The people and the passion: Sayumi reflects on the community of individuals brought together by the UWA 3D Art Challenge

I note two things with interest and excitement on our blog today. Firstly, the wonderful excerpt from the interview with Laurina Hawks (previous post to this one) concerning her recent win in one of the UWA art competitions. Laurina's humility as she saw others winning lesser (but of course still highly commendable!) prizes , not anticipating that she could possibly win 'the big one', illustrates what I have found in speaking to so many of the art community I have been privileged to meet - here we have individuals with talent abounding, who could be expected to be proud and aggressive in their pursuit of victory, but who instead are real, vibrant human beings with fully rounded personalities and amazingly gentle manners in dealing with others. The artists are often as beautiful as their art. I mean that in more than one way - their character and humanity is inspiring; and their creation of themselves as virtual world beings in the physical sense is as breathtaking as their works themselves.

Secondly, I note that we have a new contributor to the UWA in SL blog, Ms Rowan Derryth. I hope that I am not pre-empting an official announcement by Jayjay Zifanwe, but a quick glance at Ms Derryth's own blog will indicate that we are in for a treat on the occasions she is able to contribute here. Not only the artists, but those who manage the art world in SL and who enable UWA's competitions to flourish and grow with a wide range of contributions, all make for as rich and enriching an art experience as one will find anywhere. As a tiny and wholly unqualified contributor to this blog, may I add my personal welcome to Ms Rowan Derryth - a welcome entirely personal and without any official standing, I hasten to add!

So I continue to be excited about my university's role in the SL arts world, not only for the art's sake but also in seeing the best in people as everyone works hard at their role. I look forward immensely to the judging and announcements of results again early in January. I hope to contribute here at least once more before that time, but may I also offer my own best wishes to all our readers for the coming New Year season!