Category: Reviews

An everglades autumn at Tilheyra in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Tilheyra, September 2023 – click any image for full size

In May 2022, I visited Tilheyra, a Full region leveraging the private region land capacity bonus and designed by Teagan Lefevre as a means to showcase her TL Designs brand. It’s a place blogged about here – but that was spring 16 months ago; time has marched on, and those of us in the northern hemisphere are watching autumn stride towards us, and Second Life being what it is, Tilheyra has also marched forward.

I was recently made aware of this by Teagan herself, who invited me to re-visit the region and view its latest redressing. In particular, the estate has been extended with the additional of a Homestead region, which Teagan and her team have called Kuulua. It has been combined with Tilheyra to form a continuous landscape modelled after US swamplands.

Tilheyra, September 2023
Fall unfurls its colours in such splendour, we are but forced to take notice of it. Tilheyra, welcomes you to wade through the everglades, tour the swamps by foot or by boat, and taste the delicious flavours that autumn in the bayou brings.

– Tilheyra About Land

Given this description, and as one would expect, both of the regions present a low-lying landscape rich in trees and cut through with water as it forms natural channels and pools. Some of the latter are open, others increasingly choked by reeds and wetlands grasses, the greenery providing – if any were needed – perfect cover for local alligators as they prowl the shallows.

Tilheyra, September 2023

Sitting solidly towards the centre of this setting is a town. It is a place of indeterminate age; some of the buildings within it have the appearance of belonging to a grander setting whilst others – well, perhaps not so much; however all are showing signs of being past their prime. Roads, tracks and trails spread outward from the town, some of them crossing the water by means of bridges, all of variable designs and solidity – including one which started life as railway carriage! It a network of trails and paths which might be seen as a web spreading out through the swamplands, the town being the spider so often at the heart of a web; only rather than waiting for prey, the town awaits visitors to get caught in the unusual beauty of the landscape and itself.

During my May 2022 visit to Tilheyra I noted that while most of the region was open to the public, it also presented a number of rental properties. This is still the case with this latest iteration, with houseboats and cabins available for rent. All are clearly signed as private, so the risk of trespass should be minimised.

Tilheyra, September 2023

Those wanting to explore will find a lot to see, from places to eat to hangouts for passing the time – there’s even a corner memorial to pets that have passed on, tucked away in a corner. For the more adventurous, there’s a small dock on the shoreline of Kuulua, offering rowing boats and little Culprit speed boats for those who wish to explore the waterways.

Caught under the reds, greens and golds of autumn and framed by a sky in which both the Sun and the Moon might be found, the Tilheyra wetlands avoids the clichés often found within swamp-themed regions (such as an over-abundance of alligators or a “haunted” cabin or two), and instead presents an engaging and very natural setting, available for those seeking a home, and a destination for explorers and photographers.

Tilheyra, September 2023

My thanks to Teagan for the invite!

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Elvion’s ode to Nature in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Elvion, September 2023 – click any image for full size

It’s been a good few months since my last visit to Elvion, so when Cube Republic sent me a link to an image showing the region’s current iteration, I realised it was high time I dropped in again.

The work of region holders Bo Zano (BoZanoNL) and his SL/RL partner, Una Zano (UnaMayLi), Elvion has tended to shift between Homestead and Full regions, but whichever it has occupied, it has never failed to offer settings of intrinsic natural beauty rich in detail and thoroughly photogenic.

Most often the builds are focus on very pastoral settings, rich in flora and fauna, and sometimes with a lean towards fantasy environments. Some iterations, however, have at times touch on more rural environments – such as with the design the couple presented back towards the start of 2023 (see: Elvion’s coastal retreat in Second Life). With the September iteration, Bo and Una take the region in another direction, offering a setting reflecting the ecological threat of climate change / global warming and the effect it is set to have on the likes of coastal cities and towns.

Elvion, September 2023
With rising global temperatures cities become less habitable. Nature is taking back and people are migrating to the country. Except some, who find peace and see the beauty.

– Elvion About Land

However, this shouldn’t be taken to mean this current iteration of Elvion is in any way a treatise on the threat of climate change and rising sea levels. Rather it is a visual ode to the fact that nature has a way of taking care of her own and redressing the balance when it comes to humanity’s claims on the land, even after those claims may have resulted in the land being ravaged beyond hope.

Elvion, September 2023The core of the build suggests the outskirts of a city or town, probably coastal in nature, and where an elevated freeway once provided rapid access to the heart of the conurbation without a lot of tedious mucking about navigating the gridwork of edge-of-town streets or dealing with locals, the broad lanes of the road instead being raised away from all that to run alongside the rail tracks which once carried goods trains on their backs.

However, the traffic carrying days of both rail and road have long passed; the freeway is in almost total collapse, the rail lines similarly broken and incapable of carrying. Even the buildings rising above or visible from the elevated roadway have clearly been long deserted, with some showing signs of being close to joining some of their brethren in collapse. At ground level, streets have largely vanished, becoming overgrown with weeds and grasses or lost under pools and channels where water has naturally taken command.

Elvion, September 2023

Exactly what has happened here is open to interpretation. Did the sea levels rise sufficiently to start drowning the town, resulting in its abandonment? Did it suffer the battering force of one or more hurricanes or typhoons so severe, abandonment rather than recovery was seen to be the only sensible option? was it broken by the force of a tsunami which originated across the seas but spent its fury here? The story is yours to decide.

What does appear to be clear is that whatever happened, it occurred long enough ago for Nature engage in the long, slow process of reclamation, and is now a good way along that path. The hardtop of roads and parking lots is being taken over by weeds and grass; vines hang from the sides of shops and the barriers guarding the edge of elevated road sections; a children’s play area is now little more than a rusted hulk, its tone matching the majority of the remaining vehicles scattered throughout – some of which are sprinkled across the freeway as if they were, for whatever reason, deserted in a rush by owners and passengers alike.

Elvion, September 2023

Elsewhere the presence of water along some of the depressions caused by former roads is such that little island have had time to be established and freshwater ponds form, offering homes for a range of waterfowl and wildlife. Even the wrecks of vehicles have become so accepted that they are now little more than perches from which heron can watch for signs of passing fish in the waters around them. Bear and beaver are equally at home here now, as are deer, whilst geese find the setting more than acceptable as a stop-over during their long migration flights.

Also scattered throughout the setting are signs that not everyone has fled this place; to the south, for example, someone has created a little homestead for themselves. A wind turbine provides lighting for the simple shack, chickens and goats are being reared, horses looked after (including one that will rez rideable copies of itself, and a canoe is kept in good order, presumably for fishing trips.

Elvion, September 2023

This is not the only sign of human habitation. Elsewhere, someone has built a raft while boardwalks and decks and scattered around on and over the waters, and at least one tree appears to have been felled to create a makeshift bridge over a water channel.  But whether this is all the work of those living at the homestead, or whether it speaks to a little community of people holding-out among the ruins is for you to decide. And given there are these signs of habitation, so too can be found places to sit and pass the time, and appreciate the beauty of the setting.

As always with Elvion, there is a tremendous amount to see and appreciate with this build; far more than either my wittering here or meagre images herein can convey. As such, and as always, a visit is highly recommended.

Elvion, September 2023

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Melu’s Horizons and AI ladies in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Melusina Parkin, September 2023: Horizons

Melusina Parkin has been expanding both her main gallery spaces and her exhibitions of late, with the former now presenting two individual gallery spaces above her main store, which she is using to host a total of four new collections of her work, three of which see Melusina dip her fingers into the world of AI art.

Both of the gallery spaces can be reached via Melu’s landing point, which also provides access to her art deco store and annex, or can be reached via the individual SLurls provided below, with galleries and store locations also being linked via teleport disks as well.

As an entirely arbitrary decision on my part, I’m starting with the Black Gallery. This is in fact split into two independent levels, also linked by the teleport disks, allowing it  to host two separate exhibitions. The first is Horizons, located in the Black Gallery 2. Taken from within Second Life, it presents a collection of 20 images captured in Melu’s familiar minimalist style.

Melusina Parkin, September 2023: Horizons

As the title of the collection suggests, each of these 20 images offers a unique view out towards a horizon. From deserts to views out over open waters, from fields of ripening crops stretching out into the far distance to looking across coastal sands to where the water takes over (or conversely from the shallows of the water back across the costal sands, these are all expressive pieces suggestive of a vast openness – even the one showing the sand/grass dappled flatness of a region awaiting the touch of terraforming tools.

True, some include evidence of life – a fence separating land from sea; a bench awaiting tired legs to lighten their load for a while; a train line cutting a horizontal divide beteen observer and distant horizon. But these only serve to heighten the sense of vastness inherent within these images. But “vastness” does not necessarily equate to “emptiness” – and to think otherwise would be a mistake.

With her photography, Melu is a storyteller. Or perhaps a better term might be story prompter; within all of her photography it is what isn’t seen that captivates; the suggestions of stories hovering just at the edge of the frame as each picture prods us to see beyond the literal. For example:  what might come thundering down that train track, shattering the peace, and who or what might it be carrying a to where? What is the promise of the far side of the sea, or what new adventure await beyond the broken horizon presented by the approaching foreshore? What might yet be raised from the flat evenness of an untouched region, and who might one day explore its wonders? The opportunities to create stories and tales is as vast as the spaces Melu presents within these 20 pieces.

Melusina Parkin, September 2023: 100 Retro Ladies

On the level below, is the first of the three AI related collections Melusina is currently presenting. Entitled 100 Retro Ladies, it comprises four sets of 25 images apiece. Each set is framed by a colour, and all are built around a theme of fashion at the height of the Art Deco era in Europe (early 1920s through early 1930s) – a time when women started to embody a new boldness and drive towards self-recognition, greater expression and more social freedom.

Each set of images – each named for the tint which largely defines them: Red, Teal, Black and Ivory – presents itself five pictures as a time around the gallery walls (so a total of only 20 images is displayed at any given time. To see the remaining images within each colour set, click on the white panels on which each group of pictures is mounted.

Sitting between the Black Gallery and Melu’s shop is the Minimum Gallery, home to two further exhibitions of AI-based art: Broken Mirrors and Kisses. both again present women who, in terms of look and style, might be seen as being draw from the 1920s.

Melusina Parkin, September 2023: Kisses

As noted above, and thanks to movements such as the drive for emancipation in the early 20th century, coupled with (in Europe at least) the need for women to take up functions and work normally the preserve of men as a result of the Great War, the 1920s was a period where women in the western world were starting to spread their wings and seek greater and more open freedoms from the strictures imposed by society. Kisses is a direct reflection of this, depicting and reflecting a period when a part of that greater expressiveness took the former of more open displays of affection / love / sexuality, be it in the form of a simple chaste kiss on the lips through to something deeper and indicative of desires beyond friendship / affection.

On the upper level of the gallery, Melu presents the most  – for me – compelling of the three AI-related collections, Broken Mirrors. I say this not to diminish Kisses or 100 Retro Ladies is any way, but because within this collect is a rich narrative depth which naturally attracts  whilst also giving out something of a challenge. Within them, we are encouraged not not to just see images of women before broken mirrors, but to contemplate how we might better understand the myriad facets of personality and self, and how we might find a more integrated life by doing so, as Melu notes in the introduction to this collection:

Mirrors are fragile and it’s very easy that they get broken. Nonetheless, even a broken mirror can be helpful. Try to look at your image on a broken mirror. You could be frightened or intrigued:  you can think that the fragmented image you see says that you are overwhelmed, destroyed, cut in pieces by your problems, trauma issues. Or you can see those fragments as different parts of yourself, and seeing them can be helpful in knowing each of them better, and trying to make them live and interact together successfully.

– Melusina Parkin, Broken Mirrors

Melusina Parkin, September 2023: Broken Mirrors

All individually engaging, the AI collections presented within Broken Mirrors, Kisses  and 100 Retro Ladies are a new an interesting extension to Melusina’s art, one which offers something of a unique approach in using AI toolsets compared to some other artists experimenting with the medium. Meanwhile, and for those who prefer, Horizons demonstrates Melu is not abandoning her flair for presenting equally engaging Second Life focused photographic art.

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Appreciating the Shades of Autumn in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Shades of Autumn, September 2023 – click any image for full size

The year is turning and, for those of us in the northern hemisphere autumn is once more starting to show its face. With it comes the popular redressing of many regions in Second Life to provide autumnal (or Fall, if you prefer) colours. One of these is the Homestead region held by Flower Caerndow, which she offers as a public space for people to explore, enjoy and photograph.

Presented as Shades of Autumn, a name which precisely describes the setting, this is a landscape rich in the greens, browns, and golds, and so on associated with the season. However, there is so much more to appreciate here than a single season.

Shades of Autumn, September 2023

This is a landscape dominated by ruins, the largest of which being a Norman-style keep sitting astride the region’s northern highlands – as one might reasonable expect. With the curtain walls of the inner ward largely intact, the keep carries with it a sense of romance inside and out. Close by, and overlooking the water’s edge, is a single tower, perhaps one a part of larger fortifications which once formed a ring out outer defences for the main castle but now offers a point from which to appreciate it as it now stands – and imagine how it might once have looked.

Away to the south and occupying what is effectively a broad headland, sit the ruins of a chapel. It is far enough away from the castle so as to suggest it always stood outside of the Castle’s walls – not an uncommon state of place for the medieval period – but close enough that it could be protected by the presence of whoever occupied the castle. Together, the castle, tower and chapel are not the only ruins to be found within the region, but they are the most visible for those arriving in the setting.

Shades of Autumn, September 2023

While it is not enforced, the landing point sits towards the east side of the region, close to the tower ruins and the shallow bay it overlooks. It’s a vantage point offering a good view of the keep as it sits upslope, whilst also close by is a broad pool of water which forms the region’s most unusual natural feature.

Clearly sitting over a natural spring, this pool is open on two sides, allowing the water from it to tumble outwards, dropping by means of little falls and two narrow streams to reach the surrounding sea, thus effectively cutting the land in two. Fortunately, visitors are spared any wet feet thanks to the three bridges spanning the streams, even if two of them are slightly makeshift in nature.

Shades of Autumn, September 2023

Although the ruins clearly point to the island being occupied during medieval times, they do not mean the Normans were the first to inhabit it; also occupying the slope leading up the keep is a ring of Neolithic standing stones. They indicate there is a much older tale to be told about the island and its past. A further sense of mystery (and fantasy) is added through the presence of crystals and otherworldly-seeming plants (particularly in the keep’s inner ward) and the presence of statues here and there, all of which further add to the sense of romance found within the the keep.

And romance is very much the focus here, alongside that of photography, with any backstory we might care to create while visiting purely a matter for our imaginations. This focus on romance can further be found throughout the setting in the form of the many places visitors can find to side, cuddle and simply pass the time. Some of these are easy to find, others might require a little more in the way of exploration.

Shades of Autumn, September 2023

This is also an island with a secret; one which is not that hard to find, admittedly. It takes the form of an Experience-based teleport portal, and delivers visitors to a sky island which not only continues the theme it also – in Flower’s own words, offers a memory of the region’s previous iteration, thus connecting the two. Follow the path there to the portal leading back to ground level.

With a richness of beauty and nature, Shades of Nature is an engaging setting to visit, one which is – quite obviously – highly photogenic.  The attention to detail is superb, and the way in which Flower has brought everything together is pretty much perfect. Definitely not one to miss.

Shades of Autumn, September 2023

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Invisible Cities: an Essay In Desire in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, September 2023: Debora Kaz – Invisible Cities: Essay on Desire

September 2023 sees Debora Kaz make a return to what is – in my personal opinion – consistently the finest gallery in Second Life for the presentation of engaging, provocative and evocative art: the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery operated and curated by Dido Haas. She brings with her a further chapter in her Invisible Cities series; this one entitled Essay in Desire.

I’ve covered two previous chapters of Invisible Cities, one of which was also displayed at Nitroglobus – see Invisible Cities: Fighting Women at Nitroglobus in Second Life – and also one hosted at Artsville Galleries – see: Invisible Cities: The Future in the Present Overflows in Second Life. While I would not necessarily call Essay In Desire a “sequel” per se to those earlier exhibitions, I would perhaps refer to it as a further chapter in Debora’s exploration and presentation of themes of womanhood in the modern era.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, September 2023: Debora Kaz – Invisible Cities: Essay on Desire

Within Fighting Women, Debora explored the manner where – for much of history – women have had to survive within a – dare I say largely patriarchal – framework as objects of desire (and objects in general); a situation which often gives rise to physical, mental and psychological violence towards us, which can be both direct and also indirect (such as with the current onslaught against a woman’s right to bodily autonomy being very publicly played out in the United States, courtesy of a largely misogynistic right-wing pseudo-religious political movement). Within The Future in the Present Overflows, the focus shifted to a more individual viewpoint on how such visible/invisible / physical/mental/”moral” violence and restrictive practices can have on a single life.

For Essay on Desire, Debora combines the approach of focusing on the individual and the sense of self seen in The Future in the Present Overflows, and of offering a wider study of the concept of desire as found within Fighting Women. However, rather than focusing on the more destructive constatations of desire as framed by that exhibition, here Debora focuses on the more personal exploration of the precepts of desire – notably those of sensuality, sexuality, and eroticism – and how they play a vital role within the process of self-discovery and understanding of oneself.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, September 2023: Debora Kaz – Invisible Cities: Essay on Desire

This exploration comes primarily through images and words. The the latter come in the form of an essay which both sits as an introduction to the exhibition and as a treatise for thought and introspection. It is a powerful piece; one which should be read with care and consideration (perhaps most particularly if you are a male wishing to gain a better insight to the female psyche as seen from the female perspective)v, as it is rich with insight and honesty.

The images all follow a particular form and flow. Offered in muted tones, they comprise twelve oriented in a narrow portrait form and a further six in the more usual (for Nitroglobus) large-format landscape style. All of them present images of a woman at ease with herself and her sexuality, her poses suggestive of her awareness of self and a willingness to further explore her innate beauty and eroticism without the need to conform its display through outright nudity or through directly sexual poses as might otherwise be demanded.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, September 2023: Debora Kaz – Invisible Cities: Essay on Desire

Each image is carefully bordered to either side (and in place directly flowing into the image)1 by mix of hand-written text, formulae, flowery etchings and hints of formal geometry, all of which presents a clear, if subtle, symbolism.

For example, the use of hand-written text reminds us that – whilst it might not be so common now for whatever reason – for a long time the closest confidant a woman might have had to bestow her secrets and desires upon was her diary. Through its pages, she could give vent to desires, wishes, hopes, and thoughts which otherwise could never be delivered in public, the diary thus becoming both a small measure of release and a reminder of imprisonment and denial enforced by society.

These constraints are further emphasised by the use of formulae and geometry. Both symbolise control, order, logic and the reductive manner of society to define everything to the simplest of terms wherein everything – including the nature of woman – has a strictly defined place. This imposition of constraint and order extends into the 3D elements to be found within of Essay, where the upright and slanting poles are ranged around female figures as if to fence them in and confine their ability to express.

Finally, there are the figurines and the use of flowers within them images. Together, these present a gentle, visual underlying of a central truth within Debora’s essay:

This process of self-discovery is an intimate dance with oneself, where each step is a journey of self-unveiling. Like petals delicately unfurling to the sun, she reveals her deepest passions and fantasies, allowing her mind and body to be in harmony. The pursuit of pleasure becomes a celebration of life itself, an ode to her essence.

– Debora Kaz, Essay on Desire

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, September 2023: Debora Kaz – Invisible Cities: Essay on Desire

However, to suggest Essay is a complex exhibition requiring deep thought would perhaps be unfair. Yes, there is a rich layering of ideas and thought. But at the same time, the central message is also self-evident through the beauty and honesty contained within the words and the images. It is a message that is inescapable and true: freedom of expression and self-discovery is an inalienable right, which should be available to all of us. For as Debora concludes quite perfectly in the case of contemporary woman:

The need for self-knowledge, in this context, transcends the physical and delves into the deepest layers of the soul … This self-understanding is the key that unlocks the door to intimate and genuine relationships, where eroticism flows naturally.
In a world that is in constant evolution, the contemporary woman embraces the journey of self-knowledge as an act of self-love and empowerment. She understands that her sensuality and eroticism are intrinsic parts of who she is, and by exploring them with sincerity, she inspires not only herself but also those around her to embrace the quest for their own truth with curiosity and gratitude.

– Debora Kaz, Essay on Desire

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Discovering art at Motown in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Motown Welcome Hub Art Gallery, September 2023

Since it opened in June (see: Linden Lab and Motown: a new approach to user on-boarding in Second Life), the Motown Welcome Hub has hosted a number of events, with the most recent being a Scavenger Hunt and, for the weekend of the 2nd September, 2023, a Trivia event with music (from noon through until 14:00 SLT).

However, on new venue which may have been overlooked in the hubbub surrounding the recent Scavenger Hunt is the opening of the Motown Art Gallery, feature for it’s first (?) exhibition, the work of one of SL’s most well-known – and rightly celebrated – physical world artists, JudiLynn India, who uses the platform as a means to bring her art to a global audience, thus demonstrating one of Second Life’s great strengths in providing a reach which can at times exceed that available to us in the physical world.

Motown Art Gallery, September 2023: JudiLynn India

The gallery is housed in a warehouse-like building on the north side of the open-air music events area within the main Motown region, and offers both an indoor display space across a main an mezzanine floor, and additional space within its back lot (which can be either reached most readily via the alleyway running between the gallery’s neighbouring beauty salon and pizza house, or in the case of JudiLynn’s exhibition, the thoughtfully-provided teleport disc on the gallery’s main floor.

I’ve been drawing since I could hold a crayon. I studied art throughout school, Commercial Art in high school and Graphic Design at Tyler School of Art/Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. I’ve always been interested in various crafts such as sewing and ceramics. I’ve also been active in music, playing piano, guitar and violin. After the turn of the century, I decided to focus my creativity on acrylic and digital painting and have totally enjoyed the ongoing journey.

– JudiLynn India

Motown Welcome Hub Art Gallery, September 2023

JudiLynn is perhaps best known is Second Life for her vibrant and richly layered abstract art, produced both through “wet” painting and digital means, and which might be most accurately described as intuitive art. By this I mean that rather than being based on an specific premeditated design or idea, these are pieces that are defined through the artistic process itself; the loop between mood, colour, texture and imagination all combining with what is already on the canvas or screen to inform what should come next. allow each piece to grow entirely organically to a finished state.

The result of this are pieces rich in colour and contrast and also highly fluid in their nature. They attract the eye and offer patterns and interactions which seem to ebb and flow as the eye passes over them, provoking the imagination. Sometimes motifs or patterns will become apparent which will lead JudiLynn to experiment with them across two or more pieces, resulting in small collections such as the likes of  Spiralling, Land of Fantasy, Jazzy and Fences, all of which can be found within the “backyard” section of this exhibition.

Motown Art Gallery, September 2023: JudiLynn India

However, JudiLynn’s work covers a much broader canvas – so to speak – which encompasses portraiture, pieces exuding an impressionist sensibility and landscapes. Some of this work is again demonstrated within this exhibition through the likes of the utterly captivating Royal Elegance, Grace and Majestic pieces.

None of the pieces presented is available for sale; for those looking to make some purchases for their SL homes / appreciation, please refer to the list of galleries included in JudiLynn’s biography available through the wall panel under the stairs leading up to the mezzanine area. For those who would like to have JudiLynn’s work as part of their physical lives, do be sure to visit her website.

Motown Welcome Hub Art Gallery, September 2023

As noted through the use of the bracketed question mark towards the top of this article, I’ve no idea whether exhibitions at the gallery will be rotated or on what basis; frankly, I’d be very disappointed if this were not the case; the inclusion of the gallery within the Welcome Hub is an excellent means of demonstrating SL’s ability to stand as a platform for artistic expressionism in its visual forms as much as the music venue outside the gallery demonstrates its ability to be a venue for social events and entertainment (and in regard to  visual art, I would also note JudiLynn has taken care to give a subtle underlining of SL’s scope for 3D artistic expression as well). As such, and whilst recommending JudiLynn’s exhibition, I certainly hope we’ll get to see the gallery reflect all genres of 2D and 3D art popular within SL.

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