Category: Art in Second Life

Alex Bader’s landscapes in art in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Alex Bader: Landscapes by Alex, December 2024

Alex Bader is a name in Second Life synonymous with some of the best landscaping kits and texture sets available for use in-world (his work also being available to other platforms as well). For my part, he is one of the two landscape and plant creators who are pretty much my go-to names in Second Life when it comes to landscaping, either at home or on behalf of friends (the other being Cube Republic).

However, what many among Alex’s friends and customers may not know – and I count myself as being in both categories – is that Alex is a skilled and high-regarded graphics artist and landscape painter in the physical world. As a graphics artist, his work has won international design awards and his clients have included the Scottish Ballet, Glasgow School of Art, the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow Art Fair, Glasgow Jazz Festival and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Alex Bader: Landscapes by Alex, December 2024

From the above list of clients, it is probably obvious that Alex hails from Scotland, where he became inspired by his father’s watercolour landscapes and love of the Scottish countryside. This stirred his own interest in and passion for both the Scottish countryside and expressing its beauty in art through both photography and painting, as well as contributing to his involvement in 3D graphics design.

I spend a lot of time enjoying the landscape, whether walking the dog through forest and on beaches or cycling in the hills and woodland of Scotland. So it’s almost inevitable that I feel the need to communicate the impact this has on me. Whether through photography, design or painting – the result is always the same process of observation, discovery and expression.

– Alex Bader, discussing his passion for art

As an artist, Alex has seen his images and paintings exhibited across Scotland, each piece finely crafted and exquisitely capturing scenes and places in all of their allure and elegance. Whilst his father worked in watercolours, Alex has come to prefer oils for his art, painting out of his studio rather than in the field, using reference images and sketches of the location he intends to reproduce on canvas. His work also ranges form expressive realism, rich in detail and beautifully representative of a subject, through to more abstracted landscapes.

Alex Bader: Landscapes by Alex, December 2024
In painting, my main aim is to convey the rich textural detail of the landscape using loose, expressive brushwork while remaining true to the colour and values of nature. Through this combination, I hope to engage the audience on multiple levels – to draw the viewer in to the scene with a real sense of place while exciting the eye artistically.

– Alex Bader, discussing his passion for art

All of this is now available for Second Life residents to appreciate for themselves, as Alex has opened an in-world gallery where limited edition digital copies of his physical world landscape art can be admired and purchased. Situated in one of Alex’s own building designs – The White Loft Skybox Interior Space (I should mention I am also a fan of Alex’s buildings, owning both his Beach House and Forest Cabin, both of which I regard as superb) – the gallery is a clean, no-nonsense space perfect for displaying art.

Alex Bader: Landscapes by Alex, December 2024

Pictures are displayed framed and sized to a realistic scale for home display in-world, with each piece limited to just 10 copies. As a particular piece is sold out, I understand Alex plans to replace it with another on the same limited edition basis. Given that each image is limited in number, purchases are not made through the displayed copy of a painting; instead, payment is made by clicking on one of white sales cubes located under each painting. As purchases are made, cubes turn from white to red and reduce in size, making it very easy to see how many copies of a given painting remain available.

Nor are people limited to just having Alex’s paintings in-world; the original oil paintings can also be purchased in the physical world as a part of a cross-over exhibition”. All of the originals are available via a dedicated part of the Studio Skye website,  also called Landscapes by Alex. As with the limited digital copies, each painting is individually priced – and this price includes international shipping costs (all painting sold unframed for ease of shipping).

Alex Bader: Landscapes by Alex, December 2024

Whether seen in-world or on-line, Alex’s paintings are a delight to behold, and will grace any home, physical or virtual, so do please be sure to hop along and see for yourself.

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The artistic beauty of Melancholia in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
NovaOwl, December 2024 – Raven Arcana: Melancholia

Raven Arcana is a gifted Second Life photographer-artist who is – rightly – highly regarded for her work. She frequently exhibitions in-world, often within ensemble exhibitions, as well a at her own gallery, Raven’s Eye Galley, which I had the distinct pleasure to write about in 2023. Such is the quality and depth of her work that it is always a pleasure to witness it, either as part of a broader exhibition of SL or as the focus of a solo exhibition.

The latter is very much the case with Melancholia, an exhibition of Raven’s work, hosted over the 2024/25 winter holiday season at the ground level gallery space at NovaOwl.

NovaOwl, December 2024 – Raven Arcana: Melancholia

Melancholia (or melancholy if you prefer), is a terms with a long an complicated medical history, its definition and understanding changing, at times being seen as a physical illness due to an excess of “black bile” (melaina chole) through various forms of mental disorder, often subjective in nature and description; within the last 20-ish years it has been described as a systemic disorder. All of which tend to leave us with a bleak perception of the word, generally relating it to depression.

Within cultural and literary circles, particularly from the latter half of the 16th century onwards, melancholy came to have an altogether different connotation, initially as a mark of genius – or, as English art historian Roy Strong came to perhaps unfairly calls it, “an indispensable adjunct to all those with artistic or intellectual pretentions”, before morphing again to hover between the darker, more depressive medical use of the term and one by which mood and feelings might be expressed or contained, notably those such as alone-ness, solitude, introspection, sadness, loneliness, and similar.

NovaOwl, December 2024 – Raven Arcana: Melancholia

It is very much with this latter aspect of melancholy  in which Raven presents the pieces in this exhibition. Beautifully presented in monochromatic and sepia tones and taken from locations around Second Life, these are images which wrap into themselves in the most beautiful expressions of minimalism, the more poetic reflections of melancholy noted above: of being alone, of being caught in reflection or introspection; of looking upon a scene wherein memory is triggered – perhaps that of sadness or maybe of a regret warmed by the memory of what came before the actual cause of the regret. Echoes of life, love, the passage of time, the echo of passing seasons, the journey through life; the loss of contact with those who may once have been a part of our passing days; all of this and so much more is similarly bound within these images.

Framed by comments from poets, writers and artists on the natural of melancholy in both its artistic and physical interpretations, each piece in this collection carries within it a depth far greater than both its minimalist presentation or which might be suggested purely by its use of perspective. Thus each carries with it a narrative of its own whilst also forming part of the overall opus of expression to be found throughout the entire series.

NovaOwl, December 2024 – Raven Arcana: Melancholia

A truly exceptional collection; one which, if not already witnessed, should not be missed.

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Art and The Fading Year in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Monocle Man Gallery: Vanessa Jane – The Fading Year

Now open at the main gallery at Monocle Man, is an exhibition of Second Life landscape photographic art by Vanessa Jane (VanessaJane66). While Vanessa does not limit her photography SL landscapes, it is this aspect of her work that I particularly admire, so I appreciate any opportunity to view and potentially review her exhibitions.

Entitled The Fading Year, the exhibition at The Monocle Man features images of the latter half of the year, with the autumn months located in the lobby area of the gallery and continuing up the stairs to the smaller of the two exhibition rooms, while the main galleried hall is devoted to regions caught in the midst of winter.

Monocle Man Gallery: Vanessa Jane – The Fading Year

Thus we have fields of fall’s gold (to play slightly on words), streets where leaves skitter in the breeze across cobbles or are pinned to the surfaces of roads by the rain, and crops await their harvesting; all separated by a short step from foggy winter mornings, trails blankets by snow, trees dusted by frost and lodges overlooking frozen lakes.

Presented in a large format and available for sale, these are pieces perfectly capturing autumn and winter and all that might be considered romantic about them. Each piece is cropped and framed to near-perfection (with some simply sublime in their framing – like The Horse through the Trees), and very much suitable for hanging in any Second Life home. Some of the regions in which they were taken will likely be familiar to Second Life travellers, other perhaps less so; however, whether the location itself is recognised or not doesn’t really matter; just enjoy the beauty of each piece.

Monocle Man Gallery: Vanessa Jane – The Fading Year

An engaging and seasonal exhibition.

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Monocle Man Gallery (Club Hub, rated Adult)

Adwehe’s Alienated at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated
I think that you will all agree that we are living in most interesting times. I never remember myself a time in which our history was so full, in which day by day brought us new objects of interest, and, let me say also, new objects for anxiety. 

Joseph Chamberlain, during a speech in 1898

Some believe that the above quote is most likely the root for that hoary old “Chinese curse” may you live in interesting times – the “interesting” being an ironic metaphor for “times of trouble”. This is quite possibly apocryphal, given there is no similar curse in Chinese; however, Chamberlain’s original words have never really ceased to have meaning in the 116 years since they were first uttered.

Indeed, given the state of play in the modern world: wars, invasions, authoritarianism rearing its head even here in the west, pseudo-Christian nationalism, the open “othering” – or alienating – anyone daring to go against the perceived political doctrine. Perhaps more particularly, we are living in an age which is, more than ever before, being shaped by the second part of Chamberlain’s 1898 statement: we are faced with new objects of interest, which are increasingly new objects for anxiety, due to the way they have been used to amplify misinformation, divisiveness, false nationalistic pride and that over-arching alienation of differing values / belief systems / viewpoints.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated

In this, two of the most obvious objects of anxiety being used today are social media and AI. With its global reach and ease of availability, coupled with the relative ease with which it can be manipulated both directly (fiddling with the underlying algorithms) and indirectly (flooding with bots), social media is perhaps the most manipulated channel of mass consumption in the world today; whilst with its shallow artistic derivativeness and raping of genuine art, AI has become a primary means of reinforcing falsities through visual manipulation whilst corroding objective creativity.

It is thought like these which have been foundational to Alienated, an exhibition of art by Adwehe, which forms the final exhibition for 2024 in the main hall at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated and operated by Dido Haas.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated

A multi-faceted expressionist artist working in 2D, 3D lighting, colour and sound, Adwehe uses Alienated to understand two intertwined ideas: the aforementioned ways in which tools such as social media are being used exploitatively for the benefit of a few and the detriment of the many; and her own entirely natural unease at the way tools such as AI all too often stifle genuine creativity and alienating us from genuine originality by presenting us with shortcuts to an end result by way of derivative re-use of elements and ideas appropriated by copying any and all digital images in the world.

The way in which she does so is through both artistic counterpoint and revelation through words. The images presented through Alienated are in no way dark or foreboding as one might expect from my statements above; nor are they laden with excessive narrative. Instead, they are rich in colour and free-flowing originality. As such, they speak out against the demands of black-and-white uniformity of thinking (where even grey edges of thinking are not permitted) and speak to the beauty of genuine creativity and artistic thinking AI simply cannot replicate – but all too often can smoother.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated

At the same time, the words of the accompanying text speak to the love / hate relationship which can evolve around such apps and tools. On the one hand there is promise of new worlds of information, engaging potential for expression and exploration of technique and abilities; on the other there is the fear of the unknown and the anxiety of having to “start over” when faced with a new tool and library of content, leading to a sense of self-alienation with one’s own creativity.

Thus, the text adds a further layer of meaning and insight / interpretation to Alienated, marking it as a multi-layered collection of images which are engaging both individually and within the overall context of the exhibition.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Adwehe: Alienated

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Cica’s Snowflakes in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cica Ghost: Snowflakes, November 2024

Cica Ghost is back with a wintertime setting to see out 2024 with Snowflakes, and in doing so, offers us a little insight into the fact that even snow monsters appreciate a little warmth on cold winter nights when the stars shine brightly.

In a darkened world where hills rise like comical bumps a cartoon character might suffer after taking a bop to the head, birch tress point boughs bereft of leaves towards the nigh sky, as if trying to to pull down the blanket of stars to wrap around themselves and stave off the cold. All around, snowflakes drift towards the ground to join their siblings already there.

Cica Ghost: Snowflakes, November 2024

Night-time can be one of the most magical times to witness gently falling snow when the wind is calm and the air is fresh; there can be a wonderful sense of mystery, particularly when walking through wooded land  – and believe me, as one who has partaken of late evening walks through the park adjoining my home, walking under naked tress and over the bridges panning the local stream, I speak from experience!

But here, among these trees, are other wonders to be found. This is because, with the Sun long set and darkness all around, the local snow monsters have come out. Although in fairness, “monster” here is more due to a matter of their scale rather than any wicked intent on their part. Indeed, and as noted all they are seeking a little of the forementioned warmth – both the kind born of a warm fire and the kind from friendly companionship – or having a little fun building a snowman.

Cica Ghost: Snowflakes, November 2024

These chaps clearly mean no harm (although beware the falling snowballs near some of them!); one even looks a little looks a little unhappy and lonely on the cold night, possibly because there’s a nice little house close by (one of a number sharing the landscape) which could well be a lot warmer inside than it is outside – but he’s a little too big to get through the front door!

For those who like a little fun, there are Cica’s dances to be found and a pair of “snow rollers” to ride around on. The setting is accompanied from a quote from Lorelei Gilmore from the 8th episode of the first season of The Gilmore Girls, A show I’d never heard of until reading the quote – and subsequently finding the episode – love and War and Snow – is one of the most highly regarded of the show’s entire run. However, it expresses the mood of Cica’s Snowflakes perfectly:

Everything’s magical when it snows
Cica Ghost: Snowflakes, November 2024

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We Orange the World 2024, in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
We Orange the World 2024: Debra Katz

Monday, November 25th, 2024 saw the opening of the 2024 edition of We Orange The World, hosted by the Artsville Galleries and Community, and organised by Jerzzie Reece-Redstar. Featuring the work of 24 women from across Second Life, the exhibition is now in its 4th year, and is intended to run alongside the United Nations Women’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which runs annually from November 25th through to December 10th inclusive.

According to the  UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), violence against women  – notably femicide, the intentional murder of a woman or girl purely on the basis of her gender – is on the rise globally. In 2023 alone, the UNODC produced data which showed that every ten minutes through the year, a woman or girl was murdered by their partner or a member of their family, and one in four adolescent girls was abused by a family member. Nor is the violence restricted to physical abuse: psychological violence is a very genuine thing – one that can extend into virtual spaces as well, thus adding a further layer of relevance to We Orange the World.

We Orange the World 2024

The United Nations Women’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence was initiated in 1991 at the inauguration of the Women’s Global Leadership Institute, in an attempt to reverse the use of violence against women. It is used as a nexus strategy by individuals and organisations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. Initially a civil society initiative, the campaign has – since 2008 – been supported by the UNiTE campaign,  which runs parallel events with the aim of ending violence against women by 2030.

Within We Orange the World, now in its fourth year, artists have been invited to submit 2D and / or 3D art related to the general theme of the beauty and empowerment of women around the world. Entrants were asked to keep pieces positive, uplifting and empowering rather than negative in nature, otherwise subject matter and presentation were left up to the artists.

We Orange the World 2024

Participating artists for 2023 include: Blip Mumfuzz, Gwyn Evergarden, Duna Gant, Raven Arcana, Carelyna, Ilyra Chardin, Mareea Farrasco,  Dido Haas, Margo Hollak, Jaminda Moon, Selen Minotaur, Rhiana Rhiano, Sina Souza, Lori Bailey, Cana Restless, Masggie Runo, Marvayu Anante, Jerzzie Reece, Maloe Vasant, Scylla Rhiadra, Redi Bixchin, Tess Carfagno, Lizzy Swordthain, and Debra Kaz.

The exhibition area follows the same format as recent years: a central outdoor art display around the main event space as it sits under an appropriately orange sky (the use of orange and black through the setting, with other colours gently intruding, is striking in and of itself). This area hosts individual pieces by the majority of the artists as well as offering gifts to visitors.

We Orange the World 2024: Selen Minotaur

On the four cardinal point of the event / exhibition space, are are four indoor exhibition halls, each dedicated to larger exhibitions by Debra Katz, Selen Minotaur, Tess Carfagno and Ilyra Chardin; with Debra, Selen and Ilyra mixing 2D and 3D pieces in their installations. Finally, the four corners of the event area offer places of reflection, contemplation, music and remembrance.

We Orange the World traditionally includes daily events; unfortunately, no details beyond the first two days were passed to me in the invitation folder I received, and I didn’t find any information at the event itself. It is entirely possible such information is available of the event’s Facebook page, so if you have an account there (I don’t, so cannot confirm) do hop over and take a look for yourself there, just in case.

We Orange the World, 2024

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