Sunday, June 5th will see the second of our Stories at the Park series, featuring the voice talents of the staff and friends of Seanchai Library.
Stories at the Park offer visitors to Holly Kai a unique opportunity to experience art in Second Life, both through both the exhibits by our visiting artists for May – which will remain in place through until Saturday June 11th – and through the beauty of the written and spoken word.
Art at the Park – JudiLynn India (foreground) and Slatan Dryke
Each month, members of Seanchai Library and their guests select pieces of art by the artists participating in the current Art in the Park exhibition, and write either a 100-word work of fiction (referred to as a “drabble”) or a 100-word poem about each piece. These stories and poems are then read live at Stories at the Park, either by the author or by a member of Seanchai Library.
For June, Trolly Trollop, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower will be reading pieces inspired by the art of Ceakay Ballyhoo, Eleseren Brianna, JudiLynn India, Lantana Silverweb, Slatan Dryke and SisterButta.
Art at the Park: SisterButta’s Wound Angels tells the story of lvinig with breast cancer through words, and through art down the ages
The event starts at 15:00 SLT at the storytelling gazebo. Visitors are of course welcome to come early and tour the art exhibits before Stories at the Park commences, or to linger afterwards and explore the art hill and the rest of Holly Kai Park – which includes woodland walks, the Holly Kai Garden with studio featuring the art of Silas Merlin and the photography of Inara Pey, and lots of little places to snuggle under the shade of trees, over the sands of a tropical beach, beside a sunlit pond or within an ancient ruined watchtower – you can even grab a kayak and paddle around the Holly Kai River.
Whatever you decide to do, I hope very much you’ll first and foremost join us for Stories at the Park and take the time to explore and appreciate the artistry of six wonderful talents from within and without Second Life, and the amazing storytelling skills of the Seanchai Library team.
The May ensemble exhibition in the Holly Kai Art at the Park series commences on Saturday, May 7th, 2016, and runs through until Saturday, June 11th.
For this exhibition, we are both pleased and privileged to be featuring the work of Ceakay Ballyhoo, Eleseren Brianna, JudiLynn India, Lantana Silverweb, Slatan Dryke and SisterButta.
The exhibition will open with a special gala event at the Holly Kai Pavilion, which will also mark the end of Silas Merlin’s marvellous Mirrored Garden exhibition at Holly Kai Garden – see below for more details.
About the Artists
CK (Ceakay Ballyhoo)
CK Ballyhoo has been roaming SL in search of wonderful landscapes and interesting buildings to capture and use to make her art. She has also discovered the joy of background studios and is still learning new things every day, often through inspiration by other artists.
Her style can be best described as capturing moods. Feel yourself drawn into the landscapes of her pictures. See the emotion and character traits expressed in the people she portrays. It’s a dreamy world most of the time. Unclear lines, blurry, warm colours. Sometimes darker and gloomier.
There are often series. Sometimes around a theme, sometimes different takes of one scene, because she can’t decide which one she likes best and likes to give them time to grow on her.
Eleseren Brianna
Trained as an illustrator in the physical world, Eleseren Brianna is perhaps best known as a fashion and couture model in Second Life, so her photographic work is understandably focused in that direction, but certainly not limited to fashion shots. Holly Kai will be her sixth major exhibition in Second Life, where she has only recently entered the art world, although , she has previously exhibited her work at Dreanz and Visionz in Inworldz.
The pieces she offers at the Park are placed under the title of “Myths”, which she describes thus:
I wanted to create mysterious and dreamlike images, that call upon the universal archetypes that Jung said lie tangled within the roots of our Collective Unconscious. These images do not try to explain, or define what is going on in them..they are left mysterious, open-ended, ready for the viewer to spin their own story onto.
JudiLynn India
JudiLynn is an established artist in the physical world who states she has been drawing since she could first hold a crayon. Since then she has pursued art both academically and physically, and since the turn of the millennium has focused on acrylic and digital painting.
JudiLynn says of her work:
My work embodies my spirit and personality. My goal is to allow you to experience the image with your own mind’s eye. My work is entirely intuitive. I get lost in the layering of texture and colour. Occasionally, I will include figurative work if my spirit is so presented with the composition. Just as there is order in the chaos of the universe, the energy within me is brought into focus one canvas at a time.
Lantana Silverweb
Lantana Is another person who is new to the world of art in Second Life, but who is deservedly gaining a reputation for the outstanding images she produces. Describing herself as inspired by the work of other SL artists, Lantana has developed her skill and eye very much through a “learn by doing” process, which has led her into experimentation and a natural approach to her avatar studies. ” I don’t use photo poses but rather have the model use their AO and take the photos as they move around,” she says.
Her entry into SL art came – appropriately enough – as a result of a visit to Nitroglobus Gallery. “I sent some of the better ones to the owner who invited me to put them on their Flickr page. I didn’t know much about Flickr, but when I saw it realised I had somewhere to post my photos so that others could see them.” And from there things grew.
For her work, Lantana focus on the feeling each image evokes in her. “I work on them until I touch the darkness,” she says, before going on to express her preference for avatar studies. “I prefer to make images of people rather than landscapes and do my shoots on location although there have been a few occasions where I have built sets.”
As she gains experience, so she is looking to experiment further, noting she’s working with every more elaborate pieces in an attempt to move away from purely 2D art and more into 3D work, and taking advantage of the physics SL offers.
Slatan Dryke
Slatan Dryke loves art in all its forms, and while he may well be a photographer in the physical world, he regards painting and sculpture as being closest to his heart, and he works in both mediums here in Second Life, as the pieces he has opted to show at Holly Kai Park demonstrate.
A wanderer by nature, he enjoys nothing more than exploring the grid, finding new pockets of beauty for his pictures, thanks to the creativity and imagination of fellow residents, where his physical world knowledge of photography greatly informs his framing, windlight selection, image ratio, etc., such that he rarely post-processes his work.
As a sculptor, Slatan surprisingly claims to have limited skills with in-world building. However, his works – which focus on the abstract – demonstrate a talent for colour, motion, and composition, and show a skilled level of prim manipulation.
For Holly Kai, Slatan is present his 2D art on one of the art decks in the hill-top gallery area, was well as a number of his sculptures scattered through the art exhibition area.
SisterButta
A professional writer, SisterButta, also known as Trolley Trollop, sees Second Life as a means to explore narrative techniques and means to create new “story-making” possibilities to create interactive and immersive environments to convey information in non-traditional ways.
A life-long denizen of on-line communities dating back to early 1980s, SisterButta is a noted performer and voice artist is Second Life, and has been active in the promotion of arts through the likes of Seanchai Library and the Decades festival, which focuses on historical role-play in Second Life. She has also, with building partner Robijn Resident, created an installation covering the first 200 years of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), which was displayed at Rocca Sorrentina.
More recently, SisterButta and Robijn created Wound Angels, an interactive exhibit honouring breast cancer sufferers through the ages, as seen through the eyes of some of history’s greatest artists, and which was first shown at the RFL 2016 Home and Garden exhibition. We are very honoured to have it reproduced at Holly Kai Park.
Opening Event
The new Art at the Park exhibition will officially open at 4:00pm SLT on Saturday, May 7th, with several of our artists on hand. The event will also mark the closing of the excellent Mirrored Garden exhibition by Silas Merlin at Holly Kai Garden, which you can read about here.
As always, the opening event will take place at the Holly Kai Pavilion, which can be reached via the bridge from the main Holly Kai Landing point, and which also connects with Holly Kai Garden, allowing attending to also visit Mirrored Garden.
Our friend Joaquin Gustav will be providing the music for the opening, and we very much hope you will join us, and either tour the park and garden ahead of the opening, or spend time exploring following Joaquin’s set. Formal attire is requested.
Opening on Saturday, April 16th, 2016 at Holly Kai Garden is a new exhibition by Silas Merlin. Entitled Mirrored Garden, the exhibit is a rich showcase of Sials’ artistry, and I unashamedly admit that I’m pleased as punch to have having exhibiting at Holly Kai.
Better know in the physical world as Jean-François Le Saint, Silas is a Maître Pastelliste ( Master Pastelist) at the Société des Pastellistes de France, and his work is utterly captivating. so much so, that no opportunity to see it displayed in Second Life should ever be missed.
Mirrored Garden is very much an exhibition of three parts, all interwoven. On either terrace is a selection of Silas’ pastel works, each selection reflected by the words of two poems by Eala Du (CottonSwan), Where Is This Place? and Hands Form Into Puppets. On one terrace, the images focus on human hands: a parent’s loving hand resting on a boy’s shoulder, a teacher assisting a young violinist, children sitting engaged in a game – are all beautifully echoed in Eala’s words. Across the path, the sentiments and freedom expressed in Where Is This Place? perfectly frames Silas’ images of youngsters enjoying the freedom of the seashore.
Centrally placed in each terrace is a sculpture by Silas, one standing as the mirror reflection of the other, albeit with a slight difference between the two. Entitled Mock Fight, these two pieces both embody the title of the exhibition and reflect the youthful freedom and innocence found within the words of Eala’s poems.
The mirror theme of the title can be further found in the pillars directly behind the sculptures – although you will need to have Advanced Lighting (ALM) enabled in your viewer to see it. Set into each pillar is a “mirrored” surface which, thanks to the use of projectors, presents a marvellous refection of each terrace and the art displayed within it when caming across the surface of either mirror – while in one you might even catch Silas looking back at you 🙂 .
Silas’ work, beautifully executed in pastels and carefully uploaded to Second Life is a true delight to see. There is something utterly compelling in the layered textures of the images, their colour tones and depth, which captures the very essence of his subjects in a way photograph and paint cannot easily replicate.
Silas is always seeking ways in which he can extend his artistry; Mock Fight, for example, marks his move towards translating images he has produced in pastels into 3D pieces in-world. This in turn is a step towards his desire to produce models of his art in the physical world via 3D printing. For those similarly wishing to extend their artistry, Silas offers some words of advice in an article in Pastel Artist International entitled The Paper Is Your Playground, which is presented at holy Kai Garden, together with articles in French from Pratique Des Arts and Dessins & Peintures Thematique, which offer a wonderful window into Silas’ world.
As noted, I’m utterly delighted that Silas is exhibiting at Holly Kai Garden, and we’ll be marking the opening of his exhibition at 16:00 SLT on Saturday, April 16th, with a special celebration (dress: smart casual) with music provided by DJ G-Windz (Gerrard Winstanley), all at the public terrace at Holly Kai Garden. I hope we’ll see you there!
On Sunday April 3rd, and in collaboration with the folk at Seanchai Library, we launched the first in a new series at Holly Kai Park called Stories at the Park.
Arising from a discussion about the arts in Second Life between myself and Caledonia Skytower, Stories at the Park is a companion to out Art at the Park exhibition series. The idea is that at each Stories at the Park event, members of Seanchai Library and their guests will read, in Voice, stories or poems inspired by selected works of our Invited Artists currently on display at the Park’s hilltop exhibition area. Each story must be precisely 100 words in length, no more, no less (known as a “drabble”), while poems can be of any form, so long as they do no exceed 100 words.
To start the first session, Caledonia Skytower and Kayden Oconnell presented a total of 25 stories and poems inspired by the work of our Invited Artists for February / March: Io Bechir, Goodcross, Hana Hoo, Mistero Hifeng and Sisse Singh.
The event took place at the stone gazebo (from here on called the storyteller’s gazebo 🙂 ), located in the middle of the hilltop exhibition space at the park, a short walk up the hill from the landing point. Over 15 people attended the readings, with some arriving early to look at the art on display, before taking their places at the tables in the gazebo or on the cushions located around the low wall or simply standing out on the grass.
Cale and Kayden opted to read their stories and poems in groups of 3 apiece, offering a nice ebb and flow of readings between them So nice, in fact, I became so wrapped up in their tales, I forgot to take any photos of the gathering! Afterwards several stayed on to wander through the park and chat about the event and the art on display.
For those who didn’t make the event, Caledonia and Kayden kindly agreed to allow their stories and poems to be reprinted on the Holly Kai blog. The pieces are presented by artist, complete with an image of the art which inspired each of them, and some include an audio reading as well. So do please follow the links below and enjoy the crop of the first round of Stories at the Park.
During March and early April, the Art Terrace at Holly Kai Garden has been the home to an exhibition of art by Derry McMahon and Bear Silvershade.
We took the liberty of presenting the two artists’ work with the theme of Shorelines and Solitudes, as the exhibition presented a set of images Derry had brought together under the title Down the Shore Everything’s All Right, while Bear has been displaying a set of his monochrome studies under the title Solitudes.
The exhibit remains open until April 5th, and offers – in my humble opinion 🙂 – an excellent opportunity to view Derry and Bear’s very distinctive but fully complementary styles, as I noted in my review.
However, to mark their time at Holly Kai Garden, we are holding a special celebration party for Derry and Bear on Sunday, April 3rd, from 4:30pm SLT.
Joaquin Gustav
Joaquin Gustav will be providing the music from 4:30, featuring the music of Joaquin Gustav, one of Second Life’s most popular musicians. Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Joaquin is a guitarist and composer who has collaborated on the musical scores for a number of hit Argentinian theatre productions including Enrulados Derechos, Buga and Donde Estan las Chcas?
Performing in Second Life, Joaquin has charmed fans with his unique brand of Latin sizzle, and has so far recorded seven albums especially for Second Life: Live at Gaslight, Xmas is a Summer Thing, Living Alive, Joaquin Plays Valentine, Joaquin Plays Valentine 2, Bon Vivant and Here Comes the Latin.
We do request that smart / formal wear is worn at the party, which will be held on the Garden Terrace at Holly Kai Garden, located alongside the studio building, offering attendees the opportunity to enjoy Joaquin’s music and Derry and Bear’s art on the neighbouring art terraces.
Currently open at Holly Garden Art Garden is a joint exhibition by Derry McMahon and Bear Silvershade.
Shorelines and Solitudes presented on the Art Terraces in Holly Kai Garden, features the contrasting but complimentary styles of Derry and Bear. For her Down the Shore Everything’s All Right exhibit, Derry presents a series of colour images of shorelines and coastal scenes. Bear, meanwhile, offers some more of his stunning monochrome images under the title Solitudes.
“When I began work on this exhibit, it was cold dark winter,” Derry says of her exhibit. “I wanted very much to be at my happy place – by the water; but there were snow storms and flooding and other nasty weather events. Second Life gave me the answer. Plenty of lovely warm pretty beaches to photograph. As Bruce says in his Jersey Girl song: …down the shore everything’s all right… It’s true! I hope you enjoy!”
Derry started in Second Life in 2007, initially working as an event coordinator and DJ at the West of Ireland. In 2008, she founded, as librarian and storyteller, the West of Ireland Library, which is today known as Seanchai Library. More recently, she retired from the Library and started to focus on her creativity as a photographer, exploring this virtual world with camera in hand, working hard to develop her skills and create expressive images that revel in the interplay of colour, light and form, and now tells her stories via images instead of words.
The images selected for the Holly Kai Garden exhibit offer us a tour of the shorelines and waterfronts of many picturesque regions in Second Life, each of them demonstrating Derry’s eye for detail and rich in her love of vibrant colour. each really does tell its own story – although I confess, I was very drawn into Seagull Seats, which had me contemplating who might have strolled along the pier under the gaze of the seagull, or sat in the seats to be found along it and what their thoughts might have been…
“Jean-Paul Sarte one said, ‘if you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company’, and loneliness and solitude are two different sides of the same coin, with isolation being their common thread.” Bear notes in introducing his exhibit. “But while loneliness brings wretched feelings of estrangement and something missing. Solitude, though, is a chance to explore our inner selves, our passions, or just enjoy the tranquillity of union with the universe.”
A photojournalist by profession , Bear discovered Second Life by chance towards the end of 2010 after what he refers to as “getting twitchy three days into a ‘relaxing’ vacation. Enthralled by a world by a world where there is no limit to creativity and imagination, he has taken the traditional tools of the landscape photographer and uses them to abstract the line and form of Second Life, distilling its complexity into elegant, evocative imagery.
I confess that I’ve always had a deep admiration for Bear’s work. His monochrome images are, to me, some of the most emotive art I’ve witnessed in Second Life, the imagery always matched by a powerful and appropriate title, such as evidenced with his Lonely Man series – and now with Solitudes.
Each of the images Bear has selected for Holly Kai Garden offers a rich, layered narrative which contrast yet complements the monochrome approach taken to it. The framing of each piece is exquisite to the point where it is impossible to remain simply an observer; one becomes a part of the story being told, a witness to the private thoughts of the sole subject (Bear himself) who appears in some of the pictures.
Together, Down the Shore Everything’s All Right and Solitudes are a perfect pairing of styles and images, and it is an absolute delight to have Derry and Bear exhibiting Shorelines and Solitudes as the second Art at the Garden series at Holly Kai Park through until Tuesday, April 5th.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 