)
The works are a “thing in and of themselves”. Like a piece of nature.
Ooh Shiny gif
Leanna Caerndow: So you made this with specular maps ad projection lighting?
 quadrapop tree: It would be cool if the lighting effects could be transferred to dreamshare. { http://inworldz.com/dreamshare.php }
Hmm I should put ALL the jewellery on it, lol. I suck at doing the marketing things.
Leanna Caerndow: Most artists do
quadrapop tree: Like a plumber with leaky pipes 😛 Hell, I should be good at it, having worked in the industry. But pfft, only if someone pays me, lol.
Leanna Caerndow: Yes, you do it for everybody else but yourself 😛
Leanna Caerndow: From art to adult: You were a big part of the adult community, you created the adult hub – what made you create it?
quadrapop tree: There was a lack of a central place new residents could go who were interested in the more mature aspects of virtual worlds. I was seeing a lot of people arrive in InWorldz and due to mentor restrictions the mentors were unable to answer their questions directly about adult activities or items. I hoped to be able to set up a HUB from which adult creators and adult item users could connect.
Lots of interest but when it came to the crunch of actually adding their info and/or items … not so much 🙂 Story of virtual worlds. Even the creators want some one else to do all the work for them.
Leanna Caerndow cringes. I had a spot there, though!
quadrapop tree: You did! And a few did but not as many as actually existed.
It was fun while it lasted 🙂 and I had help from a lot of really good people.
I still think hub sims for each of the main areas of interest with free advertising for all who want to come fill a info panel would be a GREAT idea.
The Drepressionsphere
Leanna Caerndow: Do you have any big projects or plans that you’re working on?
quadrapop tree: Yes, I am working with Tiana Genesis and Moontan Valeeva on the Southern Charm Dreamz & Visionz Art festival.That will be taken care of in the next fortnight.
And I am also working on a commission for the winners of the Art Auction at Toys 4 Tots (which got delayed with the sim sale and move here). Also putting final touches to a reallife collage book I started at Christmas (search my twitter for #Dexfiles). https://twitter.com/quadrapop
Leanna Caerndow: Oh wow, that’s a lot of work!
Quad then teleported me to her work platform above her sim to show me some of the things she is working on.
quadrapop tree: I build mock ups of ideas I have for a real life house we would like to eventually build. We have a 2000sqm block in the hills above Perth and will one day rebuild.
So this is a VERY ROUGH volumes only model
THIS is one of the reasons I keep a sim. In a day I can have a walk through version of a building without the fine detail of a real architectural rendering but with more detail than I can manage with pencil and paper.
We got distracted and talked a bit off the record and I forgot to thank her for taking the time to answer my nosy questions.
Prism Starfish – left: front. right: back side
Quad’s private spot on Railroad Valley
Fae Sky Court – IN addition t her art and jewellery, quad also sells prefabs, like the one pictured above. Her prefabs are not all fantasy themed, she offers stores and even an entire mall but…I am naturally attracted to everything fantasy themed 😉
Jewellery by quadrapop Tree (Atelier adagio)
Photos taken by quad, available from her gallery
Photos by quad, also available from her gallery on Railroad Valley
Living In Worlds 