April 2026 is the month of Artemis 2 (well, at least the first ten days are!), which will see a crew of four pass around the Moon before returning to Earth In the process the crew will set a new record for the furthest any humans have travelled beyond Earth thus far – some 406,773 kilometres, just breaking the record of 397,848 kilometres set by Apollo 13 during its aborted mission to the Moon in April 1970,
As such, it is thoroughly appropriate that whether by accident or design, Cica Ghost is using April to take us on a trip into space and to her Happy Planet.
Cica Ghost, April 2026: Happy Planet
Set against the backdrop of night, from which a large Moon (or possibly a planetary twin) literally watches over everything via the circular (and eye-like) blue sea covering a far portion of its otherwise dull browny nearside, this is a place of fantastical wonder, backed by a truth from US cartoonist Lynda Barry:
We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality. We create it to be able to stay.
In other words fantasy and our use of it is more about presenting us with opportunities to pause and renew our strengths and abilities in the face of a reality which can oftentimes be harsh or unpredictable – or both – in its daily nature, rather than being a simply a crutch for helping us cope – as the unimaginative in nature have often claimed.
Cica Ghost, April 2026: Happy Planet
And fantasy can be both wonderfully creative and fun – as Happy Planet, with its strange but in some cases familiar creatures and inhabitants. From cats with antennae to almost slug-like beings oddly mindful of Gru’s Minions, occupying the rocky landscape and possibly living in the rock formations which appear to have holes cut into them to form interior spaces complete with windows and chimneys, this is clearly a place born of a creative and fantasy-oriented mind, rich in strange flora.
Some of these semi-sluggy (if you will) locals are not confined to the ground, but zip around overhead in personal flying saucers, deftly missing asteroids which – to unabashedly steal from Douglas Adams – hang in the air exactly the same way as bricks don’t. And you can join the flying locals; located in the setting is a free flying saucer giver. Simply claim one, add it from inventory and take flight.
Cica Ghost, April 2026: Happy Planet
For those who prefer the alien equivalent of terra firma, there are plenty of opportunities for ground (or slightly elevate, thanks to re various raised paths) exploration, which will also reveal interactive dance spots scattered around the setting. I didn’t find any sit points while mousing over things, but I may have missed them. Either way, there is no mistaking Happy Planet is a happy place to be.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Nowhere B – Homebody Surrealism
As I continue to try to get back into regular blogging (and catch up with the backlog of invites and suggestions – please bear with me on this!), it was off back to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, operated and curated by Dido Haas, to peek at a couple of exhibitions, one of which is by one of my favourite SL artists.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Nowhere B – Homebody Surrealism
That exhibition presented a highly personal journal (if you will) of Nowhere’s journeys through Second Life. With Homebody Surrealism, he presents another series of images which again carry with them something of a personal subtext, but which take the observer in an entirely different direction, as Nowhere explains:
Homebody Surrealism is a domestic surrealist exploration—an inward journey into the strange and the marvelous hidden within ordinary life. It proposes that the familiar spaces we inhabit daily are not dull or exhausted, but quietly enchanted. Within the home, the most mundane objects become portals to wonder. An egg, a drawer, a window, a curtain—each holds the potential for revelation…
Homebody Surrealism invites us to look again, more slowly and more attentively. When attention deepens, the ordinary begins to shimmer with ambiguity and quiet mystery. The domestic world—so often dismissed as trivial—reveals itself as fertile ground for imagination, introspection, and awakening.
Nowhere B.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery Annex: Nowhere B – Homebody Surrealism
The result is a collection of highly imaginative and engaging images and pieces which are captivating when first seen, then quietly beckon us in closer to decern more of what they wish to say – or at least, invite us to see beyond the “mundane”, as Nowhere puts it.
Given the nature of the pieces, their potential subjective resonance and that touch of subtext, I’m not going to colour your thinking by offering my own thoughts on the pieces within Homebody Surrealism. Rather, I invite you to visit the exhibition yourself and see them first hand.
The main hall at Nitroglobus sees the return of Bamboo Barnes with her fifth exhibition there, one which is deeply introspective in nature and form, carrying with it the title Infinity Wall.
Bamboo is, for me, one of the most vibrant, evocative, provocative, and emotive artists in Second Life. Her work is far removed from that of other artists who mix digital techniques with images from the physical world and those from SL. Her work is both vibrant and open in its use of colour and tone, yet also deeply introspective – that latter often brought forward by her use of those same assertive colours and tone. her themed exhibitions are thus a window into art – and into the artist herself.
This is very true of Infinity Wall, which is one of the most personal of Bamboo’s exhibitions. This is very much noted by Bamboo herself:
It felt like a small universe—perhaps because both of our lives had somehow fallen out of sync with the world. Now I find myself asking questions I cannot answer alone, and at times I shrink from the pain they bring. It is like standing before an infinity wall, staring at a black dot as it slowly fades away. I no longer know where I stand—whether I am falling or floating. The only certainty is that there is nothing beneath my feet.
…Nothing is perfect, and once something begins, it moves inevitably toward its end. This is a quiet, unchangeable truth we must accept. Until that moment arrives, we drift, sometimes sink, and continue trying to create a universe we cannot hold onto forever.
The majority of the images in this collection are self-portraits; pieces which are deeply emotive and beautifully telling in their stories. From individual pieces through to a triptych, these pieces reveal Bamboo’s talent for setting mood and suggesting thoughts and feelings – and offering insight into her own thoughts and reflections.
As with Nowhere B’s exhibition, Infinity Wall must be seen directly rather than seen through the lens of my thinking in order to be properly heard in its messages. As such, I again thorough recommend a visit.
IMAGO Art Gallery, March 2026: Art Mysterious – Soul
It is possible that Art Mysterious might be best known for his avatar profile pictures, high-quality, professionally produced and processed images suitable for display in people’s Second Life profiles, together with his landscape photography, also taken in Second Life, which is captivating for a variety of reasons – including subject, angle, use of depth of field, colour processing and more.
However, Art’s work extends far beyond these two aspects, encompassing line drawing, experimentation, real-life portraiture. Using his skills as a graphics artist, Art strives to blur the line between our digital realm in Second Life and the real world, presenting a gateway into a world of art in which graphical art and virtual spaces are combined to offer images of deep emotional content and power.
This is very much in evidence within his work as a portrait artist, whether working directly with photographs taken in-world or when bringing avatars to life through his unique avatar drawings. The latter are striking for the manner in which he strives to move beyond mere hand-drawn reproductions of images captured in-world, but seeks to reveal the inner nuances of the avatar as manipulated by the avatar’s owner; to give a suggestion of the avatar as a part of the life that sits behind the screen.
An avatar is no less “real” than a face from the physical world. It represents identity, presence, emotion, and memory within a digital space that is just as authentic for those who inhabit it. Creating an avatar drawing requires the same level of attention to detail, the same artistic interpretation, and the same responsibility to capture the subject’s essence as a real-life portrait.
– Art Mysterious on creating avatar drawings
IMAGO Art Gallery, March 2026: Art Mysterious – Soul
Within Soul, an exhibition hosted by Mareea Farrasco at her relocated Imago Art Gallery, Art presents another aspect of his work: that of an experimentalist, bringing together multiple approaches to art which take a raw drawing produced by Art, exposes it to various techniques an tools to provide a completed image, which is then displayed with the original drawing.
Starting from the initial hand-drawn sketch, Art Mysterious used modern technology and artificial intelligence to transform and regenerate the images into final ink drawings, preserving the original concept, composition, and expression. The process became a continuity between the traditional gesture and digital means, where the core idea remained unchanged, but the form was reinterpreted through contemporary tools.
– From the Artists’ description of the major pieces in Soul
IMAGO Art Gallery, March 2026: Art Mysterious – Soul
The result is a truly stunning series of images, each with its own title, several bordering on the surreal, others offering literary (and cinematic) allusions. All are rich in detail, with the more surreal pieces – AEIOU, Spirit, Core and Clone on the lower floor of the gallery – offering such a richness of imagery and potential interpretation that I’m not even going to try to offer thoughts into them, as doing so would simply spoil the experience first-hand; these are pieces which need to be experienced without any intervening filters of thought.
Similarly the more allusory are gorgeous in their presentation of ideas and their referencing culture, literature and even the human condition – The Lost Raven (quite possibly my favourite in the exhibition, given it Poe-like references), Addiction and Schizophrenia quite powerfully so.
Also to be found in the exhibition is a smaller display of Art’s beautifully engaging line art, offered for sale under the title Transylvania Collection, and which is itself captivating.
IMAGO Art Gallery, March 2026: Art Mysterious – Soul
Very much an exhibition to be both seen and absorbed – and don’t forget the video “audiobook” accompanying the exhibition.
The word ordinary tends to bring with it negative connotations, a suggestion that well, something might be OK, but really, something else could be far better., but until it comes along we’ll just have to make do. Even the dictionary defines the word in bland, downturned terms:
Ordinary /ôr′dn-ĕr″ē/ – adjective: Commonly encountered; usual; of no exceptional ability, degree, or quality; average; Not particularly good; not better than average.
But the fact is, ordinary can equally be positive in connotation: an ordinary route might sound like the same old, same old – but in fact it can give a rhythm to our daily lives, helping us get through the rush and rut more easily than having to panic thanks to unforeseen crises; the same is true for an “ordinary” day, when we can forget the pressures of work and the world and just be, simply sitting back, relaxing and let the minutes and hours pass at their own pace, allowing us time to breathe, to talk to the cat or the garden flowers or just be.
Cica Ghost, March 2026: Ordinary Day
For March, Cica Ghost reminds us of this through her installation Ordinary Day, which opened on March 6th, 2026. It presents a peaceful setting under a peaceful, if grey (or perhaps “ordinary” might be the right term!), where nothing happens unless we want it to. In the garden, a big cat innocently eyes a couple of Mouse cars (just sit on one if you wish and use the arrow keys to move / steer), and is happy to watch them at play,
Within this garden, flower-topped palms rise, casting their fronds wide to provide any shelter that might be required, whilst stone circles mark flowerbeds with more blue plants and tall grass. A stack of not exactly ordinary buildings rises towards the back of the setting, various stairways and a ramp climbing up into them.
Cica Ghost, March 2026: Ordinary DayMost of the latter lead to points of interest and curio – places to sit, including one where those so minded can maybe cheer up a sad-looking monster; a rooftop plaza where visitors might join some of Cica’s hand-drawn spiders as they dance a jig as an equally hand-drawn Cica plays her fiddle; or pay a visit to a snail sitting on a ledge. One of the sit points might be a little hard to reach, but does offer a view down over the garden the the cat.
Ordinary day doesn’t carry any deep message or meaning, it simply reminds us that really there is nothing wrong with “ordinary” day or with “ordinary” things or in being “ordinary”. The reality it, that we need time off and days which we can make our own, because those days might appear “ordinary” to the world, but for us they are opportunities for magic to happen – be it dancing a jig, sitting at a table, or racing a mouse car around a garden, or even contemplating our sorrows and finding a way past them.
A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, March 2026: Janine Portal
In February, I received an invite from Astella Warrigal to visit her gallery, A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery. It was actually to attend the venue’s grand reopening, which was held on February 22nd, 2026. However, things being what they were for me at the time, I was unfortunately unable to attend that event; but I certainly wanted to make sure I got to see the exhibition of art by Janine Portal which formed a part of the re-opening.
I first encountered Janine’s work back in 2018, an immediately found it captivating. As I noted at that time:
Utilising animations and prims to present remarkable collage pieces with a surrealist edge that are quite captivating to see … some of the most unusual art and effects I’ve seen in Second Life for a while, each piece offering an unexpected view of what might otherwise appear to be and ordinary scene or photo or presenting a melding of ideas and / or narrative that is quite engaging.
– The artful collages of Janine Portal in Second Life
A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, March 2026: Janine Portal
This is very much the case with the exhibition of Janine’s work at A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, where it can be seen on the upper levels of the building. On display are some 13 collage images, all of them comprising found and manipulated (by Janine) art and photographs, including reproductions of artwork by the likes of William Blake, Hilma af Klint, Richard Diebenkorn, and Second Life photographer Ajax Ogleby.
Janine says of her work:
I’ve been making art in Second Life using a technique that involves layering transparent prims to create works with shifting collage images. In RL, long before I made an account in SL, layered transparent paint to express similar ideas, using many of the symbols you see here.
– Janine Portal
A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, March 2026: Janine Portal
Janine goes on to note that her art reflects ideas which have woven their way into her thinking and approach to art ever since her time at art school: ideas of the metaphysical and personal symbols of transformation. This gives her work a layered set of interpretations; whether one views them purely as visually engaging works of art or seeks to find those metaphysical ideas. In this, Janine adds her own view on the art:
On a conceptual level they represent, to me, the endlessly shifting nature of reality, the ways in which we move through time and space and the nature of growth, change, and transformation.
– Janine Portal
A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, March 2026: Janine Portal
A genuinely captivating exhibition, one definitely worth the time in visiting.
China Buddha Caves, March 2026 – click any image for full size
Located within Gansu province in western China is the county city of Dunhaung. It sits on the old Silk Road, and forms a cultural and religious crossroads. Founded as a garrison town in 11 BCE, Dunhaung is perhaps now more famously known for its proximity to the Mogao Caves, a system of 500 temples, caves and grottoes some 25 kilometres south-east of the city.
Also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, the network represents, along with other cave systems in the area, some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period some 1,000 years, the earliest caves having been dug in around 366 CE, initially as places of rest, worship and meditation. However, as time passed, they became a place of pilgrimage, and further caves and grottoes were dug, with the system expanding through until the 13th century, before they were “lost” until the late 19th century.
China Buddha Caves, March 2026
I mention all of this because in his latest artistic installation, London Junker offers us a vision of the Mogao Caves and the beauty of their art, sculptures and design with his China Buddha Caves build- project was sponsored by SL Public Land Preserve and Ravenglass Rentals (La Montana Rosa) – to which he extended a personal invitation for me to visit.
Situated in the snowy uplands of south-western Sansara, the build is initially deceptive to the eye. The Landing Point sits at the head of a descending gorge through which water tumbles and falls towards the sea. A large Buddha sits behind the Landing Point, undoubtedly offering blessing to arrivals, whilst a single grotto with wall murals and three more figures of Buddha sits to one side.
China Buddha Caves, March 2026
A further Buddha can be seen lower down in the valley, together with a shrine and structures built with their backs towards the rising cliffs. A single path runs down the side of the gorge, passing over a long bridge and down stairs to reach a second bridge crossing the waters and provide access to the tall statue of Buddha and the shrine, whilst a second path rises to the lowermost of the structures build against the cliff, and which forms the entrance to the caves proper.
The art and carvings within the Mogao Caves is truly magnificent, and the site fortunately escaped the Buddhist persecutions ordered by Emperor Wuzong of Tang in the ninth century, continuing to be used through until the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. However, it was during that era that new trade routes started to open, and the use of the Silk Road fell into decline – and with it, the use of the Mogao Caves as a place of pilgrimage. By the mid- 14th century, no new caves were being built, and the site was largely forgotten other than by locals.
China Buddha Caves, March 2026
It was not until the 19th century that the caves were re-discovered. Interest in exploring the ancient Silk Road and uncovering its secrets was initially a goal of western explorers and historians, and this eventually led them to Dunhuang and the caves. However, it was at the start of the 20th century that the greatest work of rediscovery commenced, with the good intentions of one man in particular.
His name was Wang Yuanlu. A Chinese Taoist, he had appointed himself guardian of the caves, and in the early 1900s set about clearing the entrances to many which had become blocked over the centuries, as well to trying to renovate many of the damaged statutes.
China Buddha Caves, March 2026
Most particularly, Wang’s work led to the discovery of a vast trove of manuscripts in what had simply been called Cave 17, but which afterwards was referred to as the Library Cave. Some 1100 scrolls and 15,000 books were found in the cave, together with an estimated 50,000 texts on a range of subjects including philosophy, art, literature and medicine. This discovery brought the Mogao Caves to wider global attention, with a number of foreign expeditions to explore them being mounted – several of which simply carted off whatever they could.
Fortunately, London’s China Buddha Caves suffers none of this looting. Rising up through multiple levels, as is the case at Mogao, they instead offer a captivating interpretation of their physical world inspiration, presenting a rich mix of Buddhist art and history, the walls bearing beautiful murals and paintings, the statuary magnificent in detail and finish. As you rises up through the caves (take your time in exploring, some of the rising tunnels are easy to miss!), you will come across an opening to a veranda located against the cliff and above the main entrance, reflecting a similar, almost pagoda-like structure found at Mogao.
China Buddha Caves, March 2026
Each level becomes more expressive and rich as one ascends, with the upper most and the landing and grotto leading up to it being particularly attention-holding. However, all of the levels capture the beauty and history to be found in the caves at Mogao, and perfectly reflect the beauty of the murals to be found in many of the caves there. In this, I would advise using a PBR viewer in order to fully appreciate this installation, or if you are still pre-PBR, that you enable ALM.
Presenting a glimpse of what is now a UNESCO World Heritage Centre (since 1988), London’s China Buddha Caves offer a superb means by which to catch a glimpse of what is a magnificent centre of Buddhist history and art in the physical world.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 