Greetings and welcome to my Second Life~ One can find me roaming the forests of my home sim, Dark Moon. SL has been my home for over four years & Neph has been quite active inworld. So, welcome to my world!
So this is my good friend Zola Zsun! You can see her blog, Zola Novela, by clicking on the link on the left of this page! Zola’s great! We talk quite a bit, and are constantly modifying our skirts due to the fact that we don’t want to be skinny like the standard Second Life avatars. Well, the human ones at least. Though I must say, I see very creative women about! Not everyone is anorexic. Now I am feeling like I should be saying something extremely intelligent about how avatars reflect our mainstream culture of sexist lookism, but actually, I just wanted to talk about Zola.
Zola Zsun
So there she is. One night we were feeling silly and made a little zoo. Absolutely no reason except we wanted to take all our animals out! Now, you got to realize, this was a very silly thing, nothing elaborate. But a few friends did finally drop by and we all chatted and sat on hippos and things. Sometimes SL is just about hanging out and being silly. Hell, in my case it usually is!
You know? That’s not really true at all! Zola had a great a idea a while back for a Role Play Exposition. She is an educational design and technology grad student who works here in SL. So the idea was to have different role play groups display and demonstrate their stuff. You will have to ask Zola, but I guess the idea is to use SL for interactive, immersive and synergistic learning, not just each student clicking on things alone. Actually, my sister, Elle Bellah is in the field too. Now she is working on machinima for nursing classes. Anyway, Zola had this idea, and I got to do the terraforming!
Zola, Miss Wright & Me
Dramatic Terraforming!
Zola in all her glory
More terraforming
Each role-play group needed a space that reflected what they did, and it had to be parceled for media and music. If I recall, ultimately it was Pandora, Deadwood, Antiquity, Pern, Toxian City, and Renaissance Island. It was quite a well-rounded sample: three different historical periods, fantasy, science fiction, and a dystopia.
Gianfar
Pandora
Renaissance Island
Antiquity's Tea Area
Deadwood
Antiquity's lighthouse at the site
Toxian City's Miss Wright
After getting commitments from all the role-play groups, terraforming, landscaping, parceling and setting up, Zola decided we needed a tour and party! So I got Ragnarok Dragonash, my good friend to DJ and we set up a fun dance area too! Rag’s a great DJ, btw, he does Celtic music, on Fridays, at Sarras Village’s medieval tavern. Rag and his partner Katje Broek are my oldest friends in Second Life, and own the sim next to Dark Moon. ANYWAY... the tour! Now that was a gas! (hahaha~) Zola got stage fright! But I tell you she came through! We were on voice, and I walked her through the first stop, Toxian City. After that, all I had to do was type in chat, “FOLLOW THE REDHEAD!” and everyone trailed after her.
The Party
Follow the Red Head!
The dragons of Pern were particularly interesting because they gave a live role-play demo of a dolphin healing a sick dragon! I don’t know about you, but that’s something I don’t see everyday~!
Tiny Dragon Advising
Einy Marksman & Me watch
Zola is happy the dragon is healed!
So, as I said, for smart fun, FOLLOW THE REDHEAD Zola Zsun! Kiss, Zola : )
It’s true. Neph gets pretty sad when Luco is not around for a while. Usually, she turns quite pale. And being in this black and white mode of melancholy, Neph sought a like ambience. Prolly not the best idea, but that is what she did. Neph wandered sims that reflected her mood. First she came across Chouchou, and it felt like the end of the world. The cathedral was huge! Neph was lost and dazzled amongst the stairways, and bell tower. The view reflected her mood. This place was so big and empty. She had to continue on...
The End of the World
Silent companion
Neph sought solace at the sim called Immersiva. The name suggested she could escape here. Neph found a creature to befriend there. But she was absorbed in her fishing, and seemed unable to talk anyway. However, there was a show there. Sitting in the audience, Neph looked closely at the lone actress on the stage realizing she had no idea what the character was doing. Looking closer Neph could not tell if she was painting, or performing surgery, maybe calligraphy!
She was black and white like Neph, but again, the two remained in their separate worlds. Neph noted her boots where wet.
Her boots were wet
Flying on, Neph did finally find a place where she recognized the plant life! A Fae can always use a good ‘shroom to sink into.
ah
But she was so alone! Looking for signs of life made me tired. A strange horse offered me a place to rest, but Neph became uncomfortable with the arrangement, and carried on.
Neph discovered a view. This would do for a bit.
Things were becoming overwhelmingly surreal. Neph had to get things off her chess! But crawling through tiny doors, and sitting in big chairs only made things worse! Neph had fallen down a rabbit hole that seemed bottomless! Could not make a move! Caught like a fly!
Luco is out of town in RL this week, so I had to find something to do here in SL to occupy my time. I mean I have about run out of prims on Dark Moon, and I think I have my island set up the way I want it for a little bit. So I decided to go check out some of the artists whose work I have always loved. Here are some of my favorite artists in SL, and what I have found while exploring their work out and about!
Of course Igor Ballyhoo’s work has been up at Roadrunner for a while now, but I have to go back there often to play in these fabulous installations! I love his Axis Mundi, and often dance there! I call these pics my DANCES ON THE TREE OF LIFE. And here are some pics of his Scissor Forest too!
Igor's Scissor Forest
A Fae's gotta watch her wings in here
Look how HUGE it is!
Dancing on the Tree of Life
Me in front Igor's Axis Mundi
I also had to go see what was up with Sabrinaa Nightfire of course! I met her long ago at a photo contest at AngelGate. But she has a sim dedicated to art called Erato of Caerleon that she shares with other artists. Look how fabulously her Space Trees goes with my outfit! Hahaha~ Often her place just looks like candy!
I just love Sabrinna's work!
Speaking of candy, there was the time I terraformed and textured the temporary sim Celestia into an immersive Candy Land! Miso Susanowa graced the experience; which became a week long party with much of her art, including Radiant Stallions. Well, Miso loves sound! Obviously I cannot capture the sound her horses make in this pic. But suffice it to say, between the visual and the sound, Miso’s Radiant Stallions truly capture “The waves were coming in like radiant stallions..." - Patti Smith, Horses (1979), as Miso notes in talking about her experience of her childhood at the beach being recollected upon hearing Smith’s song! Of course, horses are sacred to the Greek ocean God Poseidon!
Miso's Radiant Stallions at sunrise
...then they broke on the shore
Radiant Stallions @ Celestia
Now don’t forget, I met many of these fabulous artists when I managed AngelGate sim. When AngelGate first opened, Bau Ur was the curator of the gallery. Bau is an artist in her own right. As I teleported out and about one night, looking for Miso’s work again, I found Bau and Miso chatting. It was so good to see them both again! Here is Bau and Miso. And you can also see some of Bau’s two dimensional works on the walls.
Bau Ur & Miso at Bau's Place
Oh and yes! If we are referring to candy, I gotta tell you, I own all of soror Nishi’s colorful and flowery head dresses! What fashionable Fae would not? But it is soror’s installations and towers and trees that really knock me out.
YUM! soror's tree makes me want candy
You have to see this!
One of my all time favorite pieces of work is by Alizarin Goldflake, queen of the mini intallation! I bought this one called Metempsyche’s Garden a while ago I liked it so much! As a matter of fact I have it displayed underwater at Dark Moon now. You can find it just south of the landing point. I encourage Merfolk to play in it!
Metempsyche’s Garden 2
Metempsyche’s Garden 1
Now Trill Zapatero is a painter whose work just knocks me out! What great colors and imagery! I found her studio on Artropolis, and just had to float around gazing at them once again.
Lounging in front of Trills paintings
Gazing at some more while floating
One more artist whose personal flair has inspired me is Wizard Gynoid. Whizzy had a show called Sacred Geometry at AngelGate too, but I particularly love her take on M.C. Escher. Tho as you can see, I did get sort of trapped by the giant lizard at Primtings. Hell, I could have been it’s next meal!
EEK! That could have been me!
Now I have a relatively new friend! I want to point out a particularly profound piece she made. I had to try myself at the University of Western Australia’s art show. The notecard that goes with this piece of work talks about the relationship between fetish and oppression. I think it is rather self-explanatory, but get the notecard. Theo is a great writer too!
Wings Crushed
Fainting in Theo's Fetish
A Fae Oppressed
Now make sure you go see some of these people's works! I just love them all! Being Art and About is fun.
