Art in Second Life – Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

The Art of Gradient Mesh in Second Life

Posted on July 27, 2026 by Inara Pey

*Galeria Danae: Bjarni Danae – The Art of Gradient Mesh*

Gradient mesh is a technique for creating complex colour transitions across a surface. Using a grid of adjustable control points, or nodes, it allows multiple colours to blend smoothly in multiple directions such that they flow and create a sense of shape, light and shadow far more organically than is possible when using more traditional linear, radial, diamond or angular gradients, where the transition is along a line or radiating from a single or central point, and with much finer blending than might be achieved using blur gradient.

Within graphics design, gradient mesh can be used in things like user interface design for apps and web pages, through to creating digital art in a rich variety of styles and genres, and with extraordinary depth. It is a technique particularly effective in producing photo-realistic digital art.

This latter use is amply and marvellously demonstrated by Bjarni Guero Danae (Ominur) at his Galeria Danae, home to his exhibition The Art of Gradient Mesh.

Set within a modern, minimalist skybox space, this is a comprehensive collection of gradient mesh art not just because each piece has been created using the technique, but because each image is shown with its corresponding mesh of control points used to give it colour and depth. Thus, we see both the art and the means by which it was given its final form.

From musical instruments to human studies, cars, bottles, flowers, headwear and more, Bjarni presents the rich tapestry of opportunities the technique presents to create the most eye-catching art. I particularly found the pieces featuring musical instruments particularly engaging, given the eye and skill for manipulation of control points to generate a piece of art might be likened to the skills involved in reading music and playing an instrument.

Some of the pieces are so reach in depth, colour, form and presence it is hard to consider them anything but photographs of real objects. Just take the four images of drinks to the left of the bar or (my personal favourite, given I use one to warm to warm the alcohol – usually kahlua -when making a liqueur coffee!) the brandy warmer, together with the image looking up at a sculpture.

As to why he creates gradient mesh art, Bjarni gives a personal reason as rich and approachable as the pieces on display:

Gradient mesh work makes the world disappear. It makes noise go quiet. It challenges my creating problem-solving, and being good at this helps me be better at everything else. Yes, it is time-consuming … But at the end, it is the satisfying feeling of accomplishment. It’s what I do to relax after designing for others all day long.

Those are perfectly understandable sentiments; because of them, we are all able to enjoy the pieces displayed at Galeria Danae not just because of the manner in which the reveal the structure of gradient mesh so vividly, but because they are all genuinely and uniquely works of artistic refinement and beauty.

Do be sure to visit!

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Galeria Danae (Peaceful Land, rated Adult)

A Notable Art Gallery and more in Second Life

Posted on July 27, 2026 by Inara Pey

*Notable Art Gallery, July 2026 – click any image for full size*

The delightfully named Perspective Doodles is a Full private region leveraging the Land Capacity available to those regions to present a Group-held setting with multiple elements from ancient ruins through a town-like commercial district and a games-focused spa, and an art gallery.

It was the latter – the Notable Art Gallery – which drew me to the region. The work of Nyte Vargas Siegel Setner (Nyte Vargas), the gallery is designed to offer a rich mix of Second Life and physical world art and photography, poetry and special exhibitions and challenges. And it is extremely well organised and presented.

Sitting within its own garden space, the gallery occupies an imposing conservatory comprising six major rooms all connected by glass spaces and built around two ornate fish ponds. Five of the main rooms and the linking glass-enclosed walks present art, with the foremost room forming the Gallery’s foyer.

The gallery’s programme is a mix of collections by the artists in residence, together with themed exhibitions and and art-related challenges. A schedule on the latter two can be obtained from the desk to the left side of the foyer when entering, along with a Group joiner for those wishing to be kept appraised of future events, challenges and activities. To the right of the foyer is an second desk promoting the artists in residence, all of whom have their collections displayed through most of the rest of the conservatory.

To the rear of the gallery is a lawned garden with some seating space, together with a wall area to one side of the main building which I assume is for outdoor displays – perhaps seeing use during the themed exhibitions and art challenges. I also gather there will be a further exhibition space for child avatars as well.

Beyond the gallery, the region offers several more areas which might be explored, including a town-like commercial distract and the spa mentioned above, the building of both the spa and the town having a Tudor look to them. The spa has a mix of table-top and playable games within it, but being honest, I didn’t really spend too much time at the spa (or the town) – other than to make may way down from the spa to the beach tucked away below it and to spot the 7 Seas Fishing tucked away below the commercial area.

This is because I was somewhat more attracted by the land separating the gallery from the town and spa, together with the ruins to the north-west of the region.

The former comprises both open grazing and a fenced paddock, the open area given over to horses some cattle and a wandering stag saddled for riding, while the fenced paddock is home to more cattle and quietly grazing sheep. Although the saddled stag cannot be ridden, the small stable to one side of the field does offer a horse rezzer for those who would like to take a ride, and there is a bubble rezzer sitting alongside the stable if those wishing to float around the region.

*Perspective Doodles: paddock, July 2026*

However, the most interesting feature of the open field is the gathering of four glowing portals around a central raised plinth with a spiralling blue light. While the portals may not be actual teleports, they add a sense of mystical intrigue to the setting; why are they here? who might have placed them so, and for what reason?

Meanwhile, the ruins – which can be reached directly from the Gallery’s garden via an archway on their west side – have their own mystery. They are called the Ruins of Eiralith, although I have no idea if this is an intentional reference to The Beginning after the End or not.

Aged, some with their facing weathered away, guarded by dry stone walls and standing in their own grounds, the ruins have been repurposed into an open-air cathedral for hosting weddings. Wisteria is draped over walls and beams giving the ruins a romantic feel, and I particularly liked the lone arch sitting at the head of steps leading up from the main ruins, standing as if it is the last remnant of a great bell tower.

The mystery of the ruins comes in the form of strange, luminous fungi growing in corners. The growths cast a soft, otherworldly light over their immediate surroundings and their presence adds an otherworldliness to the ruins. Close by, a group of standing stones gives a further sense of antiquity to this part of the region.

If I’m totally honest, I couldn’t help be feel that the commercial area was perhaps a little at odds with the rest of the region, largely because of the great expanse of the cobbled base on which it stands.

To be fair, I’ve no idea if it is still a work-in-progress, but my impression was that it could do with more to break-up the expanse of cobbles: maybe planters and young trees growing within tree grates and some seating. But that is a personal view; the position of the commercial area is such that it doesn’t overpower the rest of the setting to the point of distraction.

Overall, and as noted above, the gallery is excellently presented with the art rich and varied. The care put into the schedule of exhibitions and events should hopefully encourage repeat visits, and I hope such activities will also be advertised through the likes of the .:SLArt:. Group – something I would most certainly recommend if this is not already the case.

Similarly, the Ruins of Eiralith offer a focal point for photography and quiet, gentle exploration, with a particularly charming place to sit on the very edge of the northern cliffs and offering a view down to the remote beach below. Both the gallery and the ruins make for an engaging visit to Perspective Doodles, with the pastoral feel of the fields and livestock add their own touch to the region.

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Notable Art Gallery and surroundings (Perspective Doodles, rated Moderate)

Bamboo’s The Core – Murky Sphere in Second Life

Posted on July 24, 2026 by Inara Pey

*SLEA1 July 2026: Bamboo Barnes – The Coire – Murky Sphere*

I received an invitation from Bamboo Barnes to visit her SLEA installation The Core – Murky Sphere. Bamboo is, as I’ve frequently noted in these pages one of the most vibrant, evocative, provocative, and emotive artists displaying her work in Second Life; I’ve never failed to be intrigued and fascinated by her exhibitions for multiple reasons.

With The Core – Murky Sphere, Bamboo offers something of an enigmatic installation; there are no notes from the artist supplied to offer thoughts or ideas, just a single poem and a hint of a theme in the accompanying biographical notes. And this is good, as it leaves the mind uncluttered when entering, free to consider the art and the words of the poem and those Bamboo offers following it.

However, before getting into things, do note that this is an installation best viewed under the Shared Environment and on a PBR enabled viewer. Draw Distance does not have to be high (around 64 metres will suffice), and if graphics quality can be pushed up to around High, so much the better.

The arrival point sits with a tunnel, the way ahead marked by a series of avatar studies by Bamboo. Two red spheres sit alongside the arrival point and, when touched, will supply a copy of the poem and Bamboo’s biography. Both should be taken and read. Beyond the tunnel, the installation opens out into the interior of a large cube.

On first viewing, this appears to be chaotic; 2D art and shapes mixing with 3D geometric forms including a cube-within-a-cube (with more elements within) and what what might be a square stage, and seemingly random appearances of the poem. However, this is entirely in keeping with the thread of theme Bamboo offers for the installation in her biographical notes: a visualisation of emotions. Because is not a tumult of emotions we can so often feel – particularly in response to something – the most chaotic of experiences?

This is reason enough to consider the installation: a personal exploration through art of often tumbled nature of our own emotions. But there are perhaps other interpretations lying within it and revealed according to our own outlook on life. For example, one that occurred to me is that the installation seems to also speak to matters identity and alienation, of hatred / anger expressed by some for the somehow-threatening differences they see in others, differences expressed within the installation by the repeated use of images and forms.

This is because the majority of the poem seems to speak of separation, of alienation and isolation, be it by choice or by being a member of a clique in which it is easy to subsume personal doubts and fears by giving vent to anger and the dismissal of others on the basis of their differences, their beliefs or outlook or thoughts. In doing so, it is possible to feel safe, strong – and even “cool” when among those sharing such views. For those encountering these attitudes it can be disturbing, thoughts and emotions on the encounter rising unbidden long after occurred, just as the poem itself appears several times amidst the art of the installation.

The words accompanying the poem, meanwhile, serve as a reminder that the differences we see in others are not failures or weakness or something to be scorned / feared; they are the very things that make all of us unique – and perhaps better and stronger as a whole. Through acceptance of such differences come opportunities to learn, to grow, to find common ground and end the negative separation created by anger, fear and hatred and find more in the way of harmony together. As the final line of the poem itself notes: separation, anger, fear lead a person nowhere – but that doesn’t stop those whom they would shun and reject from caring about them.

But again, that a personal reaction to The Core – Murky Sphere; there are obviously others (another that came to my mind was more in line with the idea of self-reflection, but I’ll say no more on that here). So this being the case, you should take those two paragraphs above with a degree of scepticism and put them aside when visiting The Core – Murky Sphere, and allow it to speak directly to you unencumbered by any preconceptions.

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The Core – Murky Sphere (SLEA1, rated: Moderate)

Cica Ghost’s Visiting a Friend in Second Life

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Inara Pey

*Cica Ghost, July 2026: Visiting a Friend*

July 19th, saw the opening of Cica Ghost’s latest installation in Second Life, to which she kindly sent me an invitation to pop in and see. Entitled Visiting a Friend, it presents a bright colourful setting in keeping with the summer time, one mindful of a coastal region and memories of visiting the beach (or sea-side, if your prefer).

This is a place of grass and sand, where rowing and fishing boats bob on the waves and storks wade the shallows. Sand dunes rise from the grass, some of them topped by sand castles, and one by a row of brightly-painted sea-side houses reached by a ladder and home to some of Cica’s art, whilst overhead giant balloons (on which you can sit) float.

Watching over all of this is a – literal – blue whale complete with a little house on its head. The latter is a cosy little place with a comfortable bed and happy flower in a pot and a slightly curious cat-like pet. It appears to be the home of a little duck going by the picture on the wall and the little chap outside.

Also watching over the setting is a sand-built lighthouse atop another sand dune complete with the keeper’s cottage on the neighbouring dune, reach via a bridge. However, it is at the top of the lighthouse that accommodation might be found – albeit watched over by a toothy spider.

It’s all a happy scene, one not even spoiled by the presence of an erupting volcano given it seems more intent on throwing firework-like trails up into the air rather than bringing forth lava. All of it sits under a starry sky in keeping with the quote Cica has chosen for the installation:

Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they are there.

And who – or what – is the (good) friend(s) in question? Well, anyone who went to the beach during childhood likely has happy memories of those occasions; memories which are as much comforting friends as they are recollections. And like the stars in the sky, while we might not always think of them, they are always there, just waiting for us to remember.

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Visiting A Friend (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)

Scylla’s reflections on transition at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on July 20, 2026 by Inara Pey

*Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, July 2026: Scylla Rhiadra – Thou Shalt Not be Burned*

I have said it before, and I will doubtless say it again: Scylla Rhiadra is one of the most gifted communicators in Second Life. Her ability to use art to convey ideas, feelings, realities and truths, and/or to expose concepts and ideas and encourage the grey stuff between the ears to fire on all available cylinders, is second to none.

In the years I’ve been covering Scylla’s work, I’ve always been utterly engaged by its depth and commentary – possibly to the extent of at times putting words in her mouth, so to speak, via the articles I’ve written here.

Using her own avatar as a model, Scylla creates images of a captivating depth and style, allowing individual pieces to be appreciated purely for their artistry and framing. But when taken with her ability to observe and comment upon the human condition, they become visual essays by which she conveys her thoughts and reflections.

I have been seriously focused upon photography in Second Life since 2018. Most of my work has been avatar-centred, because I’m particularly interested in the ways in which we can represent the “human” in a digital simulacrum: how can we retain the things that reflect the complexity and uniqueness of “real life” identity – emotions, connections, our dynamic engagement with the world – in a simulation that, to varying degrees, constrains the expression of these things?

– Scylla Rhiadra on her photography

Such is the case with Thou Shalt Not be Burned, a collection of her Second Life photography built around the notion of transitional moments in life – the form they might take, how they impact us and the time and how they might be looked back upon with the passage of time. Presented at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas, it offers a further chapter in a collection of works vivid in both their presentation as images and through their context as commentary.

The title for the piece is taken from Isaiah 43.2. In context, the verse holds much value to the subject; however, it also perhaps initially obscures it behind thoughts of a religious-themed exhibition – which this is anything but.

Life is a series of transitions. Some – the major seminal moments of change such as leaving our parents’ home to start life independently of them, or getting married or starting a new career or engaging in a new means of creative expression, and so on – are the ones we perhaps most readily identify. These events so often feel like they are the cliff-hangers, if you will, between one chapter of life and the next, and because they are so impactful of the moment, they can feel as if they are the moments of transition in life.

However, whilst these pivotal moments can have some of the greatest impact on us, the reality is life is really a continuous flow of transitions, many of them small and quiet, seemingly incidental at the time they occur: the making of a friend, a small moment of discovery, a quiet daydream. Moments which flow as a part of living such that when they occur, we may not even recognise them or the changes they invite; instead, we transition in the most subtle of ways.

I’m also interested in exploring ways of making the digital art we produce here something that is in itself a little unique — neither documentary screenshot of a “gaming” platform, nor pallid imitation of art forms (photography, painting) in real life. Can SL art become its own thing?

– Scylla Rhiadra on her photography

Such is this subtlety, we are perhaps unaware of it until a conscious effort is made to look back, be it over months, years or even decades, brings with it the realisation that some of the most enduring changes in our lives originated and grew out of those chains of moments, small and quiet and completely unrecognised at the time they occur, which forge us without the heat and flame of change, and make us who we are.

Through the pieces offered within Thou Shalt Not be Burned, Scylla offers up a series of pieces in celebration of these small moments of change and the settings and surroundings in which they might occur. Perfectly framed as simple moments in time, each one carries its own brief narrative of an event, an action, the appearance of a memory – quiet transitional moments within the everyday flow of life.

Finally, I am interested in Second Life photography as a means of storytelling, which I conceive of as a dynamic and creative dialogue between “artist” and “viewer,” in a way that seeks to dissolve the boundaries that too often narrowly define those two roles.

– Scylla Rhiadra on her photography

There is a richness and depth within these pieces which speaks to us. Transition is not merely the sudden eruption of a singularity around which our lifer suddenly reforms; it is a galaxy of moments, of the progression of life through experience, of growth through the most natural of events faced every day.

Once again, a truly marvellous and deeply engaging exhibition from one of Second Life’s most engaging photographic artists.

Note: Thou Shalt Not be Burned officially opens on Monday, July 20th, 2026 at 12:00 noon SLT with music by DJ Magda.

SLurl Details

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (Sunshine Homestead, rated Moderate)

MORPHSIS: art and the question of what we are, in Second Life

Posted on July 19, 2026 by Inara Pey

*Subcutan Gallery, July 2026: Sophie de Saint Palle – MORPHOSIS*

I am fascinated by the idea that the body does not reveal a person’s character, but that the mind creates its own form. The anatomical transformations are therefore neither physical deformities nor products of fantasy. They are metaphors—visible traces of inner states, thoughts, and attitudes.

– Sophie de Saint Phalle (Perpetua1010) on MORPHOSIS

So reads part of the introduction of MORPHOSIS, a collection of 11 pencil and ink drawings on cotton rag paper, exploring the contrast between outwards appearance and inward nature by Sophie de Saint Phalle (Perpetua1010), and which opened at her Subcutan Art and Architecture Centre on July 15th, 2026.

We all like to consider ourselves balanced individuals with a broadly positive outlook on life, capable of meeting the challenges of life good and bad with a solid, well-adjusted ability to manage.

But this is not always the case; people can be overcome by darker, more negative feelings and emotions to the point where that well-adjusted balance is lost. Instead, the likes of fear, hatred, anger, fanaticism – even jealousy and despair can become the driving forces of their lives, either as one all-consuming outlook, or in some combination or other. It is not always obvious that a mind has been so affected; not when considering a person’s outward appearance.

But what if there were? What if deep-seated negative feeling and thoughts, were to be manifested in our appearance?

Within MORPHSIS, therefore, Sophie offers-up drawings of the human body which are not perfect and devoid of the classical lines of beauty one might normally associate with such studies; instead, they are marked by subtle imperfections. Their purpose is to act as a leaping off point for our imaginations within the context outline above: that of negative imbalances of the mind becoming visible. In viewing them we are asked not to see their imperfections as being part of the artistic process, but rather as the darker inner self writ large for the world to see.

Within this context we are then challenged to ask ourselves: If my mind, my imperfect thoughts, were to be manifested in my appearance, what form would I take? What might I see reflected in a mirror?

A layered, personal thought experiment through the use of art, MORPHOSIS is an an intriguing, well-presented and challenging exhibition. My thanks to Sophie for the invitation to visit.

SLurl Details

MORPHOSIS, Subcutan Art and Architecture Centre (Cobian Lane, rated Adult)

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Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they are there.

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I am fascinated by the idea that the body does not reveal a person’s character, but that the mind creates its own form. The anatomical transformations are therefore neither physical deformities nor products of fantasy. They are metaphors—visible traces of inner states, thoughts, and attitudes.

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