Category: Art in Second Life

Currently open at The 22 ArtSpace, the boutique gallery operated by Ricco Saenz and Randy Firebrand in Bellisseria, and running through until January 20th, 2022, is a fascinating selection of 14 photographs by DeCarlo Maxim (ReDDeE Hian), someone whose work I don’t think I’ve previously encountered.

Known in the physical world as DeCarlo Hoyte, and hailing from Montreal, Quebec, DeCarlo offers the fourteen pieces within the exhibition – entitled The Art of Living in.adHD – as a photo-essay in living with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). As such, this is a very personal series – but one which is also very approachable –  in which he takes a unique and engaging approach to his subject.

ADHD is a condition affecting behaviour;  those suffering from it exhibit restlessness and difficulties in controlling behaviour, trouble concentrating or in staying focused, and may act on impulse. The disorder tends to be noticed at an early age, with diagnosis generally occurring when children are between 3 and 7 years of age (although it can be diagnosed much later); it tends to be triggered as a result of a significant change in circumstance – such as moving to a new house / neighbourhood or when starting school. For many, the symptoms tend to improve with age, but for around one-third of those afflicted, symptoms can continue through adolescence and adulthood.

As there is no single cause, ADHD is considered to be a result of an interplay between genetic (70%-80% according to the Journal of Learning Disabilities) and environmental factors, treatment tends to be highly individual and focuses on a range of potential one-to-one and / or group therapies and the possible use of medication.

Within The Art of Living in.adHD, DeCarlo offers a form of self-therapy whilst also offering us insight into his interactions with ADHD. However, he does so in a special way: rather than using his avatar, he offers photos taken in the physical world which utilise toy characters as their focus. In doing so, he achieves a  number of things that really help draw the visitor into these pieces.

Firstly, by using little characters rather than his (or other) avatar(s), he avoid these pieces being taken as simple avatar studies in which looks, fashion and setting are the focus. The use of these little characters also subconsciously reminds us that ADHD does emerge as a childhood disorder, and can radically and lastingly impact the child’s trajectory through their young life. Finally, he can, as an adult, offer thoughts and insights into living with ADHD in the most subtle but direct means, sans the risk of character expression misleading the eye and mind.

Each piece carries with it an emotional content that in some is immediately and heart-rendingly apparent (e.g Always There, Lefted Out), and in others offers a sense of amusement and fun whilst still containing a deeper message (e.g. the I Am Grooot images, young Groot being a personification of ADHD behaviours, whilst always being repressively positive in his outlook on life).

When viewing this exhibition, I do recommend you start on the ground-floor rooms, and after seeing Groot on the upstairs landing, go to the room immediately to the left of the top of the stairs (between Summer Dip and Self Reflecting), before moving to the room behind the stairs-top, which to me presents the two images that crown this exhibition in terms of their visual and emotive content.

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• The 22 ArtSpace (Grenouille, rated Moderate)

Currently open at Terrygold Art Gallery (TAG), operated and curated by Terrygold, is My Little World, an exhibition by Karma Daxeline (Karma Weymann).

Located within an environment recognisably put together by Terrygold, and which is itself expressively minimalist and softly reflective of the exhibition’s title, give the sense of moving through a unique world, this is a selection of 20 avatar studies by Karma which might be said to offer a journey through her life within Second Life and a reflection of her love of photography (an additional frame within the exhibition offers the opportunity to view further pieces of Karma’s art).

Each picture offers a vignette; a single-frame story focused on Karma’s avatar. However, these are not your typical avatar-centric stories. Karma has a natural gift for presenting scenes and settings that are at once minimalist in feel and look, yet deeply expressive of mood; that are characteristically atypical of the normal avatar studies so frequently seen, and all the more richer in content and tone for it; and which offer seemingly ordinary activities laced with the more extraordinary sense of humanity, life and – in some – sensuality – which all again reach far beyond the more usual focus of avatar  expressiveness.

Utilising considered angles, focus and cropping, together with a very real understanding of the power of colour mix or monochrome scale, lighting, and use of shadow, all combined with a lightness of post-processing touch, the twenty images resent within My Little World are among the most richly expressive I’ve seen within Second Life, both in terms of the narrative each contains and for the way the pieces individually offer subtle counterpoints of style and idea within them.

In this, Karma’s art is marvellously supported by the environment Terrygold has provided: the islands of green and autumnal browns, floating as they appear to do within a night sky, suggest moments in time and life, just as do Karma’s surrounding images. And by sitting with those parts of the environment where seating is provided, we can indirectly become a part of Karma’s little world.

When visiting, do make sure you have Advanced Lighting Model enabled (Preference Graphics check Advanced lights Model), and use the teleport disk from the landing point to reach the exhibition space.

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• Terrygold Art Gallery (Peaceful land, rated Adult)

Almost two years ago, Melusina Parkin presented her first collection of avatar-centric images.  Just Melusina was very much an experimental collection; as Melu noted herself at the time, portraiture and taking images of her avatar were entirely outside of her focus (no pun intended), her work to that point being largely directed towards landscapes, architecture and design.

However, Melu is a uniquely gifted artist; she has the ability to identify angle, eye line, subject and focus to present intriguing picture in which it is possible to define a single line of narrative or dialogue that naturally leads one to perceive a story far broader than the canvas, and which at the same time can draw us along subtle lines of thinking. In bringing these techniques and approach to portraiture, Melu presented series of self-studies which, while obviously set and posed, were nonetheless utterly natural in style and tone, and completely captivating in their potential to tell stories – as I wrote at the time.

Now, two years on, Melusina has returned to the subject of self studies with Fading Melu, a collection of images centred on her avatar and with the same rich potential for weaving stories – but which are very different in tone and approach; something she set out intentionally achieve, as she noted to me as we discussed the collection just ahead of its September 10th, 2022 opening.

Comprising some 23 pieces Fading Melu offers portraits which are linked by three major elements: they are mostly set against a dark background; they carry a sense of being over-exposed; they utilise a depth of field that ensures both subject and backdrop (where visible) are intentionally out-of-focus.

This latter point might sound counter-intuitive; sure, depth-of-field can be used in many ways – most obviously by “fading out” a backdrop / the “less important” and either focusing the eye on the foreground subject or the specific element within an image that caught the photographer’s eye; but to blur the entire image, subject and all? After all, and as I noted in writing about Just Melusina:

“Traditional” portraits tend to be exercises in power and / or ego, however subliminal. The subject and their pose is what counts, the clothes they wear, the backdrop to their sitting, etc., are all merely accoutrements to the central theme of look at ME. Even self-portraiture can follow a similar route [so] the end result tends to be the same: to push their audience into a single track of emotional response. 

Thus, in blurring each image within Fading Melu, Melusina is literally blurring how these portraits might be perceived, and so potentially making their narrative harder to define.

But in doing so, Fading Melu – to me – achieves two goals. First, because subject and background are both equally out-of-focus, we cannot so easily discern what may have driven the thinking behind each one’s composition and presentation. Thus interpreting them becomes much deeper and more personal, our reactions formed more by our own outlook and perception rather than any subtle hints in direction presented by the artist.

Second, Fading Melu might be said to offer a commentary on the human / avatar relationship. Our involvement in Second Life brings with it a certain investment in our avatars; for some, this can be superficial in terms of how our “real lives” permeate our avatar in terms of looks, behaviour, etc; for others the investment can run very deep. Either way, the fact remains that no matter how we try, we can never fully inhabit our avatars; there is always something of a divide between avatar and self. Thus, through their intentional out-of-focus finish, these are pieces that might be seen as offering a subtle underlining of this entire “me / not me” dichotomy.

Thus, within Fading Melu we have another multi-faceted collection of images capable of stirring the grey matter, and which serve as a superb expansion and enhancing of ideas first seen within 2020’s Just Melusina.

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• Melusina Parkin – Fading Melu (Time Portal, rated General)

In April, I wrote about an exhibition of art featured as the opening exhibit for The Antiquorum Art Gallery within Patch Thibaud’s stunning Hanging Gardens region build. Entitled Landscapes – My Personal View, the exhibition featured the art of long-term Second Life resident Alexa Bouras – although I believe it marked my first full exposure to her work (see Alexa’s personal view of Second Life). I was immediately captivated by Alexa’s work for its reichness of content, style and narrative and noted at the time that I looked forward to seeing more of Alexa’s art.

Well, I’m pleased to say that wish has been granted – for all of us – as Alexa has a new gallery space, one still located within the Hanging Gardens of Babylon region, but occupying its own skybox as provided by the region’s holder, Cristabella Loon. Alexa was kind enough to drop me a line about her new artistic home over the weekend, and as soon as the opportunity arose,  I hopped over to take a look.

Offered as a spacious cube with a mezzanine level to one side, the skybox provided to Alexa is of a modern interior design highly suited to her art, with a central water feature on the lower floor and a sweeping, suspended staircase rising above it to reach the mezzanine. This split in floor space allows Alexa to display her work in different formats and sizes, with large pieces displayed along the walls of the more “open” space to the front of the skybox, and smaller more intimately-sized pieces displayed along the walls of the lower floor beneath the mezzanine and around the mezzanine itself.

The art presents a rich mix of styles and subjects, including the Second Life landscapes-processed-as-paintings I found to be so richly evocative with Landscapes back in April 2022, together with pieces which can be regarded as drawings and / or etchings (notably the uttering captivating Anya’s Awakening, which is simply gorgeous), and those which are, by dint of angle, focus and subject, beautifully intimate in their content.

By “intimate” I do not necessarily mean they are avatar studies and / or in any way NSFW;  quite the reverse, in fact. These are pieces focused on what might be regarded as the mundane, the often unnoticed or the everyday, but in a manner which grants them their own unique beauty and story through Alexa’s use of angle, focus, colour and depth of field.

These pieces are most obviously found along the back wall of the mezzanine level, where sit two absolutely delightful pieces captured at Longing Melody (see: Visiting Longing Melody in Second Life) which tell as entire story about the life and work of an artist, together with a third piece from the same region which I guarantee will capture the heart of any piano player (including myself) for the way it captures the story of these majestic instruments.

With their tight focus and unique perspectives, these appear to be part of a further evolution of Alexa’s artistic expressiveness and her growing mastery of a medium which she has come to out of a need to express herself creatively, rather than the application of skills and knowledge initially gained through the physical world. It’s a growth in techniques which I find admirable within a Second Life artist (particularly as my own attempts remain decidedly one-dimensional!), offering as it does new avenues to be explored by both the artist and their audience.

Utilising the region’s day / night cycles, with point lights to illuminate the art during the latter (so do make sure you have Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) enabled via the viewer’s Graphics Preferences!), Alexa’s Art Gallery makes for a genuinely engaging visit, presenting the opportunity to view (and purchase, if you’re so taken) the art of a very visual and engaging Second Life artist.

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• Alexa’s Art Gallery (Hanging Gardens of Babylon, rated Moderate)

A while back, and via Owl Dragonash, I received an invitation to explore (and possibly participate in) the Art Trail at Corsica South Coasters. While I have not directly participated, I did finally manage to get my bum and feet over to Corsica and take a walk along the Art Trail – and enjoyed doing so.

As the name suggests, the Art Trail is an open-air walk along the southern coast of Corsica, winding its way between the Corsica Tourist Centre and Tea Garden and Port Emyniad, with the former noted at the starting point; although there is no reason why trail-walkers can start from the Port and follow the signs backwards – there is no order into how the path is followed and the order in which the art is viewed.

It’s a route that takes in a number of sights along the south coast of Corsica, including gallery spaces at Port Emynaid and Ceakay Ballyhoo’s gallery (Ceakay is one of those – along with Owl, Catori Mistalker and Bijoux Barr – responsible for the trail) and others, as well as the trail itself marked both by trailside signs and mounted art from participating artists, either just for exhibition purposes or for sale.

The walk takes about 5-6 minutes when going directly from point-to-point. However, such is the nature of the walk, coupled with the opportunities to witness the art on display both along the trail and within the many studio galleries, and well as catching other points of interest along the way.  Doing so can draw a walk out into a very pleasant stroll, with the route itself home to a number of teleport station that provide access to additional points of interest within Corsica.

The Art Trail is intended to be an “eternal” art display (although pieces and galleries might naturally change over time), and artists from across Second Life are invited to participate along the trail-side art frames. Artists wishing to have work displayed along the walk can do so by:

• Select one piece of their art as both a texture an a framed / on canvas piece of part – both to be set to Full permissions.
• Send the art and texture in a folder to Ceakay Ballyhoo, together with the following:
  • If the art is to be sold – the permissions to be set against the art if it is to be sold & the price at which it is to be offered.
  • A copy of your biography as an artist and / or information on the art you would like to share.
• Ceakay will then set the art up on one of the available art frames along the trail.

Any question about the Art Trail should be directed to one of Ceakay Ballyhoo, Bijoux Barr (bijouxbarr) or Catori Mistalker.

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• Corsica Tourist Centre and Tea Garden (Laserlight, rated General)
• Port Emyniad (Emyniad, rated Moderate)