Art in Second Life 2023 (2) Crowns by Calypso Applewhyte

Owl (Owl Dragonash) invited me to see the first exhibition of 2023 at NovaOwl Gallery “Crowns” by Calypso Applewhyte.

Caly (Calypso Applewhyte) is a SL Photographer from France, who joined SL in 2010. Her focus is the avatar itself as a means of expression to transport emotions. She processes her pictures with Photoshop. I have seen her work already a few times and you can recognise her style, she has found her personal characteristic artistic style. Her pictures do tell stories, like good art does.
According to her profile Caly also blogs and has written articles for several magazines. And she also makes portrait pictures of course. You can see her work also on her flickr account.

Impressions of Crowns by Calypso Applewhyte @ NovaOwl Gallery (1)

Caly likes to choose a common theme for her exhibitions. The theme of this exhibition is “Crowns”. Crowns are a symbol of power and beauty and were and are used in several cultures. Hence you find quite some different forms of crowns. They might be formed by the hair only, they might be flower arrangements to decorate the hair, the might be used to enhance the face or the forehead or they can be classic crowns worn on the head. And you will find all these different crowns at the exhibition. Some of Caly’s pictures did really touch me as what would be quite an average face of an average woman – turns to be very expressive with a crown. I find that intriguing. And I enjoyed my visit a lot.

Impressions of Crowns by Calypso Applewhyte @ NovaOwl Gallery (2)

The NovaOwl Gallery is owned by Uli Jansma, Owl (Owl Dragonash) is the general manager. NovaOwl is an international community on the mainland continent of Corsica. NovaOwl is located on Novatron. It is a meeting place where events take place regularly. Thank you Uli and Owl for providing the space for the art and for enabling this exhibition. I enjoyed my visit.
The exhibition shall be opened throughout January, 2023.

NovaOwl Community Center and Gallery – Landmark to “Crowns” by Calypso Applewhyte
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Novatron/131/102/23
Caly Applewhyte’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/calypsoapplewhyte/

Diary 2023 (3) Jan 6th / 7th – Biblical Magi

Finding a fitting theme for our party on Friday, January 6th, was easy. January 6th, is a holiday, the Biblical Magi Day. In Germany it is called Holy Three Kings Day. The kings brought presents, namely gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And the theme for our party?
“It’s Friday again, the first Friday of the new year. The three wise men brought presents and celebrated today, just over 2,000 years ago. Wear something golden or festive, wear gold and jewelery, or came as you are (even naked) and celebrate with us. DJ Virgo is spinning the tunes”
When I came inworld at night I changed into one of my oldest outfits, an armour that was designed by Janina Foxdale. I had Mistress in IM who was changing as well but not yet done. I sent to see Flo and we played two rounds of skipee. Mistress came by and watched us … and teased me. Her dress was very golden!
We had a guest on our island – Brenda Riley (BrendaKill). She was leashed at the Wall of Shame at our Stonehaven patio. After the card game we went there. Brenda was completely locked and helpless, but I could grab her keys and we dragged her behind us to the dancefloor, where I leashed her in a kneeling position. I checked her restraints and noticed that all were on a long timer – hence I added a bit of time, then I set up the disco lights and our party started.

January 6th -Friday night party: Diomita, Mistress Cherry, Flo, slave Alessi, Sarah Fhang, Dely (krysbia), Janina Foxdale, Iriel Elgrove (Maryi Babii), Brenda Riley (BrendaKill) (upper row), Della Randt, Starbright Wingtips, Scheherazade Enchantment, Jayson Dakota, Thalia (Snowborn), Claven Albatros, Baroness Capelo, Morgie Darstone, Virgo Babii, Virgo Babii (lower row)

We had fun once again and great music, a great start into the 2023 parties. The woman who had stored Brenda on our island came by, checked her restraints and left again. And soon after Brenda had to leave herself.
Anything else – no, just a great night!

Saturday night, January 7th, I met with Mistress Cherry at CM first. We went to club DeLust and stayed there for a bit, then I returned home to play skipee with Flo. We played two round and afterwards I took Flo to club DeLust where first Mistress Cherry joined us and later slave Alessi.

January 7th: Mistress Cherry and Diomita at club Delust / Mistress Cherry and Diomita at club Delust with Flo and slave Alessi

After Flo had left for bed, Mistress Cherry left to meet with Domina Ansar and I stayed at the club with slave Alessi and began to tease her. I had fun … and she had fun. Mistress Cherry joined us again until it was time to go to bed.

January 7th: Diomita at clubd DeLust with slave Alessi / Mistress Cherry and Diomita at club Delust with Alessi

Art in Second Life 2023 (1) Wrong Mirrors by Melusina Parkin

I visited Melusina Parkin’s newest exhibition “Wrong Mirrors” at Melusina’s Minimum Gallery.

I am a fan of Melusina Parkin’s art and have seen quite some of her exhibitions. Melu’s style is minimalistic. She usually takes her pictures in Second Life. The minimalism forces the spectator to focus on details, that might stay unseen when too much distracts the view.

“Wrong Mirrors” is once again an exhibition featuring something new from Melusina, something that I didn’t expect from her. Melusina played with Artificial Intelligence. Each exhibited picture consists of one bigger and four smaller images. My fist thought was that the big picture was taken in Second Life and provided the source for changes by the AI. But I was wrong.

I talked with Melusina about “Wrong Mirrors” and she revealed a bit more about her work:

Diomita: I’m curious ….. Is the large picture the one you took in SL and the smaller ones is what the AI made of it?
Melusina Parkin: All the images have been generated by AI, then I worked on them… I’ve thought to show them that way to put more similar images in the exhibit 🙂
Diomita Maurer: but the AI must have got initial settings, right?
Melusina Parkin: yes, they work after a “prompt” written by me. I describe the image I want to generate, adding some parametes about light, style, size and so
Diomita: Do you use Midjourney?
Melusina Parkin: Not only Midjourney, mostly Stable Diffusion
Diomita Maurer: The result looks very “Melu”-like. It sounds so easy, but it isn’t! In the end it is still the artist, who selects what to keep, what to further develop
Melusina Parkin: yes, AIs are totally driven by the author, who decide style, subject and other features
Diomita Maurer: well done, Melu. I like the result!
Melusina Parkin: Thank you!

As mentioned in the conversation with Melusina, the pictures clearly show Melu’s style even though generated by AI. And they made me smile. Imagine you’d look into such a mirror, what a surprise not to see yourself in the mirror but someone else, or your backside! Look for all the details and enjoy Melu’s art.

On the second floor of the Minimum Gallery is Melusina’s exhibition “Art Deco Symmetries”. I wrote about it in June 2022 (read here).

Melusina Parkin is in Second Life since September 2008. She has been a fashion manager, a journalist, a furniture creator, a builder, a decorator and a photographer. Her work as a photographer has been showcased in more than 50 exhibitions – from which I saw just a few. Melusina has a flickr account which counts more than 13,000 (!) photographs. Extensive collections of her photos can be seen also on her blog Virtual Exhibits and on some slideshows on Youtube (links also under this post).
There’s also an online book with her Second Life exhibits 2011-2019 here.
Melusina Parkin has an own gallery at Time Portal, “Melu’s Photo Gallery” and an own store for Art Deco furniture called “Melu Deco“. Melusina also owns a second place (Melu Space) with another gallery (Minimum Gallery), a bookstore and another “Melu Deco” inworld store.

Thank you for “Wrong Mirrors”, Melusina. I enjoyed my first gallery visit in 2023!

Landmark to Melusina’s Minimum Gallery and to “Wrong Mirrors”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/129/107/621
Melusina Photo Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/248/101/1940
Landmark to Minimum Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunula/130/107/621
Landmark to Melusina Parkin’s store for Art Deco furniture “Melu Deco”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/243/99/1930
Melusina Parker’s flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusina_parkin/
Melusina Parkin’s Virtual Exhibit blog
http://meluphoto.blogspot.it/p/home.html
Melusina Parkin’s youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzglBiqhrOLXnAp3Qt3Zjw
On line book Second Life exhibits 2011-2019
https://www.calameo.com/books/005997622f28dd58ca75d

Diary 2023 (2) Jan 4th/5th Quiet and relaxed days

Wednesday, January 4th, my night started with two rounds of skipee with Flo while talking with Mistress Cherry in IM. Mistress left early that night, she had headaches.
At the end of the 2nd round slave Holly joined us and she rbought luck with her, so that I won the 2nd round. I decided to play a 3rd round with Flo and Holly, but slave Alessi joined us just after we had started, so we stopped and played a round at teams. slave holly and I won it. It was already after flotime and hence Flo went off to bed.

I took slave Holly and slave Alessi to Lochme for a bit. There was quite some entertainment to watch.
slave Holly had to leave for bed next and I brought her home, then I returned to Lochme with slave Alessi. I had an enjoyable night.

January 4th: Diomita at Lochme with slave Holly and slave Alessi

My Thursday night, January 5th, began with 2 rounds of skipee with Flo again. Afterwards, slave Holly had joined us, we went to club DeLust and I summoned slave Alessi to us as well, when she came inworld.

January 5th: Diomita at club DeLust with Flo, slave Holly and slave Alessi

We stayed at the club for almost one hour, watching what was going on and trying to initiate some activity at the club (in vain of course). At flotime Flo and slave Holly went off to bed and I met with mistress Cherry at club DeLust, but I was unable to summon slave Alessi back to me as the region was full. Hence Mistress Cherry and I went to Carnal Intentions where I could summon slave Alessi to us.
I stayed at Carnal with slave Alessi, teasing her and having her worship my feet.

January 5th: Mistress Cherry and Diomita at club DeLust and at Carnal Intentions with slave Alessi

Diary 2023 (1) Jan 2nd/3rd The slave outfit for January

On Monday, January 2nd, I was only inworld at night and met with slave Flo and slave Alessi to play a round of skipee. After the game slave Holly joined us. She got her new hood for the January outfit. I helped Flo to put on her hood as well. Unfortunately Flo’s collar vamished while putting on the new hood for unknown reason. We tried to find it but we couldn’t. She might need a new one.
I took Flo, slave Holly and slave Alessi to club DeLust. The three decorated me well and slave Holly and slave Alessi had some focus time, while I still tried to solve the collar issue with Flo (unsuccessfully).

January 2nd: Diomita at club DeLust with Flo, slave Holly and slave Alessi

We returned home and to bed soon after Flo had left us at flotime.

Tuesday, January 3rd, Flo was playing skipee alone when I came inworld at night. I first took down the Christmas decoration at our island and I ended Winter in SL by removing the snow. Just the vegetation is still winterly. That’s one of the biggest upsides of SL, we can even make the weather *winks*.
I took Flo to Sensations to get a new collar for her, added the extra scripts and set it up. Eventually Flo has a properly working collar again. We were just done and ready to play a round of skipee, when slave Alessi joined us. Hence we had a game with three. Mistress Cherry was in Im with me all night and she enjoyed teasing me.
slave Holly joined us right in time when we had finished playing cards. I took Flo and the slaves to Carnal Intentions and enjoyed chatting in private and teasing the slaves in public.

January 3rd: Diomita at Carnal Intentions with Flo, slave Holly and slave Alessi

I played with restrictions and restraints making the slaves stand or kneel. And I still had Mistress Cherry in IM. Flo went to bed at her usual time (aka flotime) and Mistress headed to be soon after. I left the slaves alone for a moment and went home to kiss Mistress’ feet to say good night to her. She looked divine.

January 3rd: Diomita at Carnal Intentions and club DeLust with Flo, slave Holly and slave Alessi / at home with Mistress Cherry

Then I returned to the slaves and continued playing and teasing them, first at Carnal Intentions, then at club DeLust for a few minutes until it was time for bed for us too.

Diary 2022 (160) December 30th 22 – Jan 1st 2023

Friday, December 30th, I was inworld in the later afternoon. As none of the family was present I went to Puerto Esclava to have a look around. I met K*** there. The last times I spoke to her she was either the domme I know or was desperately looking for someone to dominate her, like that afternoon. I offered her a place at my feet to the fallen goddess. slave K*** tried to direct from the buttom and to some extent I fulfilled her wishes. I took her to club Domme a Domme later knowing that it would humiliate her being naked at my feet. Finally, when I had to log off to tend to my RL I leashed her by the dancefloor for later, set she didn’t show up again that Friday.

December 30th: Diomita at Puerto Esclava and at club Domme a Domme with slave K***

At night I met with Flo and Argi by the games table. Argi had just come by for a New Year hug and left again after the hug. I intended to play a skipee with Flo before our party started but Mistress Cherry came to our skybox and I wanted to say hello to her. And that took way longer than I thought. We talked and time passed by too quickly.
I had picked a simple theme for our party: “The last Friday in this year and it’s party Friday of course. Let us end the year with hope for the next and wear something colourful or come as you are (even naked of course). DJ Virgo is spinning the tunes for us.”
Mistress and I changed into something colourful, of course Mistress picked her favourite colour pink *winks*, then we went down to the dancefloor right in time for the party.

December 30th: Mistress Cherry and Diomita at home

The party was fun as always and we had quite a good turn-out. There was also a lot of main chat, in particular later at night. We’re ready for 2023 and our first party in the new year.

December 30th – Friday night party: Mistress Cherry, Diomita, Angelique, Flo, slave Alessi, Sarah Fhang, Janina Foxdale, Shay Silva (shaysilva), Lenora Lynn (lenaredbe), Dr. Mara Lynn (Maralyn Corleone), Motoko Lynn (Tsuki Saphed), Morgie Darkstone, Kira Skytower (upper row), Della Randt, Starbright Wingtips, Bastet Starchild, Mo Deezul, Domina Ansar, sapphire (littleshy97), Laura (laura00175), Claven Albatros, Baroness Capelo, Virgo Babii, Virgo Babii (lower row)

Unfortunately I was a bit sick on New Year Eve and New Year Day. I was inworld Saturday, 31st, in the afternoon and spend some time alone at Puerto Esclava. Sunday, January 1st, I played a long skipee. slave Alessi and Flo against Angelique and me. That was fun firstly as we hadn’t played team for a while and secondly because it was jsut the right thing to do for me with my cold.
Mistress made fun of my cold and protected herself when I said good night to her after the game.

December 31st: Diomita at Puerto Esclava / Misterss Cherry and Diomita at home

Happy New Year 2023 and some stats and findings about this blog (2022 in review)

2022 has been another challenging year for all of us. This time it wasn’t just the darn virus, it was even more the Russian Agression and the following war in Ukraine, the scarcity of energy, disturbed supply chains and a skyrocketing inflation that made it not the best year in RL for many of us.

In SL all was fine, it was Jenny’s and my heavently escape from RL, the world how we would bake it, if we could. But there is no SL without RL. In July my wife, owner, slave, Mistress, my beloved partner in SL, Jenny, passed away unexpectedly. From one day to the other my SL was not the same anymore! I considered to leave SL and to stop writing as Jenny wasn’t around me anymore. My family and friends in SL helped a lot to keep me inworld, and even to continue blogging. But the easiness had gone. I changed the name of the blog, and stopped blogging daily, yet I continued the diary and I still post new entries regularly, just not every day anymore.
There are several posts about this dark time in SL. I want to point to two posts that were hard to write. One is a tribute to Mistress Jenny (read “A tribute to Jenny Maurer“) published September 3rd, 2022. The other is about the changes in this blog (read “Upcoming changes in this blog“), published September 4th, 2022.

On a lighter note, I got closer to cherry (Elenaslv Serenity) end of November 2022 and within a few days I fully submitted to her. She does not replace Jenny, she’s way to different for that, and none can ever replace her! But a new chapter, a new journey started for me and for Mistress Cherry.

In 2022 there about 160 diary entries, over 100 posts about art in Second Life and 21 simploring reports. Over all the blog grew by 333 new posts bringing the total archive of this blog to over 2,900 (!) posts.
As taking pictures is one of my passions in SL and storage space here is not free, I group my pictures to save space. When you click the pictures you can see them a bit larger. I also post the pictures on deviant art (Diomita Maurer at Deviant art). For my simploring tours I have a flickr account where I publish pictures from these tours in full size. As there’s a picture limit of 1,000 for a free acount, you find there only the pictures of the last about 30 simploring tours. There you get the pictures in a higher resolution. In total I took more than 12,000 pictures in 2022.

In 2022 the number of visitors of the blog remained at close to 15,000 people. Also the number of clicks was quite stable with 46,000 compared to 45,000 in 2021. Most clicks came from the Germany (11,100), US (8,100) and the UK (4,100). The number of followers was quite unchanged as well with 245 compared to 240 in 2021. The statistics show that in total people from over 130 (!) countries visited our blog. Many thanks to all friends, readers and followers.
Most found our blog coming from search engines (14.200) and from deviantart (1,400). Again not only the new blog entries attracted readers, there’re also some “evergreens”. The Top 6 Posts in 2022 were:

1. The Victorian Corset Story – Part II –  1,109 clicks – March 2017 (written by slave Flo) – ranked 1st also in 2021
2. The Victorian Corset Story – Part III – 337 clicks – March 2017 (written by slave Flo) – ranked 2nd also in 2021
3. the About page – 294 clicks – revised in September 2022
4. Sissy sold – 248 clicks – August 2013
5. Maurer’s slave Holly aka. honoursgirl – 212 clicks – April 2021
6. The Victorian Corset Story – Part I – 200 clicks – March 2017 (written by Flo)

This blog contains a lot of memories for me and for the people close to me in Second Life. It started as a little diary to keep up with all the things happening around Jenny and me in Second Life and has grown with time. In the meanwhile I read back myself often to look up a date or to check if I came across a place already before. I introduced a new series in 2019, the “Backflash of the month”. In the “Backflash” series I select an old entry once a month and present it here. This way I force myself to browse in the archive and to fresh up a few of the many memories. For our readers this series shall provide an insight into our Second Life without reading back the many posts and it might also give reason to browse through the archives. After Jenny’s death I missed picking a “Backflash of the month” post every month. I intend to improve and to pick one every month in 2023.

I still have fun writing and it’s my intention to continue the blog, but I might blog less as I have planned some journeys in 2023. Hence I will blog, when I find the time for it and when I am in the mood for it. I personally think that we spend a lot our free time in real life in this virtual world. It makes sense to keep the memories like you do in real life. The memories are real and they stay vivid and present this way.

Thanks again for reading and following my blog.
Have a great and peaceful (!) year 2023 in SL and in RL, and stay healthy!
Diomita Maurer

Diary 2022 (159) December 28th/29th Between the years

When I came inworld Wednesday night, December 28th, Flo was already playing skipee. I talked in IM with Mistress Cherry and Angelique and then went to Flo. Angelique joined Flo and me at the skipee table and after we had caught up with our news Angelique, Flo and I had a nice game of skipee. I took Angelique and Flo to club DeLust. We tried hard to initiate any main chat, but failed as usual. But we had fun. slave Alessi joined us too.
I was still in IM with Mistress Cherry and later Domina Ansar showed up with sapphire (littleshy97) and Mistress Cherry at her leash. Quite weired considering the connections: Domina with Mistress Cherry at her leash, Mistress Cherry’s property Diomita with her subs at her leash.

December 28th at club DeLust: Diomita, Angelique, Flo and slave Alessi / Domina Ansar with sapphire and Mistress Cherry

When Flo and Angelique went off to bed, I stayed at club DeLust with slave Alessi and I began to tease her, mainly in private chat but also a bit in main chat. I restricted her more and more, step by step. I had fun and nejoyed my control – and slave Alessi enjoyed my attention and her helplessness. Later I went to Carnal Intentions with slave Alessi and I put her into the small cage there. I left her alone for a few minutes safely stored there when I had to return home to say good night to Mistress Cherry. Back at Carnal Intentions I continued teasing slave Alessi. It was way over my bedtime, but I had fun.

December 28th: Diomita at club DeLust and at Carnal Intentions with slave Alessi

Thursday, December 29th, I was inworld in the afternoon. slave Holly was present. She had returned from her Christmas family trip and was online to say hello before leaving for the year-end weekend. I had half an hour with her at club DeLust and we caught up with our mutual news.

At night I met with Mistress Cherry for a kiss, then I joined Flo at the skipee table. We played two rounds. After the game I went to club DeLust with her and we watched the silent crowd while chatting amoung us. slave Alessi joined us just before Flo went off to bed. I had selected a hood to complete the slave outfit for the January slave outfit and slave Alsssi was the first to try it on. I had fun teasing slave Alessi and trying out the hood. Later I went to Psi’s realm with her.

December 29th: Diomita at club DeLust and at Psi’s realm with slave Holly, Flo and slave Alessi

Diary 2022 (158) December 22nd – 27th Holidays

Around Christmas I wasn’t inworld regularly. RL had to be first these days. I was online Thursday night, December 22nd and played skipee with Flo and we visited club DeLust for a bit. I was also inworld on Holy Eve, December 24th, late at night and met with Mistress Cherry. I got a Christmas present from her, an harness outfit. Thank you, Mistress.

December 22nd / 24th: Diomita and Flo at club DeLust / Mistress Cherry and Diomita at home

On Christmas I went inworld in the later evening and Mistress had another present for me. She allowed me to lick her and to get my fix. We spent quite some time together cuddling and talking.

December 25th, Christmas: Mistress Cherry and Diomita at home

And finally on Thuseday, December 27th, I was online late at night again and could meet with Mistress Cherry for an hour before we both had to go to bed. Again we just enjoyed togetherness, chatting and cuddling.

December 27th: Mistress Cherry and Diomita at home

Diary 2022 (157) December 19th/20th In the run up to Christmas

Monday, December 19th, my night started with 2 hours of togetherness with Mistress Cherry. we caught up with mutual news at our skybox, then Mistress Cherry took me to club DeLust. We talked and chatted the whole time. Mistress is taking more and more control. I can feel Mistress’ love and that makes me a bit careless. At one point, Mistress asked me who did forget to address her properly …
Being in Christmas mood Mistress picked a mild punishment. I would have to wear a pink dress the next day unless I am with my slaves. To make sure it at Mistress’ liking, she even bought the dress for me on the marketplace.
I was shocked about myself and I could only blame myself. Mistress enjoyed her power and control and continued teasing me, telling me what will happen if I fail again and what other things she has on stock for me. I should know better than being inattentive again.

December 19th: Mistress Cherry and Diomita at home and at club DeLust

slave Alessi had come inworld in the meanwhile. She waited at home for me. slave Holly was still sick and Flo wasn’t inworld as well. We returned home and I went seeing slave Alessi. I first had a dance with her in the Christmas gazebo. Then I took her to Carnal Intentions where I restrained and restricted her quite tight and began to tease her publicly. I wanted to avoid that she was too much embarrassed and hence We returned home after one hour.
It was Mistress’ bedtime and I left my restricted slave at the house to say good night to Mistress. When I returned, I rezzed a new rack und fisxed slave Alessi on it and continued teasing her. Too bad, she didn’t get her full Christmas present as she was too tired for it and hence we had to stop.

December 19th: Diomita and slave Alessi at home and at Carnal Intentions

Before I logged off that night, I changed into the pink dress which Mistress had gifted to me. I only blame myself … yet the dress doesn’t look bad except that it is pink.

December 19th: Diomita in pink

Tuesday, December 20th, I could only chat in IM with Mistress Cherry as she was with Domina Ansar. In addition she wasn’t feeling well and hence left early to go to bed.
Flo came inworld a bit later and I was talking with her at the skipee table when slave Holly came inworld as well. Holly is still sick and jsut came inworld to see Flo and me. We talked a bit, then she logged off again.
slave Alessi was in the house where she had done the cleaning. She joined us and we played one round of skipee. It was a long game and it was way over flotime when we finished. Bedtime for all of us.

December 20th: Diomita, Flo, slave Holly and slave Alessi at home

And that’s it for this diary entry.

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