NMC Campus Observer

Filthy Fluno Splashes the New York Times

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Mar 9, 2009 08:51am

Our friend from NMC, Flithy Fluno, has just been covered in a 5 (web) page spread in the New York Times, see Portrait of an Artist as an Avatar.

Filthy Fluno was born into Second Life on May 20, 2006, created — or in game parlance, “rezzed” — by his human counterpart, a Boston-area artist named Jeffrey Lipsky, who says he designed Filthy as an “urban prophet/vampire figure” who is “impossibly short, impossibly thick and with impossibly big hair.”Lipsky is 37, a mild-mannered art-school grad with a traditional painterly mien. He can’t quite explain why he, a short, white Jewish man, chose a short, snaggletoothed black avatar, except to say that part of the fun of recreating yourself digitally is that every option — switching race, sex or even species — is gloriously open. Compared with Filthy, Lipsky is a touch unglamorous but also a little more real. He has a short, trimmed beard, often smells of turpentine and listens to Iron Maiden as he works. He lives with his wife, Anya, in Tyngsboro, Mass., and until 2007 worked as the executive director of a small arts organization, doing his painting only at night and on weekends in the basement of his suburban condo.

If you recall, almost 2 years ago, we had Flithy on NMC Campus for a live session, where he shared with us his art process, describing the evolution of a painting his real life avatar did for NMC. We mixed the audio from that session with a video Filthy had shared with us showing how he created the artwork.

23.3 Mb QuickTime

We are proud of Filthy’s recognition for his art work in Second Life being featured in the New York Times, go Filthy Fluno!

Story filed under: Campus Headlines

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