Now open at the Serena Arts Centre and Plaza is an ensemble art exhibition with something of a seasonal taste, given this time of year tends to be the time of stories, tales and magical fables, whilst also being suited to any time of the year.
Fairy Tales or the Magical Power of Dream Worlds brings together BelleAllure, Captainofmysoul, Dantelios, JanaOrchid, Mystic Audion, Sheba Blitz, Raven Cedarbridge, Barret Darkfold, Evelyn Irelund, Hermes Kondor, Pagan Lane, Magda Schmidtzau, AmandaT Tamatzui, Vita Theas and Pask Wasp, with Christian Carter providing a marvellous homage to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Serena Art Centre and Hub, December 2024: AmandaT Tamatzui (l) and Magda Schmidtzau (r)
Each artist has been invited to submit two images on the subject of fairy tales and dreams, with the organisers describing the exhibition thus:
From past to present, fairy tales have inspired visual, decorative and performing arts. From theatre to opera, ballet, painting, sculpture, textile and cinema. Inspired by the tales in the saga, every artist fed and improved the next generation of stories with their own unique touch. Let’s embark together on a journey to dream worlds.
– Introduction to Fairy Tales or the Magical Power of Dream Worlds
Serena Art Centre and Hub, December 2024: Sheba Blitz (l) and Vita Theas
The art itself encompasses multiple genres and formats: original art uploaded to Second Life; photography captured from within Second Life, digital art created with AI assistance, avatar-centric pieces, abstract art, and more.
This results in a richly diverse selection of art, and an excellent way for those perhaps new to art in Second Life to witness an engaging cross-section of artistic expression from around the globe. All have something to say in an of themselves and the over-arching theme, but I confess to being drawn to Vita Theas’ pairing of images, which come with a folktale and poem respectively (both penned by Vita). The story is that of Elder Leaf and the Ice Warrior, the other a poem of the sea, life and cycles. Alongside of Vita’s pieces I came close to falling in love with Pask Wasp’s beautiful interpretations of two classic tales: Tom Thumb and Sleeping Beauty.
Serena Arts Centre and Hub, December 2024: Pask Wasp
All told, an engaging exhibition and worth taking time to see.
Calas Galadhon Christmas 2024 – click any image for full size
So, Santa has (hopefully) made all his visits for 2024, and the year is marching to to close. However, for those seeking to retain the joy and excitement of Christmas can do little better than take a trip to the Calas Galadhon Christmas regions and embrace the warmth and fun offered by the three Calas Midwinter regions.
Following the general design seen in 2023, Tymus Tenk and Truck Meredith, together with the rest of the Calas Galadhon estate team, have once again bring forth a setting that offers opportunities for entertainment, ice skating, sleigh rides, balloon tours, horse riding and plenty of opportunities for photography.
Calas Galadhon Christmas 2024
As is common for the Calas seasonal regions, a visit commences high in the air at a crowd-clearing landing point, complete with a walk across an (Ant)Arctic setting to the teleport portal. However, in difference to previous years, rather then carrying you down to the regions proper, this will first deliver you to Santa’s workshop (follow the arrows!). Teleporting will require acceptance of the local Experience, but this only needs to be done once (and then only if you’ve not previously accepted it).
The workshop allows you to see Santa’s pixies and fairies and elves all hard at work (presumably getting up a good stock of toys, gifts and stocking fillers for Xmas 2025 now!). Santa himself is present, and will let you take a photo with him if you’re nice.
Calas Galadhon Christmas 2024
Beyond the workshop is the loading area, where presents and toys are stack ready for transfer to the outdoor loading bay for Santa’s sleigh – and it is out beyond the sleigh loading area is the second teleport portal that will transfer visitors down to the ground level.
To the south, the expanse of Midwinter 3 forms open countryside, here and there broken by woodlands, hills and water, ripe for exploration on foot or horseback (there is a horse rezzer for the latter just down the slope from the sleigh ride tours or you can add your own, if you have one). Also to be found within this region is a local Christmas Market, once again given a sense of life by static NPCs, while the land and woods have a mix of wildlife. Tucked away within the hills and gorges of the southern extent of this region sits a teleport back up to Santa’s workshop.
Calas Galadhon Christmas 2024
The ground-level arrival point overlooks all three regions, being located up the uplands of MidWinter 2. As is usual with the Calas Christmas settings, this includes the traditional sleigh rides through all of the regions. Alongside of these is a landmark giver, which will present visitors with a notecard containing landmarks to the major locations within the regions, helpful for those who want to get somewhere quickly.
On the other side of the hill from the sleighs sit a couple of rezzers for skis and sleds, allowing visitor to scoot down the slope towards the southernmost region, thus giving a quick means to go exploring. Another new (I believe, as I don’t remember it from 2023 but could easily be wrong) is the cross-country ski tour. This requires membership of the Calas Group to obtain the skis alongside it (or you could try the skis from the rezzer close to the ground-level arrival point). Just sit on one of the two skiing pose balls and select the tour.
Calas Galadhon Christmas 2024
Of course, in the run-up to Christmas the Pavilion was the focal point for events, with the lake below it available for ice skating. The latter remains popular whilst the former now makes for a quiet visit with the Christmas events drawn to a close – and the portals remain for quick TP flips to various locations. There is once again seating all around the lakeside, and a nice little touch for this year is the Disney Island sitting out on the ice. Other attractions here include the balloon ride, the Calas Polar Express train, couples photo points, and indoor cuddles / conversations before the great fires in the Pavilion’s lounges.
As always, the Calas Galadhon Christmas regions offer a lot to see and enjoy – so make the most of them now to both continue your Christmas and holiday celebrations and before they once again vanish into the night for another year!
The Outer Garden, December 2024 – click any image for full size
It has been just over two years since my last visit to Bisou Dexler’s The Outer Garden, a place of beauty and enigma, art and creative spark, and peace and contemplation. It’s a location which generally combines two settings, once which may change on a very subtle level from time to time / with the seasons, and the other often presenting something completely new.
The first of these settings is home to the main Landing Point. It is a sky platform occupied by the decaying hulk of a once grand manor house; one now with roofing gone and walls broken and cracked, and signs in places of attempts to rebuild. A long hallway stretches before arrivals, pointing the way to a distant stair climbing to a round window.
The Outer Garden, December 2024
Rooms sit to either side of this hallway, one to the right two on the left. The first, and closest to the landing point, appears to have one been a grand chamber. Now flooded by the waters pouring in from the walls, it is a beautiful garden space, with a snowy floor (as with much of the rest of the building) and pools through which the water tumbles and poppies, lobster claw, cattails and herbs grow, and over which gnarled trees hang their boughs.
A hole in the wall here offers access to the remnants of another grand room, of which little is now left but for columned wall sections and a tumbled tower, its sides open to the snow-covered gardens wherein multiple attractions might be reached and numerous more opportunities for photography found. Or’ if preferred, tea might be taken within might have once been a further hall linking two wings of the now broken and tumbling house.
The Outer Garden, December 2024
Of the other rooms, one offers itself as a living space come boudoir; a place of music, art, and retreat, the jumbled furniture, floating balloons, musty books on their shelves and the detritus of a fallen ceiling and roof giving it a sense of romantic charm. Beyond it sits what appears to have once been a private garden space or courtyard, separating the lounge / boudoir from the empty shell of the second room which can only be accessed from the grounds outside.
The long hall itself is (as ever) beautifully dressed and well frosted with winter, again offering multiple opportunities for photography. However, closest to the landing point is an introduction to the second setting within The Outer Garden, together with the first of two teleports leading to it. Simply sit at the mirror and select the option To Find Solace. On arrival, walk through the tunnel with its 3D representation of a garden from a Ukiyoe painting to where a trapeze artist’s ring hangs and you can teleport on to the main art installation (it doesn’t matter which of the listing destination options you choose.
The Outer Garden, December 2024
Your destination will be a gorgeous 3D representation of a traditional Japanese painting, one which draws on Hagoromo, one of the most-performed Japanese Noh (dramatic dance) plays. Subject to multiple adaptations over the centuries (including W.B. Yeats, who drew upon its story for his one act play, At the Hawk’s Well), it tells of s fisherman who, whilst out walking on a springtime night, happens upon the feather cloak of a tennin (an aerial spirit or celestial dancer) hanging on a tree bough.
Taking the hagoromo, the fisherman plans on keeping it as an heirloom; however, the tennin sees him with it and begs for him to return it to her, for without it she cannot return to the heavenly realms. taking it, and demands its return – for she cannot return to Heaven without it. At first, the fisherman refuses, but touched by the tennin’s sorrow, he relents: he will return the hagoromo to her – if she will show him her celestial dance.
The Outer Garden, December 2024
After hesitating in turn, the tennin agrees to his terms and she performs a symbolic dance honouring the Moon and its phases (represented by the number three, five and fifteen), before the fisherman returns her cloak to her, and she vanishes, “like a mountain slowly hidden in the mist”.
Within Bijou’s Hagoromo, elements of this story are present; there are fish to represent the fisherman, there’s the shoreline where he walked with his friends; little island sit on the water whilst the Moon can be seen in a number of symbolic forms. However, what is offered should not be taken as any literal interpretation of the play; rather, it is, as noted a 3D celebration of traditional Japanese art into which we can step and experience from within.
The Outer Garden, December 2024
Multiple places to sit are available for this, including what I’m going to calla “celestial cart” which can carry visitors around and through the painting. To explore on foot, simply pass under the line of Torii gates and drop down to the level below, and then from there make your way around (and down) to where another mirror teleport will return you either to the Torri gates or back to the intermediary teleport point, with the mirror there taking you back to the main landing point.
Throughout all of this there is a sense of serenity to be found; wandering the halls of the house or along the covered walkways of the painting, there are no distractions of unnecessary sounds or music (which is not to say The Outer Garden is entirely without sound; rather sounds are restricted to where they need to be), allowing the mind to settle and appreciate without undue agitation.
Currently open at the Michiel Bechir Gallery in Second Life over the 2024 end-of year holidays through into the New Year, is a seasonal exhibition of art and photography featuring displays by four photographers and artists, together with a small art gift market.
The four featured artists are: gallery owner Michiel Bechir, together with curator Maggie Reno, both of whom have displays on the ground floor of the gallery; with Sophie (Ishtar7Inanna) and yours truly occupying the two upper floor halls. The individual collections on display range in number from 10 to 14 images, with the majority of the picture featuring wintertime landscapes, into which indoor images celebrating the season and avatar studies have been mixed.
Michiel Bechir Gallery, December 2024 – Maggie Reno
I truly embrace the beauty and comfort of winter and December! The season seems to bring to me a sense of peace, joy, and connection. The imagery of the colours, smells, the sound of rain and the warmth of home captures a cosy, reflective atmosphere.
It’s wonderful how the contrast of snowy landscapes and seasonal colours can make even the simplest detail feel special.
– Maggie Reno, introducing her images
With her images, Maggie reflects her comments on the season by presenting a combination of outdoor and indoor images. The former, with their snowy landscapes almost monochrome in tone, thanks to the snow and skies, in which sudden bursts of rich colour – particularly a seasonal red – burst through; thus they encourage us to experience both the physical coldness of crisp winter days and the emotional warmth Maggie references. The indoor images, meanwhile, speak to winter comforts of family, celebration, love and contentment.
Michiel Bechir Gallery, December 2024 – Sophie (Ishtar7Inanna)
Each of my works captures something different, yet together they forma kaleidoscope – a reflection of how I see the world.
These pieces are stories of life told as it is: filled with joy and sorrow, love and loneliness, but always illuminated by a glimmer of hope for something better.
– Sophie, on her selection of images entitled Kaleidoscope
Sophie’s exhibit is perhaps the most broad in terms of content, featuring winter seasonal images mixed with those presenting a mix of warmer scenes and autumnal-looking settings. All are evocative and attractive, as are the avatar studies also included in this 14-piece collection.
Michiel Bechir Gallery, December 2024 – Michiel Bechir
Step into the serene beauty of winter through the lens of Michiel Bechir. This captivating collection of 12 photographs explores the quiet magic of the season, showcasing both breath-taking landscapes and intimate portraits of of people amidst the winter’s embrace.
– The introduction to Michiel Bechir’s collection Winter in Focus
Rich in tone and content, Michiel’s pieces largely focus on landscapes and settings. Each offers something of a story of the season within its frame: embarking on a winter holiday, possibly at a special retreat; the beckoning peace of the country land drifted in snow; the beauty of frosted, denuded trees seemingly on parade; the promise of a warm fire within the stout walls of comfortable cabin after a long walk through a snow-blanketed landscape, and more.
For my part, I’ve simply tried to express the sheer beauty of places I’ve visited over the winter months across the last decade. Each is a place I’ve especially appreciated and which has been lovingly created for us to enjoy. I hope they encourage you in your explorations of Second Life.
Michiel Bechir Gallery, December 2024 – Art Gift Market
Outside of the gallery and around the ice rink, is a set of 10 cabins. Nine offer a gift of an image from an artist – Raven Arcana, Tegan Tenby, TaniaAltAlbatros, Jamina Moon, Emma Jane, Sophie (Ishtar7Inanna), Hannah Starlight, Prins Evergarden and Charlotte Belladonna. The tenth offers Christmas greetings from the Gallery’s team.
Decopunk Metropolis, December 2024 – click any image for full size
Hera (zee9) opened a couple of new settings for people to enjoy in the run-up (and hopefully over) the holiday break (Hera’s builds do tend to vanish rapidly, so an early visit is always recommended!). Entitled respectively Decopunk Metropolis and Neverever Land, they offer very different settings one to the other, with a hint of each of their natures given in their names. Both can be reached from the primary Landing Point, and given the introductory notecard to Decopunk Metropolis is offered at the Landing Point, I’m going to start with that setting.
Decopunk is one of the many offshoots of the original cyberpunk genre which have sprouted down the years. As the name might suggest it is centred around the art deco and Streamline Moderne art styles, folding into itself the likes of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and 1991’s The Rocketeer. Technically a subset of dieselpunk (interwar period through to the 1950s), Decopunk remains firmly anchored in the period running through the 1920 to early 1930s.
Decopunk Metropolis, December 2024
All of this is presented in Decopunk Metropolis, which neatly echoes Hera’s Blade Runner / Drune style of design, in that we are placed within a city-style environment. However, it is one very different in styling and presentation; not Blade runner hints here; instead the references touch on Lang’s film whilst folding into itself physical-world Deco touches (perhaps most obviously New York City’s Chrysler Building).
Within it, and in difference to builds like Brutal City (which I wrote about here), there is no clearly defined “ground level”; the buildings rise from the mist, lit windows staring out like so many eyes, their upper reaches pillared and ornate, lit by streams of yellow falling along their flanks and spotlights thrown bright pools of light into the heavens, all watched over by giant rooftop statues staring into the night.
Decopunk Metropolis, December 2024
Which is not to say the setting is without roads; they are most definitely present – they’re just as suspended as the buildings, ornate arches rising over them as if holding them aloft as they wind between (and through) the towers. Occupying two levels, they are linked via great vehicular elevators, with the lower level of roads offering three routes of exploration from the setting’s airport, the arrival zone for those coming from the main Landing Point.
Two of these roadway routes form a loop of which almost reaches completely around the setting. It is just cut short from doing so on the south-east corner of the city, where the road ends at one of the vehicular elevators mentioned above. The western around of the road, however, makes its way all the way around the city to a point directly opposite the airport. This is home to the Cortez Hotel, a place crowned by an ornate tower and also to be reached by taking the arrow-straight road also departing the airport to cut across the setting, north-to-south.
Decopunk Metropolis, December 2024
In making the crossing, the road bridge passes through the tallest building in the setting, which has a spire rising from it that looks almost as if it is expecting an airship to nuzzle up against it. This tower is also home to the Moka Efti lounge, with its very Chicago meets Cabaret vibe, and the local casino. These offer their own attractions and – should you find them (it’s not hard) each offers a light-draped footbridge spanning the gulf between it and the east and west towers. Paralleling the road bridges, these each have a elevator station at their far ends waiting to take you to their particular points of interest, be it the apartment house high up on the eastern tower (and reach by way of taking the elevator up from the walkway to the road bridge, and then again up from their to the apartment), or to either / both of the Starlight Jazz Club and the Shanghai Dragon (again passing by way of the elevated road level).
Another way of getting around is via the local The Fifth Element style taxis; only rather than flying your from point-to-point a-la Corbin Dallas, these will whisk you around via teleporting. Just touch the taxi sign on a waiting cab and then pick a destination from the list. Those finding their way to the garage at the airport might also avail themselves of the motorbike that can be rezzed there, whilst also, and for the keen-eyed, there are various metal catwalks and stairways which may additionally lead to little places of interest, if followed and climbed.
Decopunk Metropolis, December 2024
Neverever Land, by contrast, offers a somewhat tropical setting, located at the region’s ground level. It is reached by way of the main landing point, and then an intermediary point, where more about the setting can be learned.
As might be guessed from the name, Neverever Land draws inspiration from Peter Pan – more J.M. Barrie than Disney – and the various additional works to which it has given rise. Comprising a series of interlinked islands set against a tropical back-drop, each of which contains setting based on both J.M. Barrie’s work whilst perhaps casting a wider net, the easiest way to describe this setting is that of a Neverland where the inhabitants are grown-up, but who have never quite lost touch with their spark of childhood sense of adventure and imagination.
Neverever Land, December 2024
This is actually setting which Hera last revealed in 2021, and which I wrote about in Hera’s Neverever Land in Second Life. however, as with all of Hera’s builds this in not just a rolling-out of something she’s had in-world before; there are differences. Perhaps the most noticeable of these – and one which extends to Decopunk Metropolis, is the use of AI NPCs.
These come in multiple forms throughout both settings – human, automaton, animal, bird – even, should you find it, a sandwich which has having an existential crisis concerning its purpose (being eaten) and its desire to continue (clue: look towards the left-hand end of the bar in Moka Efti). Hera started experimenting with AI scripted agents with the help and support of Kacey Stratton (in fact, one of the scripted agents from Brutal City pops-up in Decopunk Metropolis, but with a different persona.
Decopunk Metropolis, December 2024 – yours truly with one of the setting’s non-AI NPCs, the dancer Elly
I enjoyed my interactions with several of the character in the Brutal City build, but confess I didn’t gain the same level of enjoyment with the majority of the characters here; whereas the AIs at Brutal City were largely conversational in nature, I found the AIs at both Decopunk and Neverever Land too expositional in their multi-paragraph replies. In mentioning this to Hera, she indicated there had been an oversight in keeping the AI responses more constrained. Whilst unfortunate in the way it – for me – killed interaction, it most certainly does not spoil a visit.
Rounded out with a nicely curated audio mix on the audio stream that fits the Decopunk Metropolis setting perfectly, I thoroughly recommend the city as a place to visit, and Neverever Land as a nice addition.
Cherishville, December 2024 – click any image for full size
Lam Erin has redressed his homestead region of Cherishville for the holiday / winter period, bring to it hints of both the Winter 2023 and the Autumn 2024 iterations in small touches, whilst offering something new to visit and appreciate.
Those small touches are perhaps easy to miss – the winding road through the countryside and and arrival of a steam train; but they help remind those who regularly visit Cherishville that there are nice little visual touches to be found, reflecting Lam’s eye as a photographer-artist.
Cherishville, December 2024
Cherishville is a peaceful, photogenic destination set in the heart of winter. With snowfall and stunning scenery, it offers a tranquil escape. Using PBR textures, this region is perfect for capturing the beauty of the season.
– Cherishville’s Destination Guide entry, December 2024
Caught in a night setting with surrounding hills and distant mountains semi-shrouded by falling snow, the region might be seen as being divided into two halves. to the north, and running west-to-east from the Landing Point is a little hamlet, bookended by a carousel close by the Landing Point and a Ferris wheel at the far end, the two linked by a main street. It is by the carousel that the steam train might be seen, together with a very familiar touch from Lam which also gives a sense of continuity through many of his region designs: a railways station.
Cherishville, December 2024
The handful of houses forming the hamlet are all furnished, presenting indoor elements to explore (and escape the snow!), whilst the road turns south as it reaches the Farris wheel to cross the local (and frozen) river. Here lies the second half of the region takes over, a rural setting a little mindful of the autumn 2024 design, the road winding through the countryside, looping back towards the little hamlet as it does so.
As the road does so, it passes a pleasantly-located farm; to one side, and overlooking the stream, a barns has been converted into a warm house; on the other two form a brightly-lit Christmas Tree farm.
Cherishville, December 2024
Tucked into this is a wealth of detail – places to sit, details to photograph – from polar bears playing on the ice, through reindeer wandering the countryside to teddy bears exchanging gifts. Those requiring props for photography will find rezzing in the region is open – but as Auto Return is off, do please remember to pick-up afterwards!
