The Edge is Kultivate Magazine’s gallery space specialising in black-and-white photography exhibitions, generally hosting ensemble art displays by artists responding to calls for artists that are periodically announced by the Kultivate team.
Sunday, January 17th marks the first such exhibition at the gallery for 2021, featuring artists Jessamine2108, Maaddi, Eucalyptus Carroll, Johannes Huntsman, Moora McMillan, Blues Rocker, Tempest Rosca, Jamee Sandalwood, Veruca Tammas, Vita Theas and Myra Wildmist.
Kultivate The Edge: Veruca TammasAs tends to be the case with ensemble exhibitions, the art is wide-ranging in subject matter, featuring avatar studies, reflections on SL art, landscapes, and more. The majority of the artists are familiar to me, and and individuals whose work I always appreciate seeing – although I admit that both Maaddi and Moora are two artists whose work I cannot recall having previously witnessed – and I admit that I found the three pieces presented by Moora attractive in both their subject matter and presentation; Path Near the Sea in particular.
One of the aspects of monochrome photography I particularly like is the matter in which it can add a depth of life to a image, often more so than if the image had been produced in colour. In the latter the subtleties within an image can sometimes be overlooked as the eye is drawn to admire the way colours have been used or blended; within a monochrome piece, the use of light and dark, whilst obviously presenting contrasts, tends to allow those subtleties to be gently teased to the fore.
Kultivate The Edge: Jamee Sandalwood
This is certainly the case with the majority of the images here, so much so that singling any out is a little unfair, however, I do admit to fining Jamee’s and Tempest’s pieces to particularly demonstrate this. The central image of Tempest’s trio for example, appears to have been pulled from the physical world; had it been in colour, there is a genuine possibility that even allowing for post-processing, its avatarian origins would be apparent.
The one exception to the general themes offered through this exhibition is from Johannes Huntsman. John is an artist who never fails to impress as he constantly seeks to broaden both his art and his technique. Here he presents four pieces that he has simply called his Geometric Collection, but which carry within them a strong vein of cubism with a measure of abstraction, making them an engaging selection which – and in difference to my comments above regarding the power of monochrome images – would be as engaging were they in colour; so much so, that I look forward to seeing more of John’s experiments in this style of art.
Kultivate The Edge: Johannes Huntsman
But really, all the artists in this ensemble deserve recognition for the pieces they have selected for this exhibition – as you’ll be able to see for yourself in the coming month, or indeed at the formal opening of the exhibition, which takes place at 13:00 SLT on Sunday, January 17th, within the gallery.
It’s taken me a while to get to write about Adventures In Mad Wonderland, Jayden Mercury’s twist on Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s (aka Lewis Carroll) tales of Alice’s adventures. This is because, despite being a modest parcel covering just over 6,300 square metres, it is a setting that packs an awful lot into it – so much so that it is very easy to miss things in a simple walk through.
Using the theme of Alice’s adventures on which to build a setting within Second Life is not new; however, with Mad Wonderland, Jayden – assisted by Valarie Muffin Meow (Zalindah) – has created a unique take on things, as indicated by the location’s About Land description, which invites us to follow the Adventure through the Storybook of an artist.
Adventures In Mad Wonderland January 2021
Thus, what we have here is a take on Dodgson / Carroll’s timeless tale is a series of scenes from the tales – and more – that frame the tale of an artist – perhaps someone charged with illustrating a version of the story – with “chapters” waiting to be found at various points within the parcel (mouseover and left-click to read them).
The story commences at the landing point, and the artist’s studio that resides there. This takes the form of a small shack sitting on a narrow stretch of coast. Paintings are hanging on lines strung outside of the shack, whilst inside stands the artist’s easel and materials – although oddly, some of the latter appear to be paints for house decoration rather than conventional oil or water colours. Subtle use of a sofa with a cascade of colour in its covering and a corner gathering of lights adds to the impression that this is an artist’s retreat. There is more here as a well, so be prepared to mouseover the objects you find within the shack and be prepared to click on them.
Adventures In Mad Wonderland January 2021
The shack sets the tone for a visit: whilst walking the trail and exploring what it reveals, be sure to hover your mouse over anything that catches your eye, as it may contain the next chapter in the unfolding story of the artist. Such items vary in form, from a pen and notepad to the likes of multi-hued mushrooms – and some might be unexpected (“she said with a grin” – hint, hint!).
Also waiting to be found are obvious extracts from Alice’s journeys and other little vignettes. Chief among the former is a familiar tea party featuring a very Deppian Mad Hatter; one of the latter sits an an old piano, its wood faded by the Sun, a truncated quote from Alice In Wonderland chalked or painted onto the inside of its raised lid.
Adventures In Mad Wonderland January 2021
The end of the path is marked by wooden steps that rise to a white-walled castle that, with its angled towers, looks like something the Mad Hatter might build – or to look at it another way, a partially0inflated bouncy castle. Card guards outside of its gate suggest the Queen of Hearts may be waiting inside, as does the huge red heart on the wall above the gate. But is she? You’ll have to go inside and find out for yourself – particularly if you want to keep up with the unfolding story, as a chapter awaits discovery.
The castle may mark the end of the path from the artist’s studio – but it is not the end of the adventure. Those willing to look around carefully after exploring it might spot a little makeshift bridge leading to a shaded portal. Touch it, and it will carry you onward to the next stage of the story: a maze where more items await the touch of visitors, including one that will carry you even further, should you follow the familiar instruction to Drink Me when you find it.
Adventures In Mad Wonderland January 2021
I’m not going to give away all of the location’s secrets, but I will say that Mad Wonderland is a surprising and fun place to explore that taxes neither viewer nor mind, but does keep you engaged throughout. It is also one of those places I particularly appreciate within Second Life – the kind that demonstrate that you don’t actually need a full-sized region in order to create something special either for yourself, or to share with others.
Melusina Parkin opened her latest exhibition in Second Life Life on Thursday, January 14th at the Kondor Art Centre’s White Gallery.
Lockdown and Hope is a highly topical selection of art by Melu that takes as a part of its theme – as the name implies – something that remains on a lot of people’s minds as we roll on into 2021: the situation around the continuing threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus / COVID-19, and the continuing grind, for so many of us, of being in a lockdown situation that brings limited opportunities to get out, interact with others or do the things we really want to do.
Melusina Parkin: Hope (v) 4 and Hope (v) 5
However, rather than focus just on the negative, Lockdown and Hope also looks to the future and the time beyond the shadow of the virus, when we can all resume largely “normal” lives with their attendant freedoms and activities as the various vaccines spread amongst populations, allowing us to, if not eradicate COVID-19 entirely, then at least bring it under control and diminish it’s threat.
On the surface, this is an exhibition of two halves: on the lower floor are 18 images that carry the title “Lockdown”, and very much focus on the impositions that have been placed on us as a result of the pandemic situation. Their dominant themes intertwine feelings loneliness, listlessness, boredom, the need for escape, and / or being cut off from the world. These are presented in Melu’s captivating style of focusing down on just a portion of a scene. It’s a technique I’ve long admired, simply because captured in this way, her images offer the opening lines of a story, leaving our minds to tell the rest based on the title of the exhibition and the point of focus in the image.
Melusina Parkin: Lockdown (v) 3 and Lockdown (v) 4
Take Lockdown (v) 16, as an example (seen in the foreground at the top of this piece). With its focus on the handle of a door, and the shadow on a distant wall cast by the light falling through a window, we’re given an image that clearly speaks to being shut-in. The door, so long a means of keeping others out so we can enjoy our own company, now a barrier to our ability to go out, the door handle caught in sunlight now a forbidden thing, the patterned shadow of an unseen window the calling of a world currently beyond our reach.
On the upper floor is a further set of 18 images that express the idea of Hope: that those freedoms we are temporarily without will return; that we will once again be able travel, to share, to appreciate nature, to enjoy a vacation on some remote shore and or enjoy the simple pleasures of walks along the coast or country roads. In contrast to those on the lower floor, these are offered as more expansive images – open spaces, broad skies, distant horizons – all of which are emblematic of freedom and the ability to roam where we will, and partake of all that life has to offer.
Melusina Parkin: Hope (v) 13 and Hope (v) 14
But there is more here as well; within many of the images on the lower floor offer not only representations of the isolation of lockdown, but also a glimmer of hope for the future. Again, to take Lockdown (v) 16. Whilst standing as a symbol of the need for us to stay isolated from those beyond our immediate bubble (if indeed, we have a bubble), it also offers hope: the very fact that sunlight is falling on the door handle suggests that the day will come when we can again open our doors to others and invite them in without fear, or pass through the door into the world beyond that is promised in the shadow falling on the wall beyond the door; indeed, the very fact that the door stands ajar suggests that time might actually be not that far away.
Elsewhere, Lockdown (v) 9 offers us a view of again being cut off from the things we would normally take for granted – cars parked outside the window with their promise of taking us anywhere we might desire, but for now beyond our reach. However, it also reminds us that despite all the impositions of lockdown, the cars are still there, waiting, and one day we’ll be free to travel wherever we would. Meanwhile,
Melusina Parkin: Lockdown (v) 8 and Lockdown (v) 9
This double focus can also be found in several of the images upstairs. Take Hope (v) 13 and Hope (v) 14 for example. Both offer use the promise of freedoms to be joyed – whilst the presence of the fences, open as one is and as relatively unobtrusive as the other might be in allowing us to see the sky, reminds us that the freedoms we’ll soon resume are not quite here yet, and restraint of action is still required.
From gowns cast across furniture out of possible frustration at being unable to wear them in public to the promise that nights out will yet return (Lockdown (v) 10) to a look towards a time when walks along sandy shores or country roads will again be ours to enjoy, but which is not yet upon us – hence the empty chair and bench Hope (v) 12 and Hope (v) 15); and with tales of separation and togetherness bound within the simple framing of a teapot, cups, decorative hearts and the placement of two chairs (Lockdown (v) 4). All 36 images within Lockdown and Hope have a richness of narrative, marking this as another extraordinary and engaging exhibition from Melusina Parkin.
For those who feel they’d like to escape all the continuing stresses of the physical world, but who don’t particularly want to spent time exploring and wandering, preferring instead to sit and chat or cuddle (or both), then artist Terrygold might have the answer.
Osta Nimosa is a quarter-region parcel sitting within a Full region utilising the private island LI bonus. Best known for her work as an artist – one whose work I’ve appreciated and long enjoyed writing about, here she presents a landscaped environment. Set out as an artificial archipelago sitting over sandy waters, it is bordered on two sides by open water, while the other two are denoted by a shallow ribbon of grass and sand that sits between the shallows and high cliffs.
Osta Nimosa – January 2021
Presented under the Solo Arte banner, the setting extends out over the water in a checker board of little square and rectangular islands, with more to be found in the sky overhead, including the Solo Arte Castle, sitting within a snowy setting at the time of my visit and which includes a table games room for those who fancy a little challenge.
The main landing point for the setting can be found on the ribbon of beach and grass, sitting alongside information boards and the teleport signs that link to all of the locations within the parcel.
Osta Nimosa – January 2021
The islands are reached can be reached in one of two ways: by taking the a canoe from the pier on the waterside of the landing point or by wading through the water and with the wooden steps that are provided with each island (flight is deactivated in the parcel, so I’m excluding this as an option).
Whilst regular in shape, these islands are anything but identical. Some are set as garden spaces, others as little corners in which to sit – such as having you own little bench where you can watch the Moon in a most unique way. Others are home to buildings of some description, each of which also has its unique characteristics.
Osta Nimosa – January 2021
For example, there is the Mr. Wolf bar – also one of the teleport destinations – which may not quite offer what you might expect from a bar; whilst the houses themselves offer the most unusual – and delightful settings within them. Furnished homes they most certainly are not, but they are charming / romantic (depending on which you access). There’s also a camp site watched over by cormorants, and another island offering a musical haven whilst one gives people the chance for a quite picnic.
Osta Nimosa – January 2021
There’s a lot of detail to be found here – as may have already been guessed from my comments above. There’s the cats that bring a little life to the outdoor café, the boats that offer further places to sit and cuddle a board walk garden and a little coastal camp site, all waiting to be found.
All of this adds up to a charming location for a visit and in which to spend time, one that works under a range of spring / summer environment settings, and which shouldn’t be missed by anyone who – at the risk of repeating myself- wants to escape the stresses of the physical world, or who wishes to have a little quiet time with their loved one(s) or friends.
A January 12th, 2021 Destination Guide blog post by Linden Lab reminded me that it has been seven-and-a-half years since my first – and up until now, only – visit to the remarkable David Rumsey Maps in Second Life (see: If maps are your thing, Rumsey’s the king!). A length of time that marks a return visit as long overdue, so I decided to jump over and renew my own acquaintance with the four-region facility.
As both the Linden blog post and my own post from 2013 note, David Rumsey Maps in Second Life is a direct annexe to the David Rumsey Map Collection. This an on-line collection of more than 150,000 maps with a focus on rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, but which includes maps of Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania. The collection stretches back over 30 years, with a programme to digitise them all commencing in 1996.
The collection’s website is powered by LUNA, one of the world’s leading digital asset management tools, one that is used world-wide around educational, research and science institutions. In particular, the software allows visitors to the website to view multiple maps from different time periods side-by-side and also to create and curate their own collections of maps from the library, according to their interest / requirements.
David Rumsey amid items of his map, atlas and globe collection, circa 1996. Credit: David Rumsey Collection
This ability to interact with the collection was expanded in 2008, when the Rumsey collection realised Second Life could be a unique environment by which people could visit and interacts with elements of their collection in a unique manner, and their presence in Second Life has been periodically updated since then.
The core of the facility comprises a visitor centre and a 4-region terrain elevation map of Yosemite Park dating from the 1880s, and which visitors are free to fly over / down town and walk across (to see it all, you should set your draw distance to at least 512m). Around the outer edges of the four regions – which are arranged in a square – is a series of panels – up to 50 on a side – displaying individual maps that can be studied by taking a walk around the boundaries, together with a 3D view across the Grand Canyon amidst the panels on one side.
David Rumsey Maps
Within the visitor centre are more maps – forty of which are available to collect at no charge – and several of what should be interactive elements – map viewers, a media recording of a presentation by David Rumsey himself, etc. Unfortunately, on my return visit, none of these would respond to being touched, nor would the large world map directly outside of the visitor centre, which is designed to allow you to rez a pin on your physical world location and place it on the map with a message of up to 140 characters.
Two skywalks extend from this map platform, each one displaying a ribbon map that can be walked. The first – and longer of these – is featured in the Second Life blog post. It is a reproduction of a map of the Tōkaidō road (“”eastern sea route”), the most important of the five great trade routes linking Edo (as Tokyo was then known) to other major Japanese centres of commerce – in this case, Kyoto on the east coast of Honshū. The second ribbon map,on the shorter skywalk (which connects to the outer map walk) is a reproduction of a map from the late 1800s showing steamboat routes on the Mississippi.
We built the 4 {regions} in 2008 and have continued to update them since then. One of the things that fascinated me early on was the potential to “walk” on the historic maps and fly around them in SL. The Yosemite map which forms the floor of the site was built with a full elevation model so that it is accurate and in scale. The map is the first truly accurate map of the Yosemite Valley made by U.S. Army topographers in 1883.
– David Rumsey, via Linden Lab
David Rumsey Maps
While flying is not required to see all the maps, it is needed to see the two large globes floating over the Yosemite map. Eash is a reproduction of globes created by Giovanni Maria Cassini (not to be confused with the astronomer, Giovanni Domenico Cassini) – one of the earth and the other of the heavens surrounding it. Both can be flown in, where information boards can be found describing each of them, set over two orreys modelled on the time of Cassini – each fails to record Neptune and Uranus, as those planets had yet to be discovered.
Despite some of the interactive elements not appearing to work, David Rumsey Maps remains an engaging and educational visit.
Eclectic Dreams is the title of an exhibition of art that recently opened (January 9th, 2021) within the Janus I Gallery at Chuck Clip’s Sinful Retreat. Featuring Lash VV’s work from the physical world, it is one of the most raw and vital selections of art I’ve come across in recent times.
Hailing from Serbian, Lash VV is an artist whose work tends to focus on a range of themes, including the spiritual, religious and erotic, that can often include motifs that can be primal and / or universal in suggestion, connecting his art to life and the vitality of living. In reflection of this, rather than confining himself to one or two styles of presentation, Lash VV, encompasses a broad range of techniques and styles, including impressionism, abstraction, hints of fauvism and impasto. At the same time, he freely utilises watercolours, pen and ink paint, acrylic, oil, tempura, and compositing techniques (including digital compositing) to both emphasise and layer his work.
Sinful Retreat Janus I gallery: Eclectic Dreams
All of these styles an approaches can be gathered under the core umbrella of expressionism in its broadest sense, in that Lash’s art is often a refection of his own memories and outlook on the themes his work enfolds.
In this, the choice of style used within each piece is, I would suggest, an essential part of its interpretation, adding, indeed, evoking, that raw vitality I mentioned at the top of this article. There is not a piece in this selection that doesn’t evoke a sense of life and / or offers an emotive sensation, From very human pieces such as the still life studies Blue Thoughts (which I admit to being the piece I found the most captivating in this portfolio of richly engaging pieces) and Woman in Blue, through to the abstract forms of Initial Frenzy through Passion, the selected technique does as much to bring each piece to life as does the (more usual) technique in using a dominant colour as a means of expression.
Sinful Retreat Janus I gallery: Eclectic Dreams
There is more here as well; in some of the images, the selected technique can give some of the pieces an unfinished edge to them that further adds a degree of life and, with some, brings to mind the work of past masters.
Tor example, take Cognition. Within it, the seemingly rough lines that hint at being hurriedly drawn, point towards Da Vinci pondering the beauty of the human head – and what might go on within it and using a sketch to capture thoughts that occur whilst engaged on other work. At the same time, the subtle use of colour demonstrates the fact that far from being incomplete, the picture is exactly as it is intended to be, a skilled study of art and form, and one reflective not just of a classical genius, but of Lash’s own unique skill – and his own contemplations.
Sinful Retreat Janus I gallery: Eclectic Dreams
With around 29 pieces on display, many of them carefully placed within small groups defined by style so as to present exhibits within an exhibition, Eclectic Dreams is a truly fascinating – dare I say masterful – collection of art from an artist who is, I understand, new to the SL art scene, but whom I have no doubt will be seen more widely as time goes by – and deservedly so.
