Tag: Cica Ghost

For February 2023, Cica Ghost invites us all to visit her Happy Place, where we can all relax and have a little fun, wander through an exotic landscape and meet the equally exotic populace.

This is very much a green land, caught under a green sky, between which green-tinged clouds scud whilst on the ground spots and splashes of other colours might catch the eye and cause feet to wander. This ground is a strange mix of grass-like covering and what appears to be a natural quilt forming an interesting patchwork effect as it stretches over the humpbacked hills and lies on the flatter ground like a picnic blanket. Blue splotches within the quilt suggest pools of water – albeit sometimes at odd angles as the effect stretches itself over the uplands.

Across both grass and patchwork can be found tall grasses and clovers rising up taller than an avatar, smaller flowers of red and yellow and green scattered around them and across the landscape as a whole (some of which have much larger brethren away to the north of the setting) while trees in places rival the humpy hills in height.

Nor is the shape of most of the hills their only distinguishing feature; many have had their tops sliced flat, allowing little houses and matching trees to sit upon their crowns (some have other little places sitting on their heads, but you should discover this for yourself). Some of these houses appear unreachable such is the steepness of the slopes rising to them; others can be more easily reached, thanks to the placement of ladders to assist with climbing.

Also across this strange yet welcoming landscape can be found the setting’s inhabitants. From sheep to bipedal monsters, passing by want of ants, ladybirds, a sleeping dragon, elephants and a Cica-like little girl tending a lone cow with what appears to be her cottage and pet fish close by. There’s even the suggestion, spread between two trees, that the setting might also be home to a giant human, although they appear to currently off visiting somewhere else!

Although some are monsters, none of the inhabitants are in any way dangerous; the dragon snoozes peacefully and the monsters all appear to be here for the same reason as anyone else: to take in the scenery, to relax together and pose for photos and / or simply have fun. And given this is a build by Cica, there are obviously places for visitors to enjoy a little dancing, or to sit and pose for photos or to simply spend time together, both on the ground and in the air.

The setting comes with a popular quote which is often attributed to A.A. Milne / Winnie the Pooh. In fact, the words as given were never given to Pooh (or any other of Milne’s characters) to say within the books (although they may have been spoken in one of Disney’s film adaptations). But whether written direct by Milne or by a screenwriter really matters not; they encapsulate the magical wonder of childhood and the importance of never letting go of that sense of magic and wonder, but allowing it to permeate our lives in moments of fun, friendship and togetherness.

By allowing us into her Happy Place, Cica again invites use to to do just that: let the magic and wonder free as we explore, have fun with friends and share our time with them.

SLurl Details

• Cica’s Happy Place (Mysterious, rated Moderate)

My first memory of Cica Ghost’s art in Second Life came over a decade ago, when she secured a region grant from the former Linden Endowments for the Arts (LEA), and hosted Cica. It caught the eye and imagination of many, featuring two-dimensional stick figures, many of them animated, going about their lives within a 3D setting, with the little chap riding his bicycle in the face of a strong wind that becoming something of a motif for the build within blog posts about it.

Follow-up installations like Ghostville allowed various 2D characters draw by Cica to continue to appear in her 3D installations – and they still pop-up from time to time either directly (plants and flowers forming a part of an landscape) or indirectly (as drawing on walls) within Cica’s installations.

Now, with her latest installation, Scribbled, which opened to the public on Thursday, January 12th, 2023, Cica again brings us a 2D world within a 3D space. Offered under the description Every day is a new day, this is an installation sitting on the 3D equivalent of a sheet of paper – and just as every day is a new day, so is every blank piece of paper an opportunity for the imagination to take flight, be it through drawings or through words.

Here, we are invited into the former (be sure to Use Shared Environment in your viewer (World → Environment), a crisp white setting suggestive of that sheet of paper on which Cica has “drawn” for us a series of vignettes. From 2D trees through aliens standing before their flying saucer to cows, elephants, cats and deer to monsters whose smiles reveal they are not intent on harm, this is a place where even the hills are given a deceptive two-dimensional edge.

The order in which you encounter these little vignettes matters not – suffice it to say each has its own charm and some, due to the layout of the scene, may need a little additional exploration to be seen at their best. Also scattered among them are some 3D elements – houses and such – which, as the camera is moved, perform the illusion of appearing to morph into flat drawings before revealing their real depth once more – indeed, the overall positioning of all the elements in the setting present an immersive depth that reaches beyond the 2D form of the majority of the pieces.

This is also a setting with a little secret. Just as every day is a new day, is followed by a night, and should you find your way to it, Scribbled reminds visitors of this by transporting them from “day” to “night”. This is a place where the sky and ground are black, and the trees, animals and objects become white, giving visitors a sense of stepping into a photographic negative of the “outer” drawing. Cleverly, as well, the return trip from “night” to “day” delivers visitors to a different locale from that used to enter “night”, thus ensuring that a part of the setting that might have otherwise been easily missed or taken for granted, might be enjoyed.

Of course, as with all of Cica’s installations there are opportunities for interaction awaiting discovery, from dances to sit spots to the chance to frame yourself in a “2D” picture frame located to one side of the setting, all of which further adds to the fun. And when wandering be sure to say hello to Cica; whilst she may not always be in Scribbled in person, she is always present in (2D) spirit!

As always, Scribbled is an engaging trip into the imagination with Cica, whose work never fails to raise a smile and the spirit, so when visiting do please consider also supporting her work through a purchase or a donation.

SLurl Details

• Scribbled by Cica Ghost (Mysterious, rated Moderate)

Cica Ghost is back with a final installation for the year as she presents Trolland, a whimsical and fun setting much in keeping with her more recent installations. It comes, as all Cica’s installations do, with a little quote that helps describe it:

A troll is a class of being in Germanic mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.

This, plus the title of the installation reveal what it is all about; in this case, a total of three trolls. In this, and given my fondness for Tolkien, I couldn’t help but conjure thoughts of three trolls in particular: Bert Bill and Tom from The Hobbit. Now to be sure, these three individuals have probably done more to give trolls a bad name in the last 100 years than any single other source. Brutish, rude, thieves, uncouth in their lack of manners – and quite partial to human flesh -they are perhaps the worse kind of Troll one might imagine. But in truth, they were born of a standalone story designed to appeal as much to youngsters as adults (The Hobbit was only “retconned”, so to speak, into he broader mythology in subsequent editions, as the likes of The Lord of the Rings were more fully fleshed out for publication), rather than being representative of trolls as a whole.

As such, and in fairness, the creatures depicted in Cica’s installation don’t appear to be drawn from Tolkien’s story either consciously or otherwise; its just something my imagination was bound to dredge up because, as they say – J.R.R. Tolkien is Hobbit-forming (yes, I’m here through the season, folks, get your tickets from the box office!). Perhaps the presence of a camp fire with a cooking pot suspended over it also contributed to setting my imagination off on its little flight of fancy; you might (and probably will!) see things otherwise.

But that is, after all, the beauty and power of art, isn’t it? To call to our imaginations, and entice us on journeys. through their canvas and / or setting.

It cannot be denied that Cica’s Trolls look a lot friendlier than Tolkien’s and any grumpiness that might exude might the result of the landscape where they live. Cut through by deep channels which forced people to meander in their excursions, it may well be fun for explorers, the winding paths leading pat giant mushrooms, strange outcrops which might be rocks or petrified giant plants, some complete with wheels of stone suspended by rope from their arms to for swing-like seats, rock cars and a hidden gift.

But if you’re a troll and simply want to go from A to B to collect something? What might be a fun walk and photo opportunity for humans becomes, perhaps, an annoying chore. So, if these trolls do come off as not being especially helpful as you come across them, remember, you’re just visiting, they live here!

Caught under a mauve sky freckled with white clouds, a haze softening the horizon, Trolland makes for an engaging and fun visit to see out the year.

SLurl Details

• Trolland (Mysterious, rated Moderate)

November brings with it another foray into whimsy with Cica Ghost, as she offers an installation entitled Camels and Chameleons – which you have to admit is an interesting combination of beast and reptile!

As with recent installations from Cica, this one is extreme easy on the eye to view and offers gentle exploration on foot. The largely flat landscape offers a desert-like suggestion with adobe-style walls and structures for the most part not too far removed from the kinds of environments one might reasonably expect to find both camels and the desert varieties of chameleon common to the more arid parts of Southern Asia. These are interspersed with cacti which, whilst not common to the lands in which camels might be found, are certainly found within the more arid parts of the California, into which Chameleons have been introduced.

Of the two types of creatures, the camels are the most numerous, with two of the three recognised “true” species represented: the single-humped Dromedary (aka Arabian camel), which accounts for around 94% of all camels and which is common to the Middle East, the Sahara Desert, and South Asia, and the two-humped Bactrian camel, common to Central Asia, including the historical region of Bactria, and also found in remote areas of north-west China and Mongolia.

Exactly which species of Bactrian is represented isn’t entirely important, but given their short-haired nature, I preferred to think of them as being the rarer Wild Bactrian of China / Mongolia. The chameleons, on the other hand, are fewer in number, and I can’t help but feel Cica perhaps missed a trick in not blending them more with some of the landscaping / other features within the setting (allowing for their size, of course).

I qualified the structures within the setting above, because whilst most of them are styled in a manner in keeping with the desert / arid environments in which camels tend to be found when roaming free, there is a rather novel structure towards the centre of the installation. Comprising blocks and towers that are, at first glance vaguely reminiscent of a Middle-Eastern fortification, it also has a slight other-worldly feel to it, with some of the blocks suspended in mid air on horizontal planks bridging the gaps between other blocks, and many of them sprouting deadlock-like growths of cacti from their tops.

Rounded out with another quote from Dr. Seuss, Camels and Chameleons also includes a range of  places to sit and / or dance (including on a camel or tow!) and offers a further opportunity to appreciate Cica’s art in a whimsical and light setting.

SLurl Details

• Camels and Chameleons (Epsilon, rated Moderate)

So, October has rolled around for 2022 (why do the years seem to speed up the older you get?), and with it, inevitably, comes Halloween and thoughts of ghosts, monsters, hauntings, and more, together with their familiars in the form of pumpkins and black cats, bats and spiders.

It’s a time of year when it is hard to avoid such things in Second Life, where the Americanisation of Halloween has very deep roots. Call me a humbug or grumpy so-and-so, but by-and-large I tend to find all that goes on around October 31st largely a bit tiresome and repetitive – although there are exceptions that get me to park my case of grumps at the door and go with the flow – such as the Calas Halloween build (which will be popping up in these pages very soon) and, for 2022 Cica Ghost’s Pumpkins and Things.

Just as with Cica’s September installation of Pink Fairytale took a light-hearted look at fairy tales and childhood stories (see: Cica’s Pink Fairytale in Second Life), so Pumpkins and Things offers an easy-going look at the Halloween period, and the aforementioned creatures, witches and so on – albeit with a little warning from the Master of Macabre himself, Edgar Allen Poe.

Caught under a pumpkins sky (do make sure your viewer is set to Use Shared Environment, this is a setting where black flowers offer toothy, maniacal grins, and large worms slither (some with very human-like arms, hands and faces) as they tower over a landscape of twig-like trees, pumpkin flowers, large pumpkin houses, a blocky little town and the toothy flowers – some of which resemble spiders sitting on sticks, whilst Cica’s black cats are to be found throughout (together with some of Cica’s trademark sit points and dances!).

Again, like Pink Fairytale, this is an installation to be seen and enjoyed, rather than described or shown in still shots. Monsters they may be, but it’s hard to believe any of the characters sitting within Pumpkins and Things would actually do anyone any harm – hence, perhaps the little warning from Mr. Poe, as used by Cica for the installation:

Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see

Used in a short story by Poe in 1845, the quote became very closely associated with the California gold rush at the end of the 1840s, when it stood as a admonishment against believe everything said or written about concerning the ease with which the gold rush lead to riches. Here, as well as possibly underlining the idea that for all their looks and teeth and strangest, the characters in Pumpkins and Things really mean no harm, the words might be taken as a little poke to remind us that no-one should really take the Halloween period too seriously, and simply have fun!

SLurl Details

• Pumpkins and Things (Epsilon, rated Moderate)

Every one loves a fairy tale, the opportunity to escape to a world where our imaginations can be exercised, to explore to lands far away, share in adventures and see good triumph. Fairy tales are stories we gain exposure to at an early age, and the four words that so often start them tend to remain with us forever – something English author Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman once noted,  both in terms of the memories hearing the words can evoke and the escape they offer.

This power of fairy tales is the subject of Cica Ghost’s latest region-wide art installation which opened on September 12th. It takes as its foundation that quote from Pullman – an author who has perhaps enjoyed renewed exposure to a public courtesy of the BBC adapting his coming of age, multiverse-spanning trilogy His Dark Materials into a television series.

Once upon a time lasts forever.

– Sir Philip Pullman

Entitled Pink Fairytale, the setting offers an environment in keeping with its name: a pink landscape beneath a pink sky;  a place where pink flowers and trees climb towards the sky, and where the buildings and features of the setting resemble cakes and edibles topped with icing, and the cups of a carousel appear to be filled with ice-cream or some other delight, marking them as a haven for allowing the child inside to revel.

This is a place populated by animals and characters who in turn suggest stories and tales to the active imagination, where thrones with ears await a king and queen – or perhaps a princes and princess – the jug between them perhaps bringing forth thoughts of magic lamps. Elsewhere a princess can indeed be found, together with an entourage of geese – also often characters found within fairy tales –  and watched over by a elephant which, if not fairy tales, when certainly other famous childhood stories.

Scattered with little vignettes such as these and complete with Cica’s many places to sit or dance or – in the case of the bubble-burping fumaroles – float. Pink Fairytale is another light and fun installation form a Second Life artist who consistently offers us a reasons to smile. So, should you decide to hop over and experience Cica’s work first hand, do please consider making a donation to help her continue to keep us smiling.

SLurl Details

• Pink Fairytale (Epsilon, rated Moderate)