The October exhibition at Raging Graphix Gallery, curated by Raging Bellls, brings us a joint exhibition by Jamee and Matt Thompson, perhaps between known to many in Second life as Jamee Sandalwood and MTH63, who recently officially partnered in SL.
Both are well known for their photography depicting the sights and art of Second Life, their individual styles an engaging mix of the contrasting and the complimentary, depending on subject and – I assume – mood. Indeed, so complimentary are their styles that but for the tell-tales evident in some of the piece in this exhibition, and the occasional presence of a name in a canvas corner, all of the photographs offered here might be mistaken as being captured by the same photographer.
Jamee’s work encompasses several genres, including landscapes, avatar studies, fashion photography and abstract pieces, although her landscapes predominant here. These generally tend towards softer tones and lighting, carefully processed to give a genuine feel for the time of day that frames them. However, more recently she has moved towards what she refers to as”shadow photography”, using both the play of light and shadows to create elements within her images, while at times also leaning towards darker tones in over composition.
Matt has also built a reputation as a landscape photographer, again as evidence in the pieces included in this exhibition. However, were Jamee sways towards softer tones and post-processed finishes, Matt often tends towards sharper, cleaner lines and finishes that – even when portraying reflections on the water – give his work a more crystalline finish, one so sharp in places that it feels as if a brush of the fingers over some of the lines of his images might well cut the finger.
Raging Graphix Gallery: Matt Thompson (MTH63)
This sharpness gives his pieces a sense of life and realism comparable to Jamee’s work, one that like hers reaches beyond the digital realm in which they were taken to offer something very tangible, whilst that same sharpness mentioned above offers that subtle contrast to Jamee’s work, gently pointing to the fact these these are pieces produced by two individual artists, even as they are unified by subject matter and tonal quality that can unify them into a single exhibit.
This complimentary flow is perhaps seen in the four pictures along the longest wall of the exhibition space, in which two of Matt’s landscapes bracket two of Jamee’s pieces that lie within her more “shadow photography” approach. The contrast of hard and soft lines, be it through finish or the use of the shadows inherent within the location where an image was taken and the tonal qualities of all four pieces, even with the differing approaches to post-processing offer all four as a continuous whole, the eye running easily across them as if they had sprung from the one artist’s eye and hand.
Raging Graphix Gallery, Matt and Jamee
Engaging, bold, and with a personal touch through the inclusion of The Rings, a piece marking their recent union in Second Life, this is another excellent exhibition at Raging Graphix, and it will run through until the latter later of October.
Ruegen, October 2020 – click any image for full size
Ruegen is a Homeland region designed by Andre Nalin (ReizWolf) we were pointed towards recently by Shawn Shakespeare. It takes its name – and is inspired by – Rügen, lying just off the coast of Germany’s Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea.
At some 926 square kilometres, Rügen is Germany’s largest island. – and as such, potentially a difficult subject to represent within the confines of the 65,536 sq metres that form the land area a single region. So rather than trying to model it in whole, Andre has used some of the features it is noted for as his inspiration, and created a sandy haven; an island clearly in more northern latitudes, and with features of its own to attract the eye.
Ruegen, October 2020
Rügen is particularly noted for its coastline, characterised as it is by numerous sandy beaches, lagoons, peninsulas, headlands, and inlets and bays that project into the island. Part of this coastline comprises the Jasmund National Park, famous for its vast stands of beech trees and chalk cliffs like King’s Chair. Awarded the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, it is one of the locations paid homage to within this build: a line of cliffs mark the region’s south side, topped by tall Scots pines.
I can’t speak too much to the physical world Rügen as I only have Wikipedia and tourist sites to go by, so offering any real comparisons here would be a little pointless. However, this doesn’t matter, as the region’s design more than speaks for itself.
Ruegen, October 2020
The landing point lies on the east side of the island, just above a sweeping beach looking out over a cold blue sea – itself looking as one might imagine the Baltic to be. Two hills rise from behind this curving coastline, running to the west and another beach, a broad, shallow valley sitting between them. This valley is home to an ultra-modern house (a Cain Maven design that is eye-catching in its looks and has something of a Nordic twist to it).
Again, whether this is representative of the style of housing on the actual island is immaterial; it has a certain look to it that makes it a fitting subject for the region. It shares its space with a single greenhouse and a free-standing swimming pool that offers a break from the surrounding salt waters washing the coast. This house, looking down on the broad beach, is an automatic draw to the eye and feet, but I would note that while it appears to be open to the public, it sits within its own parcel, so could be private.
Ruegen, October 2020Two other houses can be found on the island, both on the beaches. There’s a wooden house standing over the coastal waters as the beach curves around the north side of the island, whilst to the south, where the sands split into a small, shallow bay, there sits a thatched cottage watching over working fisher huts and a small pier with a fishing boat moored alongside.
Outside of these three houses, the only other buildings on the island are a little café, also built out over the eastern waters, a ruined beach house to the north and a little gazebo up on one of the hilltops. The rest of the island has been left wild and and open to exploration; the hilltops are crowned by trees (and a home to a camp site and deer), whilst the beaches offer multiple places to sit, some watched over by horses that graze on the tough grass that has pushed its way up through the sands.
Ruegen, October 2020
All of this makes Ruegen both easy on the eye and an easy, relaxing explore.
The start of October brings with it the opening – on Monday October 5th at 12:30 SLT – another provocative exhibition at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated by Dido Haas.
Nitroglobus remains one of my most-visited (and most written about!) galleries because month in and mouth out, Dido encourages some of the most engaging artists to display their work there, and to do so within the frame of a theme she – or more usually the artist – has set. The result is that each most, Nitroglobus plays host to art that can provoke, evoke, emote, and engage on a level that I personally cannot help but find magnetic.
For October, the gallery is playing host to an installation put together by two artists working together under the banner of Dreamers & Co. They are Nette Reinoir (Jeanette Reinoir) – who is exhibiting her work within a gallery for the first time – and Livio Korobase, and they are supported in part by drawings from the portfolio of physical world Dutch artist, Redmer Hoekstra.
Entitled Animals on Earth, the installation is designed to encourage us to use this time of enforced pause in our lives courtesy of the SRS-COV-2 pandemic to consider what is happening to the world’s ecosystem – its flora and fauna – directly as a result of mankind’s impact on the planet.
Modern societies have been treating Mother Earth as if it was their property; extracting resources, polluting constantly, changing the landscape, killing the animals and destroying its natural balance.
Since the Industrial Revolution, humanity has killed 83% of all wild mammals and half of all the plants on Earth. Two hundred species of living beings are extincted every single day. We collectively need to change so many things in areas such as the use of plastic, meat consumption, contaminating energies, day-to-day overconsumption and more.
– Statement by the artists
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Animals on Earth
Now to be sure, statistics and figures need context, and those relating to “daily” extinction rates can be called into question, as they tend to be inconsistent. For example, in 2015 the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment concluded that perhaps some 24 species of plant, insect and animal became extinct either regionally or globally every day – but the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity put the figure at “up to 150”, a far larger number, even allowing for the “up to”. Other models present further differing rates, and all appear to be distanced from the fact that historically, we have “only” seen around 800 global extinctions of animals (land, air and marine), during the last 400 years.
However, this does not negate Animals on Earth‘s thematic message. The current epoch – the Holocene – is regarded as encompassing the sixth mass extinction level event (ELE) this planet has seen, the Anthropocene extinction; and event that is still very much on-going, and potentially accelerating. It has its roots in natural climate change as the Pleistocene period, with its rolling waves of ice ages, gave way to the warmer, wetter Holocene period, leading to the extinction of many of the large mammalian species that had acclimatised to the cold, dry ice ages, and an a matching marine megafungal extinction event that brought an end to many marine reptiles and fish due to changing sea temperatures.
But this period of extinctions was influenced by another factor: the rise of humans as organised hunter-gatherers, which gave rise to the first wave of over-hunting, accelerating the demise of many species. It was the start of a trend of human intervention and meddling in Earth’s ecosystem that has continued throughout the Holocene period such that within a few thousands of years, humankind has had one of the most dramatic impacts the Earth’s biomass has witnessed.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Animals on Earth
From over-hunting, to disrupting natural environment as a result of increasing agricultural needs (notably livestock rearing) through to large-scale urban and other development and its associated infrastructure and waste, humans have significantly altered the world’s biomass in multiple ways, own of the biggest being the distribution of mammalian life on Earth, which in 2018 was shown to be 36% humans, 60% livestock (notably cattle and pigs) and just 4% wild animals (source: The biomass distribution on Earth, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Nor does it end there; as the pre-eminent apex predator, human kind is regarded as a megahunter due to our predisposition to hunt and kill creatures pure for “sport” – an act that significantly increases the risk of regional (and even global) extinction of multiple species.
Thus, through our actions, we are directly responsible for continuing the Anthropocene extinction, and thanks to our broader impact on the climate, we are pretty much its primary driver. Our actions are bringing multiple species of fauna and flora and biota dangerous close to the edge of global extinction, we have irrefutably been responsible for many regional extinctions (rendering portions of the world and its oceans no longer habitable by species that once occupied them, even if those species survive to some degree elsewhere) over the last several decades.
It is all of this that Animals on Earth tries to encompass, and it tries to do so not by brow-beating with facts and figures or by doing so by being unduly heavy in its imagery, but by presenting us with images and models and interactive elements that in places fun (do make sure you kiss the frog) and which also serve to get the grey matter working, even if subconsciously.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Animals on Earth
Flow with the thoughts and you’ll discover nature illustrates the Creator’s powers, whoever he/she is. Most of us, however, fail to appreciate nature because we’re entangled in our fast-paced lives, and life’s problems cloud our minds from grasping its beauty and lessons. Climate change, overpopulation, pollution, unfettered urbanization, and wars cause disasters to the natural environment. Little wonder we see less of nature and more of guns, nukes, and bloodshed in our cities.
Statement by the artists
Rich in colour thanks to Nette’s images, and very interactive thanks to Livio’s models and scenery (be sure to mouse-over things carefully – even Redmer Hoekstra’s drawing are more than they seem – Animals on Earth encourages the visitor to consider Earth’s biodiversity as represented by the creatures with who we share the world, and presses us to imagine what life would be like in general terms were we to lose them.
With much to see and do – and to mull over / research – Animals on Earth officially opens to music by DJ Gorilla on Monday, October 5th, appropriately enough, and will remain open through the rest of October.
Paradise on Sea, October 2020 – click any image for full size
Paradise on Sea came to our attention via Shawn Shakespeare (who has perhaps the most unique talent for finding regions that are open to photographing / writing about). A Full region held by Bellita (Belle Onedin), it offers a home for her SL business, Heart Poses located on a sky platform high above the region, and a ground level that is open for visitors to explore and appreciate.
Set in summertime, the region offers a warming visit for those of us sitting in the northern hemisphere, where the weather seems to have decided to skip autumn entirely, and settled on scowling, rainy, winter-like days. Given this lean towards summer, Paradise on Sea is a bright, lush setting, full of greenery and with flowers – wild or potted – in full bloom to offer bright splashes of colour against the rich greens.
Paradise on Sea, October 2020
Although offering the “on Sea” in its title, the region has the appearance of being located within a landlocked lake, verdant hills cut by a single serpentine river surrounding its three islands. The largest of these, forming the bulk of the region, is home to the landing point – which is not enforced (in fact the coordinates found in About Land’s Options tab are actually off, and will drop you into the waters of the region’s east side) – is located in an old stone ruin that offers a teleport disk up to the Heart Poses store.
The landing point sits at the feet of a tall, blunt-topped peak of rock that rises from a broad base that mixes grassy slopes with pools of clear water fed from numerous falls that tumble from multiple points in its sheer faces. It’s a distinctive rocky mass, vying with the huge form of a wooden windmill sitting on its own rocky upland to the south, and a nearby cedar of Lebanon for recognition as the tallest object on the island.
Paradise on Sea, October 2020
From the landing point, a cobbled path points both north and south – the former direction leading to the open fields that wash tall grass around the base of the windmill’s rocky foundation, while the latter direction winds its way to the north side of the region and the shallow cove of a beach.
Here wooden platforms rise in individual tiers from the narrow lip of grass between the beach the the walls of the high peak, ladders linking them to provide the means to scale the heights, passing water that drops to feed the beach-side pools that don’t reach the lake but instead offer places for birds and ducks to take a drink. Climb the ladders and platforms, and they’ll take you to a point just below the summit where a hot spring resides – or for the daring, a hang glider can be launched for an aerial view of the region and its surrounds.
Paradise on Sea, October 2020
The windmill is not the sole building within the region: four houses await discovery by explorers, with three of distinctly Tuscan design, suggesting the region might be somewhere inland in central / northern Italy. Two of these are to be found on the smaller islands that lie to the north-west and on the east side of the main land mass. Both are furnished and offer much to see both indoors and in the grounds around them The third and largest a villa occupies a south-west headland that is just a jumble of rocks away from becoming separated from the rest of the landscape as it dominates the flat sandstone slab of rock on which it sits. Again furnished, and with an inviting courtyard within its walls, it calls to visitors to come and explore it.
A surfaced, single-tracked road curls outward from this villa’s humped bridge. Passing around the shoulder of the windmill’s table of rock, the road ends close by a gabled cottage with an air of rural France about, it neatly juxtaposed by the very British presence of an old red telephone booth facing it over a parked car. Sitting within its own gardens and grounds, this cottage lies just above the waters of the lake and shares its location with a charming little painter’s studio and a small houseboat linked to the land by a wooden pier and deck to offer something of a floating summer house.
Paradise on Sea, October 2020
This is a region packed throughout with detail and many, many opportunities to sit and relax as well as for taking photographs. As noted, all of the houses are furnished – as is the windmill, while the outdoor sitting spots can be found in their grounds or gardens, along the beach, up on the tall peak and elsewhere. Cars (roadworthy and not) add a further sense of human life to the setting, whilst the birds overhead and the horses in fields and close to houses add their mix of life and presence to the setting.
With so much going on within a region that uses the private region land capacity bonus, there is a lot for the eye – and the viewer – to take in, and it would be remiss of me not to note the fact that the volume of mesh and textures can take its toll on older systems, and disabling shadows for those that use them might be advisable when moving around. Nevertheless, Paradise on Sea is a rewarding and engaging visit, and photos taken within the region can be submitted to its associated Flickr stream.
I made my second visit of the week to Chuck Clip’s Sinful Retreat region in order to see Mindscapes, an exhibition by JudiLynn India, and which can be found within the region’s Janus Art Gallery II.
JudiLynn is a remarkable abstract artist who has been active in Second Life since 2009. Having studied graphics design at the Tyler School of art, at the opening of the new century she decided to focus her creativity on acrylic and digital painting, particularly exploring the opportunities for textured painting in the former and the ability to play with light and colour with the latter. When combined, these two approaches give her art a genuinely tactile dimension which in turn breathes a fascinating sense of life into them.
The title of this exhibition appears to be drawn from the fact that much of JudiLynn’s work originates within her mind’s eye, rather than being inspired by external sources. These are bold, vivid pieces, clearly drawn from her love of colour, their finish retaining the layered, tactile look that is so intrinsic to her art.
It is my goal to make charitable creation my life’s work. My intent is to share my craft and use it to raise much needed support for organizations that improve the quality of life for people at home and abroad.
– JudiLynn India, describing her art and her approach to life
Fourteen pieces are offered – twelve as conventional canvases, two as totems standing within shallow alcoves in the gallery’s curved wall. While all the pieces naturally draw and hold the eye, their mix of bright tones and more organic colours quite captivating, I confess that I found Mindscape 2 Totem particularly attractive; the colours within it richly organic, its form – a rectangular block – primal, its entire form exceptionally Earthly – by which I mean it has an element of having been drawn from the very crust of the planet, and raised up to offer a story of the ages that progresses down through its colours.
but each of these pieces that make up Mindscapes has something to say to those looking upon it; there are subtle narrative running through each, be it due the the shapes that are suggested within each or the manner in which colours ebb and flow with one another or intertwine gracefully, or the suggestion of things half-seen produced by the mix of line, colour and textural layering.
Captivating, entrancing, emotive and offering a combined journey into the art and imagination of their creator, the pieces presented through Mindscapes are not to be missed.
We received an invitation from Dya OHare to visit the latest iteration of her region builds, “We’re not so far from the Caribbean,” she said, referencing her last design I covered in these pages (see Dya’s Scent of the Caribbean in Second Life). “I’ve tried to show a bit of the Southern Life and I hope you like it.”
So off we hopped to see Dya’s Southern Twilight, a place that presents a rich mix of southern American life in the form of aspects of New Orleans together with sights that might be found in Mississippi and Louisiana. This sounds a lot to cover in a single region, but Dya does a good job of mixing multiple aspects of these states and the Crescent City, with touches that suggest the era of the 1930s-1940s – although it could just as easily be a modern setting.
Dya’s Southern Twilight, October 2020
The region is diagonally split by a river running from the north-east to the south-west, representative of the Mississippi itself. The landing point sides on the north bank of the river, on a road that serves a built-up area suggesting the older parts of New Orleans. Here can be found multiple places of business, side streets with cobbled surfaces and tram tracks, a place where street urchins play (or perhaps whisper plans to hop a tram whilst avoiding the fare), and an open air café awaits patrons.
Also to be found on this side of the river is a touch of the city’s French Quarter. This takes the form of a street overlooked by wrought iron guarded balconies draped with flags, with more fluttering from short poles leaning out from the railing tops. Lights strung across the street help illuminate it, together with the signs for the local bar and the hotel, whilst the end of the street is awash in colours that splashes over aged whitewashed walls from two tall street lamps.
Dya’s Southern Twilight, October 2020
This built-up area is bracketed by sights often associated with New Orleans in film and television: a paddle steamer moored on the river, and a cemetery complete with family mausoleums. For the romantics, one of the Crescent City’s white horse-drawn carriages sits at the roadside as well.
The south side of the river has a small harbour area that connects it to the north side with the assistance of a girder bridge of the kind seen along to Mississippi, but also opens out to contain a suggestion of the bayou, complete with trees rising from misty waters, with cabins potted in the open spaces.
Dya’s Southern Twilight, October 2020
Separated from the bayou by shrubs and dense foliage sits one of the grand old plantation houses associated with the southern states. Set back from the riverside road, it rises from the end of a long footpath, the front door open to invite visitors into the partially furnished interior. Horses graze in the field alongside the the house, whilst a tall hedge guards a small, neat garden to the rear, which also has access to a local beach.
Rich in detail with plenty to discover, appreciate and photograph, Dya’s Southern Twilight continues Dya’s tradition in creating engaging locations for people to visit.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 