Tag: Cica Ghost

I am, it has to be said, something of an arachnophobe. Small, little, or tiny spiders – they’re perfectly fine. Larger varieties – Well, keep them away from me. Put a really large spider in front of me – say a tarantula / bird-eating spider, or even the UK’s cardinal, tube-web or nursery-web spider – and I can guarantee I’ll be one of the first out of the door and moving at a reasonably fast pace.

I mention this because for May 2026, Cica Ghost brings us the curious combination of Robots and Spiders. But fortunately for those of us with any degree of fear when it comes to spiders, those present in Cica’s work are disarmingly friendly-looking and not at all what you might otherwise imagine.

These are spiders which appear to live on a world very different from our own; one they share with a bunch of seemingly happy-go-lucky robots. In fact, like the robots, they appear to be artificial in nature, made of metal parts – bulbs, tubes, poles, etc., suggesting they have specific purposes, although their eyes remain very human and expressive.

Rather than hunting prey or weaving webs, these spiders appear content to live within the metal town they share with the robots and a handful of metallic gusenica (caterpillars). The latter are certainly a happy-smiley lot, and not in the least afraid of the spiders, even if the latter on our world often see caterpillars as prey.

The robots, meanwhile, are by far the most anthropomorphic-looking (unsurprisingly)of the locals. Admittedly, some do lack arms and others look like they have old Mac computer cases or arcade game consoles for bodies (something which raises a possibly interesting question about their lineage!). However, they also appear to be a welcoming, happy bunch, ready to wave a greeting rather than snap at you with the claws that might occupy the ends of the arms they might have.

As noted, all of these creations live in a metal town in which some of the houses look like they might have once served as the heads of very big robots: hemispherical units with two eye-like windows to the side one on either side which may have once housed hearing units, and a large opening cut into the remaining side to form a doorway. Other parts of the town look like they are components of some large electrical or industrial installation or to have been made from metal boxes, and a couple of places look more akin to cabins or similar found here on Earth, making for an eclectic mix.

Rounded out by an appropriate quote from Dr. Seuss, Robots and Spiders is an unusual and light-hearted artistic fantasy.

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• Robots and Spiders (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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• Happy Planet (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)

 

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.

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.

Most 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.

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• Ordinary Day (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)

February has arrived, and with it all the romance (and frequent commercialisation- although in this day and age, what special holiday or day isn’t a commercial opportunity first? In the UK it only took many stores to open on Boxing Day  – the day after Christmas Day if you’re not familiar with the term – for customers to find shelves stocked with love hearts, Valentine’s chocolate selections – and, worse, Easter eggs, fluffy Easter bunnies and Easter bears) of Valentine’s Day.

Fortunately, there are many who are here to offer more fulfilling celebrations of love, romance and Valentine’s Day, including Cica Ghost, who offers a light, fun and engaging view of the month of romance with Oh My Heart.

Filled with semi-anthropomorphic hearts, cuddly bears and rabbits, lovable elephants and a Queen of Hearts who is most definitely not of the “Off with their heads!” type. All are gathered within a landscape filled with giant green flowers, looping vines and areas of red-and-black chequerboard patterns, complete tower and wall of red-and-black cubes with blocky rocky upthrusts.

The red heart characters stand on booted feet and appear to be without a care in the world. Their houses are also heart-shaped, whilst the bears and rabbits cuddle red hearts or offer heart symbols to passing visitors. Meanwhile, the Queen of Hearts presides over all from the height of her fairy tale castle up on a mesa reached by stone steps. Black hearts offer dances throughout and sit-points  – some obvious, others perhaps not so obvious, so be sure to mouseover! – are also scattered about, this is another light and delightful setting for anyone to enjoy, whether a romantic or not.

The setting comes with a quote from humourist, playwright, poet and author Alan Alexander Milne. It was two tomes of his verses – When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927) – through which he found his literary métier: writing for children. Thus came the two volumes for which he is perhaps most famous: Winnie the Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Whilst ostensibly written for children, notably his son, Christopher Robin Milne, these two works are rich in observations about human behaviour, gentle truths on how to behave and what in life to treasure. It is from the latter that Cica has chosen her quote:

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.  

– A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

There is a marvellous depth of truth and meaning in this single sentence; so much so that likely it means something different to many of us. Given this, I’m not about to churn out a litany of interpretations. You can do that for yourself both before and after visiting Oh My Heart. What I will say is that I felt especially drawn to this installation because of the quote: Milne is an author I try to read once every 12-18 months (at least the Winnie the Pooh books). I simply love Milne’s kindness and insights.

So, why not go an enjoy Oh My Heart, and then, if you’ve never read the Milne’s two volumes of Winnie the Pooh’s adventures with his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood, or haven’t read them in a while / as an adult, I urge you to consider doing so as well.

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• Oh My Heart (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)

January 2026 is here and with it, a visit to Cica Ghost’s Mysterious Isle to visit her latest installation there, Woodland. The setting comes with a quote oft attributed to the Master of the Imagination, Walt Disney:

If you can dream it, you can do it.

The reality of the world is that there is no evidence Disney ever uttered these words. Rather, the first public attribution of the quote to anything related to Disney appears to have come in 1983, seventeen years after his passing. They appeared in a script used in Horizons (1983-1994), an animatronic attraction at the EPCOT Centre (as it was then) at Walt Disney World, Florida.

Exactly who coined the phrase – script writer Tom Fitzgerald or copywriter Sheralyn Silverstein – remains a topic of debate; it only became associated with Disney himself much later – in 2007, when it was used in a DVD series on the Disney phenomena and the marketing machine at Disney wasted no time in acquiring the idea the words were Walt’s – and started marketing them at every turn.

However, all this be as it may, the idea the words convey is totally applicable to Cica’s work. Month after month she presents us with installations grown from her dreams and made into living experiences for us to enjoy. Some of her works have carried subtle messages; some have offered new takes on various folk tales and fables; many have been twists of whimsy and lightness, speaking to  Cica’s spirit of positivity; some have been perhaps pensive and forward-looking. All have have had deep roots in the dreams of a creative imagination – and such is the case here.

The term “woodland” probably conjures images of trees heavy in leaf, grassy trials meandering between their trucks, sprinkled with bursts of flowers, light and shadow rippling and playing over them as a breeze moves the boughs overhead. A place where creatures, possibly stranger or exotic, and insects reside, all going about their business.

The flowers and the creatures and insects are all within Cica’s Woodland, and many of them are exotic – a chameleon-like lizard, stick insects and more. However, in a twist of imagination they all appear to be carved or grown from wood, and the majority of “trees” of this woodland are all houses and buildings, many of them rising slender and tall, like tree trunks with the unblinking eyes of windows cut into them, others offering a unique take on the windmill. All stand four-square on stout legs as if ready to set out across the surrounding hills.

Actual trees do also grow here, but the entire installation speaks to a place that is literally wood land. Even the brown and greying soil carries a woodgrain, the hills exhibiting a gridwork against which the grain laps, as if attempting to rise up and cover them.

All of this – creatures, houses, flowers, trees, is being watched over by a satisfied King (or Prince?) Frog. Is he responsible for this wonderland? If so, why? That’s a dream for your imagination to create, perhaps as you try the dances scattered across the setting and wander among the land’s friendly inhabitants.

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• Woodland (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)

December has arrived, and with it, the holiday season has popped its head over the horizon, and I’m more in the mood to start touring winter-themed locations in Second Life. By coincidence, Cica Ghost dropped me a line to let me know she’d just opened her end-of-year setting in her homestead region of Mysterious Isle, thus giving me my first outing to a winter setting to mark the approaching year-end.

Called, appropriately enough, Winter, the setting comes with a quote from T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, first published in 1922. Eliot is, again entirely coincidentally, one of my favourite writers of the 20th century, and it is not unfair to view The Wate Land a one of the most important poems of that century (and this, if you want my opinion, remains true for this current century as well 🙂 ).

Given my love of Eliot, there is a danger here of me getting side-tracked into an examination of Burial of the Dead, from which the quote has been taken:

Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow

– TS Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922

However, I’ll spare you any such thing, because the focus here is on these particular lines, not the poem as a whole or even part of it from which they have been taken.

In their standalone state, these two lines perhaps encompass ideas of the joyous warmth we can so often feel when seeing a snow-covered landscape, together with the opportunities for us to forgot the worries and concerns of life whilst enjoying unique forms of play and fun snow can encourage – or simply by walking through snow and appreciating the quiet beauty it so often brings.

Befitting this, Cica presents a snowy landscape intended for wandering and finding its wonders. The latter particularly come in the form of Cica’s engaging creatures, all of which are – once again, appropriately – white. In this, what I found particularly attractive about Winter is its monochrome-like environment, one in which I’d recommend enabling Shadows in your viewer if your computer is up to it.

This build does offer fewer places to sit than many of Cica’s previous installations through the year;  to me, this encourages the idea of walking through this winter wonderland, rather than jumping from sit point to sit point, this making it more enjoyable. In this Winter is an easy-going, happy setting in keeping with the season for many of us, allowing us to ease into the winter months, the holiday season and prepare ourselves for the year’s end.

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• Winter (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)