Art in Secone Life 2020 (8) Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe

26 Feb 2020 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I visited the Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe which displays art made by second life artists Norton Lykin, Nevereux, Bryn Oh and Mistero Hifeng. In the landmark description you find the following wisdom to accompany you during your visit to the gallery “Life is a story, choose wisely how you tell it“. Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe is owned by Norton Lykin. One room of the gallery features the art of Nevereux, the other rooms feature Norton’s own work. I found on statue from Bryn Oh and on of Mistero Hifeng.

I first came across Norton Lykin when I visited La Masion d’Aneli in November 2019 (Simploring 2019 (108) La Maison d’Aneli – November 2019). Norton is with over 12 years a SL veteran. He’s living in Denmark and took up his art activities after his retirement as a system programmer. He sees life as a journey “The ideas we have and the history we tell. Reality is not a scientific truth but as we understand it in every given moment.”
This journey of life is Norton’s theme. I saw one picture and text about it at the above mentioned exhibtion at La Maison d’Aneli and the same picture is a centerpiece of Norton’s Wonderland Art Gallery.

Fluxing Reality by Norton Lykin. The statue on the outer right is by Mistero Hifeng (Tutto il resto e’… gia’…Poesia), next to it is a statue from Byrn Oh called Vera Lynnbot (silent)

One room on the ground floor features the work of Nevereux, an artist who I came across twice so far. Firstly visiting doLLoureux at Daphne.Arts (read here) and secondly at La Maison d’Aneli (Simploring 2018 (97) Another joined exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli). His room at the Wonderland Gallery shows 2D and 3D art objects. Outstanding is a row of presentation boxes opened to present little art objects, from a simple glass of wine, a butterly, an earth globe (moving to Mars), a duck ….
On the other side is a 3D installation held in black consisting of globes, flowers and a fish. I won’t try to interpret, I just enjoyed the forms and colours and the row of presentation boxes conjured a smile in my face as some of them are funny.

Impressions Nevereux’ room at Wonderland Art Gallery

The main entrance hall and the second room on the groud floor as well as the entire 2nd floor presents Norton Lykin’s own art, showing pictures playing with colours and shadows, or little 3D scenes and some statues. At the stairway you find a large picture obviously taken at an installion of Theda Tammas named “the Womb” (I missed that).

Impressions Nevereux’ room at Wonderland Art Gallery (upper pictures) / a 3D scene by Norton Lykin and a picture “Theda Tammas the Womb”

On the second floor you also find the café, a nice place to relax or maybe to talk about the art you just saw.

Impression of Nortos Lykin’s Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe – the cafe (upper left), the gallery building (upper right), “Girl in mind prison” (lower left), “Triade” (lower right)

I enjoyed my visit to Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe. Thank you Norton for presenting your art along with the art of other second life artists!

Landmark to Wonderland Art Gallery & Cafe
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/GEL%20Community%2027/102/132/22

Dio’s 12th year in Second Life Feb 11th, 2019 – Part II

12 Feb 2020 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in anniversary blog entries, Art in Second Life, Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday, I had my 12th anniversary of joining Second Life.
It has become a tradition for me to write a longer blog post on the occasion of my rezzdays, to have a look back on the last year and to realize the changes in my Second Life as well as the things that didn’t change. Yesterday, I published Part I of my anniversary entry and talked about my closer family and the changes in my family. Today’s part II is about the simploring tours I made in my 12th year.

12 years in Second Life – part II: My simploring tours

Let me start with my simploring tours about art in Second Life. I admire the creativity of artists in this virtual world, I visited galleries like Lyric Art Gallery, La Masion D’Aneli, 20][21 gallery, Rey’s Gallery, Shui Mo Gallery, Milly Sharple’s Fractal galleries, Daphne.Arts and Deva Westland’s Galerie Des Beaux-Arts. I visited and wrote about 7 installations of Cica Ghost, who continues to conjure a smile in my face with every of her funny whimsical creations. I saw fewer art installations since the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) is on hold. But some private initiatives luckily provide space or the artists themselves dedicate their own space. Just recently I saw an exhibition of Mistero Hifeng’s art at Valium Creek Art Park. I saw “The Mind Melter” by Thoth Jantzen at VeGeTaL PLaNeT, I saw “Lalawood” by Theda Tammas, Yoon (onyxxe), Iono Allen and JadeYu Fhang at La Maison d’Aneli as well as “Binary Radiation” by Nino Vichan. I saw Twilights Doors by Bo Zano (Bozanonl Resident), “The Outer Garden” by bisou Dexler, “Inferno” by Noke Yuitza, “Avaloir” by Eupalinos Ugajin, Undertones by Oluja (artistik Oluja) and “Delicatessen – Tell Me a Story” by Meilo Minotaur.

Shui Mo Gallery (upper left) / Aneli Abeyante’s art at La Maison d’Aneli (upper right) / Delicatessen – Tell Me a Story (lower left) / INFERNO by Noke Yuitza (lower right)

Since January 2020 the blog has a new category for blogposts about art in Second Life, I won’t categorize old entries though.

I found many cosy and lovely sims where people built their own dreamworld, peaceful and picturesque. You don’t need many prims or a large place for it, Nevgilde Gaard or Black Mire – around hi-cafe are examples for that. Most of these dreamworlds were homesteads: Florence Bay, Authors Point, Secondlife National Park, Maderia Springs, Blaylock Island, Scarlett Isle, Carolina, Broken, Alternate Reality, Fleur Nederland [Dutch], La Digue, Northern Shore – Skärgården, Soul of Dreams … just to name a few. In these sims I spent relaxing hours and enjoyed the views and the peace.

Northern Shore – Skärgården (upper left) / Scarlett Isle (upper right) / Secondlife National Park (lower left) / Black Mire – around hi-cafe (lower right)

Some were really particular. I want to mention Last Dove, a sim like a movie. It’s setting is based on Lonesome Dove, a 1985 Western novel by American writer Larry McMurtry. Last Dove is still open if you haven’t seen it yet. I also liked Kun-Tei-Ner, a sim that provided a scary view into mankind’s future, a place with no land, a city that grew up on a huge mountain of containers filled with broken technological stuff. And just recently I visited the SS Galaxy, the largest cruiseship in Second Life – impressive, in particular when you consider it’s history.

Last Dove (upper and lower left) / Kun-Tei-Ner (upper right) / SS Galaxy (lower right)

Then there were the sims that have a real background, where a place in the physical world was build in Second Life. This way I got a picture, an idea of the real places and my visits gave reason to do a little bit of research. Venice in Italy was one of these impressing places and I spent some time exploring it.
I had never heard about Ukivok before and now I have the feeling that I’ve been there already. I had heard of Huntington Beach before but wasn’t aware of it’s oil industry history. I also had heard and read of North Brother Island, yet I haven’t been there in real life (yet). Now I somehow feel like I’ve been there. I learned a lot about Chesapeake Bay, a place I’ve been to twice in reality already being not aware of it’s history.

Ukivok (upper left) / North Brother Island (upper right) / Chesapeake Bay (lower left) / Huntington Beach (lower right)

I also discovered many places related to my kinky side, to BDSM. That’s another dream you can live in Second Life and I do. Unfortunately some of these places don’t stay long like the Elevate Femdom Lounge, Windhaven or Meadow Rose. Also some adult places, that we liked to visit every once in a while, are gone now like The Apostasy or Angel of Pain’s BDSM island (Remark: Angel of Pain has a successor sim)

Gone: The Apostasy (upper left) / Angel of Pain’s BDSM Island (upper right) / Dungeon at Windhaven (lower left) / Meadow Rose (lower right)

Just recently I discovered Caged Elegance, a club with many member, lots of events and all sort of kinks. I enjoyed my visit to Catena et Cavea, an adult sim that is also really picturesque. Amrum is another place I not only went to for simploring but also for a session with Mistress Jenny when I had a green light. I like in particular the BDSM vacation home there.
We visited The Obliviation Hole RLV Prison of Starbright Wingtips who gave us a full tour. The prison and what is going on there is a regular subject when we chat during our Friday night parties.

Caged Elegance (upper left) / Catena et Cavea (upper right) / Amrum BDSM vacation home (lower left) / The Obliviation Hole RLV Prison (lower right)

Thank you all for building, for creating and for sharing your dreams (kinky or not kinky) with the rest of the community. And please apologize if I did not mention all of my tours, it were simply too many. I did really enjoy all of my simploring tours!

End of part II, tomorrow’s part III will be about the other highlights of my 12th year.

Simploring 2020 (6) Kindred Spirit

21 Jan 2020 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

For my simploring trip on Tuesday, January 7th, I picked Kindred Spirit from scoop.it SL Destinations. Kindred Spirit is an andult homestead owned and created by Bart Bader, a builder and photographer.

Kindred Spirit is a wonderful fantasy world, full of romantic spots to sit, dream and cuddle, full of beautiful kitschy backgrounds as well as just amazingly beautiful backgrounds – well, Kitsch is something quite subjective and it also depends on our mood how we see things. In addition you find some art objects, in particular from Mistero Hifeng.

Kindred Spirit – overiew

Kindred Spirit consists of 2 islands and a white fantasy world a bit offshore. The landing is at the end of one of the two islands and you can follow a path from there over the 2 islands to the white fantasy world. You should look left and right of the path to see all the hidden spots to enjoy. I gave some of it names just to mark them in the overview.

At the landing spot is a board with the adress of the flickr group. Right now, in January Bart started a photo contest. You just have to join the group (for free) and to post your pictures in the Kindred Spirit flickr group. And right at the landing point I found some lovely spots to take pictures. I didn’t play a lot with the windlicht setting but I can imagine that the moon sculpture can will make a great object as a backgroud at night. The glowing flowers, the unicorns, the trees with their illumination and the deers also fit nicely into a fantasy background. The gazebo suits for a lovely bed surrounded by the pillars of the gazebo and tall trees.

Impressions of Kindred Spirit (1) – aorund the landing point, flowers and unicorns (upper left), the moon sculpture (upper right), the fountain (lower left) and the gazebo (lower right)

After crossing the bridge and entering the second island you reach the pear house which stands out with it yellow colour. The pear house is furnished inside and is furnished very romantic inside. I personally like the swing seat in the bedroom upstairs.

Impressions of Kindred Spirit (2) – pear house

Close to the pear house is a pier where you can sit and enjoy the environment and watch some swans swimming. The old ballroom building is a bit hidden under big trees. Inside it offers places to sit and a bathtube.

Impressions of Kindred Spirit (3) – pier and ballroom

I continued my simploring tour at Kindred Spirit and came to a ruin with a sculpture that I easily recognized as being created by Mistero Hifeng (it’s named Bella – che ci importa del mondo). The ruins are another great spot for taking pictures. And looking around I noticed another spot to sit and cuddle up in a tree.

Impressions of Kindred Spirit (4) – around the piano

If you further follow the path you get to the “White Fantasy”. You find yourself admist white illumiated trees, fantasy flowers, benches and beds to cuddle, art pieces of Mistero Hifeng. You literally walk over the water following a path made of white stones. At the corner is a treehouse from where you overlook the white fantasy and the 2 islands. But you can also decide to enjoy the “Wedding bed”. I named it wedding bed as I can imagine the Kindred Spirit would be a perfect place for a wedding.

Impressions of Kindred Spirit (5) – White fantasy , upper right is Mistero Hifeng’s “Dream V2”, lower left is Mistero Hifeng’s “E rubero’ per te la Luna”

Impressions of Kindred Spirit (6) – White Fantasy, tree house, wedding bed and balloon with swing seat

Kindred Spirit is a very well made fantasy sim, very romantic and a perfect place to sit and dream or to spend some time of togetherness with your loved one. And of course it is a great place for those who like taking pictures (like myself). Thank you Bart Bader for creating this beautiful spot and in particular for sharing it publicly.

Landmark to Kindred Spirit
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kindred%20Spirit%202/43/59/29
Flickr page Bart Bader
https://www.flickr.com/photos/159802893@N04/
Kindred Spirit grou Flickr page (also for the January Photo challenge)
https://www.flickr.com/groups/14608768@N20/pool/with/49295957336/

Simploring 2020 (4) Valium Creek, Valium Creek Art Park, Relax Club and Kekeland – Bardeco

17 Jan 2020 3 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I came across Valium Creek following Inara Pey’s blog and her post “Time at Valium Creek in Second Life“

Valium Creek is a moderate full region, owned and operated by Vally Lavender (Valium Lavender). Roughly 3/4 of Valium Creek is dedicated to residential usage, about 1/4 is public. The landing is in the public area, which includes a coffee shop hangout, a local bar, church and other interesting features. Valium Creek was designed/built by Jacky MacPherson and Dandy Warhlol (Terry Fotherington).

Valium Creek – overview

The public area offers a lot of nice views and great backgrounds for pictures. I had fun exploring. To enter the residential area you need to be a group member. And of course you could decide to live here, the houses are rented out by Vally. Part of the group join fees are donated to the Nature Conservancy, an international conservation group. Vally also has a website for Valium Creek.

Impressions of Valium Creek – public part

But that’s by far not all. Vally also owns Broken Vessels, another moderate full region right next to Valium Creek and connected to it with a bridge. The Valium Creek Public Area is being extended over to almost 1/2 of the Broken Vessels and is home for the Valium Creek Art Park. When I visited the first time the Art Park on January 8th it was full of place holders for future art objects. When I visited again on Tuesday, January 14th, the Valium Creek Art Park presented it’s first exhibition featuring the art of Mistero Hifeng.

Broken Vessels – overview

Impressions of Valium Creek Art Park

The remainder of the Broken Vessels sim, is occupied by Kekeland – Bardeco and Relax Club. Kekeland – Bardeco rang a bell. I visited it back in 2018 (see Simploring 2018 (21) Bardeco & Kekeland). Kekeland – Bardeco is owned by Belle des Champs (Bridget Genna) and was also built by Dandy Warhlol (Terry Fotherington). At it’s new location it is split between what you see on the ground and the club itself that is located on a sky platform. Kekeland – Bardeco is for sure on my list of places to visit in the near future.

Mistero Hifeng’s art featured at Valium Creek Art Park (1)

Mistero Hifeng’s art featured at Valium Creek Art Park (2)

The Relax Club is group owned and I assume that the group founder Night A. (Nightattack Guardian) owns the club. I didn’t do much research so far. The Relax Club has a own website – www.relaxclub.pt, is running since 2013, offers music (Club, Tech, Deep, Techno, Soul, Funky, House) everyday between 10 AM and 6 PM.

Thank you Vally (Valium Lavender), Jacky Macpherson, Dandy Warhlol (Terry Fotherington), Belle des Champs (Bridget Genna) and Night A. (Nightattack Guardian) for these two joined sims, that offer a lot for everybody: residential houses for rent, an art park, places to hang out and a music venue. It was for sure not my last visit.

Landmark to Valium Creek
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/valium%20creek/157/131/24
Valium Creek Art Park
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Broken%20Vessels/166/59/22
Landmark to Relax Club
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Broken%20Vessels/181/230/23
Landmark to Kekeland – Bardeco (skyplatform)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Broken%20Vessels/65/159/3002
Valium Creek Art Park Flickr-group
https://www.flickr.com/groups/valium/
Valium Creek website
https://valiumcreek.com
Nature Conservancy
https://www.nature.org/en-us/
Inara Pey’s blog post “Time at Valium Creek in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2020/01/07/time-at-valium-creek-in-second-life/

Simploring 2019 (97) La Maison d’Aneli in September / October 2019

19 Sep 2019 5 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

I got an invite from Aneli Abeyante to the opening of the new joined exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli on September, 18th. As I knew that I couldn’t attend that day, I visited the exhibition already on Tuesday, Sepembter 17th.

The exhibition presents the art from Eylinea, Olympes Rhode, Desy Magic, Megan Prumier, Akim Alonzo, Jolieelle Parfort and Moki Yuitza

I started my tour through the exhibition with Eylinea’s art. Eylinea is quite new in Second Life, she joined in May 2018, and got in contact to recognized artists who generously transmitted their art to her. Since then she has been exploring with great pleasure the different artistic possibilities of SL: painting, photography, sculpture and even soon tattoo creation. At La Maison d’Aneli she shows some animated 3D paintings and scultures. Unfortuantely you can’t really take a picture as you caputre just one single moment, but then at least the picture is unique.

Eylinea’s art at La Maison d’Aneli

The exhibition part of Olympe (Olympes Rhode) is named “Trip to Normandy: 2019/1944 – RL & SL pictures”. Olympe says about herself: “Passionate by words and images, Second Life has allowed me to give a new dimension to my passions, poetry and photography ….. My photos tell a story. They reflect the emotions within me,  with either happiness or sadness, explosion of joy or dismay, they always are created with the same intense passion.”
The exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli shows pictures of a trip to Normandy in 2019 and mixes with some on 1944, when the Normandy was the landing site of the allied troups liberating Europe and was the site of many battles.

Olympe’s art at La Maison d’Aneli / lower right shows one of two sculptures from Mistero Hifeng that are exhibited in the area of Olympe’s corner at La Maison d’Aneli

Desy Magic is a passionate photographer and she has a unique and colourful style in which she processes her pictures and makes them real eye catchers. You can still see the original motif yet the abstract forms or objects added to her picture are a dominant element, intriguing.

Desy’s art at La Maison d’Aneli

Megan Prumier is a multimedia artist and resident in Second Life. Her skills are extended on the field of photography, mostly portraits on modern, minimal and even surreal Scenes. The exhibited pictures at La Maison d’Aneli are in black and white and they are quite dark. And they are shown at a dark corner of La Maision d’Aneli. By this artistic light setting, the women shown in her pictures are highlighted and get a mysterious aura. Amazing what can be done with light.

Megan’s art at La Maison d’Aneli

The art of Akim (Akim Alonzo) is in a seperate room. The floor, the ceiling and the walls are black, green letter, symbols and figures run along all walls and are the only source of light beside the exhibited pictures. This setting fits to the name of this exhibition part at La Maison d’Aneli – “The Matrix”. The pictures are loosely based on the cult movie The Matrix. A metaphor for a world of people trapped in a simulated, virtual reality that has many aspects in common with the Secondlife world.
Akim is a traveller and photographer in Second Life and he owns “The Itakos Art Gallery” and runs a website.

Akim’s art at La Maison d’Aneli

Jolie (Jolieelle Parfort) work in virtual/digital art is a new direction in a long art career. “After finding myself retired I discovered an extremely enjoyable virtual world with my new computer and became immersed in Second Life.  In this world the landscapes and tableaux available seem never ending and various;  there is always a new scene or setting to challenge me and to capture.“

Jolie’s art at La Maison d’Aneli

Moki Yuitza is in SL for over 11 years now: “From the beginning I found myself more comfortable working with SL basic prims. With simple, basic shapes, and some manipulation possibilities, I can create almost everything. Although I appreciate the possibilities offered by the meshes, I continue to create exclusively using prim base. In RL I am an architect and in this metaverse I found the possibility to realize my idea of ​​space and my architectural fantasy, as well as to share it with other people.”
When you visit her art installation “La SERRE” at La Maison d’Aneli make sure that your set your windlight to midnight, otherwise you’ll be blinded by the light. Moki is inviting us to sit down, to watch the moving and ever changing ojects and light, to mediate and to be drawn into her installation.

Moki’s art at La Maison d’Aneli

La Maison d’Aneli is owned by Aneli Abeyante. Through her gallery she brings together all forms of creativity in RL and SL and the featured artists come from around the globe. Aneli’s intention is to “put her gallery in the service of artists, so that the world can be better, exchanges and meetings probably contribute even though it seems to be particles.”
Thank you Aneli for another great exhibition and thank you to all artists. I don’t know how long the current exhibition will last, but I guess that you have at least a month to see it. Enjoy your visit, if you go there yourself.

Landmark to La Maison d’Aneli
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oak%20Park/101/136/3502
Website Akim (Akim Alonzo)
http://www.itakos.it
The Itakos Art Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ATL/212/189/1009

Simploring 2019 (77) Tyraina

09 Jul 2019 2 Comments

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Sunday, June 23rd, I picked Tyraina from scoop.it SL Destinations. Tyraina is a moderate homestead owned by Dessi Tyraina (Dessi Tyran). The landmark description of Tyraina hits the nail’s head: “Tyraina is a quiet photogenic scenic sim where you can, hangout with friends, cuddle, dance and take pictures“

Tyraina – bird’s eye view

The landing point is in a field of flowers close to a wall with the sim’s name. Nearby is a covered bridge with a sign “Welcome”. Behind the wall you can see a pair of tigers reclined above a waterfall and looking interested in your direction. You should start exploring at the covered bridge. The other way from the landing point leads to the owner’s house that is private.

Impressions of Tyraina (1)

Tyraina is a place with many spots to sit and enjoy the surrounding nature or some togetherness. I tried some of the offered spots and I enjoyed my visit. I also tried the soap bubble at the other end of the island. It is fun to see the world in different colours from inside the bubble.

Impressions of Tyraina (2)

I tried to figure out where Tyraina could be located. The lighthouse, the residential house and the 3 covered bridges look a bit American, but there’re no tigers there. Maybe the tigers are pets of the owner. They run around free, but their area is naturally limited and you mustn’t be afraid of them.

Impressions of Tyraina (3) – right pictures show the soap bubble with Diomita inside

Besides all the lovely spots to sit and cuddle there’s also a bit of art at Tyraina. I saw two sculptures from Mistero Hifeng (“Leggi questi versi …” and “I soliti pensieri…che…”). And to my surprise I found a skeleton in an outhouse. I wonder how this accident happened.

Impressions of Tyraina (4) – left pictures show the 2 mentioned scultures by Mistero Hifeng and in the lower right is the skeleton in the outhouse

There’s not much more to say about Tyraina. The pictures I took speak for themselves. It is an island to enjoy and to wind down. Thank you Dessi for sharing your place with the public!

Landmark to Tyraina
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rockaway%20Isle/186/170/27
flickr-group
https://www.flickr.com/groups/tyraina/

Simploring 2019 (76) Malaika Park

05 Jul 2019 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Saturday, June 22nd, I picked Malaika Park from scoop.it SL Destinations. There were already quite some blog posts published about Malaika Park and I read Inara Pey’s post “Exploring Malaika Park in Second Life” before I visited it myself.

Malaika Park is a full region owned by Leroy Voorhees and home for a few people. According to Inara Pey Malaika Park was created by Leroy Voorhees along with Gabriel2009, Wayne (waynenz), Sangi Phaeton and JJ Goodman. The groud level is publically accessible and looks like a Mediterrean town.

Malaika Park – overview

The landing is at the court of this little town, right next to a bar and to the quite large yacht harbour. The relation between the large yacht harbour and the town itself reminded me a bit of St. Tropez in France, in particular as Malaika Park is full of art pieces.

Malaika Park: Heart hands by reycharles and Senza vestito by Mistero Hifeng (left) / Snacks and bar (right)

I walked from the court along the the pier to the snack bar and saw the “Heart hands” created by reycharles, who’s gallery I visited in March (read Simploring 2019 (28) Rey’s Gallery) and one of several sculptures created by Mistero Hifeng that are spread at Malaika Park.

Malaika Park: court (upper left) / Merfolk Maiden by Lucas Lameth (lower left) / Blue and White no. 3 by Jake Vordun (upper right) / La…chiamano realta’ by Mistero Hifeng (lower right)

Close to the court is another large sculpture by Mistero Hifeng, La…chiamano realta’, and a modern sculpture by Jake Vordun (Blue and White no. 3). I visited the cafe and walked to its roof, where you have a nice view over the harbour. On the roof ou find 2 more sculpture from Jake Vordun (Diana and Actaeon). At the time of my visit a big cruise ship laid along the other pier. It reminded me of the current debate about cruise ships in Venice as this one clearly dominates the view on Malaika Park. I assume it is just temporary. The cruise ship is part of SL Pride and use as a big party ship.

Malaika Park: cafe with sculptures Diana and Actaeon by Jake Vordun (left) / SL Pride cruise ship (right)

At the end smaller pier is another scupture of Jake Vordun (Red No.1) and I came across a guitar player from Cica Ghost and I saw two sculptures form Lucas Lameth (Merfolk Maiden and Merfolk Guard). All the art is placed with care and the pieces do fit to their location. The art can fully develop this way and it is a pleasure to see and enjoy it.

Malaika Park: Merfolk Guard by Lucas Lameth (upper left) / paddle boats (lower left) / Boy with guitar anim. by Cica Ghost (upper right) / Red No. 1 by Jake Vordun (lower right)

I continued my exploring tour of Malaika Park and saw many more sculptures. I saw La vita…imparare vorra’ and Dentro corpi liberi from Mistero Hifeng. The later is unusal colourful for Mistero and a nice transition to Cica Chost’s “man 5” who holds a balloon and her matchstick animation “Cica’s Little Boat”.

Malaika Park: La vita…imparare vorra’ by Mistero Hifeng (upper left) / Dentro corpi liberi by Mistero Hifeng (upper right) / man 5 and Little Boat by Cica Ghost (lower pictures)

The colourful town houses are not furnished, but on the other side of Malaika Park you find (surprise *winks*) more art like another modern sculpture from Jake Vordun (Fancy Decor: Grantaire Sculpture). There are two residential home on this sime of Malaika Park, one is on the plateau of a rock overlooking the town and Gabriel2009 has his atelier here. It’s worth a look at it.

Views of the other side of Malaika Park, upper right picture shows Fancy Decor: Grantaire Sculpture by Jake Vordun

I ended my exploring tour visiting the pool and the games area.

Malaika Park: Gabriel2009’s Atelier (left pictures) / pool (upper right) and games area (lower right)

As far as I understood, Malaika Park is constantly changing a little bit. I assume that art is added here and there or that room is made for events like the cruise ship that was there during my visit. I really enjoyed how the pieces of art are placed at Malaika Park. This alone is worth a visit. Thank you Leroy Voorhees and all others involved from creating this sim and for sharing it with the public.

Landmark to Malaika Park
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Malaika%20Park/137/86/30
Inara Pey’s post “Exploring Malaika Park in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2018/10/05/exploring-malaika-park-in-second-life/

Simploring 2019 (72) La Isla Tropical

24 Jun 2019 1 Comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

La Isla Tropical is an adult homestead owned be Manuel Crumb. It consists of a main island and four smaller islands around it. The selected sim surround with active vulcano islands fits very well. I came across La Isla Tropical as I looked up scoop.it SL Destinations to pick a destination for my simploring tour on Tuesday, June 11th.

La Isla Tropical – overview

The landing point is on one of the 4 smaller islands next to an old biplane. From here you can either walk over a wooden bridge to the main island (caution you’ll get wet feet nonetheless) or you use the one way teleports that are integrated in the signpost next to the brige or you rezz a boat and start exploring with a boat tour. I took the boat tour first.

Impressions of La Isla Tropical (1) – Landing point and boat rezzer

During my visit to La Isla Tropical I played around with different windlight settings, the one set by Manuel, my usual windlight (Annan Adored Realistic) and several others. None of those were really satisfying me that day, but the Firestorm viewer, that I use, has it’s problems lately. On my tour I came by the island with the atelier and I stopped there and enjoyed the view to the main island from the roof of the atelier. I left the boat and began exploring the main island. I walked to the volleyball court, had a drink at the ocean hangout and dived to the a ruin “under the sea”.

Impressions of La Isla Tropical (2) – atelier, ocean hangout and volleyball court

I had seen the tower on the main island already during my boat tour. Unfortunately the textures outside didn’t fully rezz for me. I didn’t know about the inside but being on an adult homestead I was not surprised that there’s a dungeon. It is decorated with a statue from Mistero Hifeng, a piece of art of him that I saw already a few times before during my simploring tours.

Impressions of La Isla Tropical (3) – “under the sea”, dungeon with statue from Mistero Hifeng, jet ski & windsurfing at the boat rental

I continued my walk, came across the flamingos and reached the boat rental. At the pier your can rezz a jet ski or different windsurfers (including a shark if you dare *winks*).

In the center of the main island is a bed & breakfast. It is really nice furnished and decorated inside. Quite close to it is a swimming pool, a bar & bbq area and a really nice round campfire site.

Impressions of La Isla Tropical (4) – bed & breakfast, swimming pool, campfire, bar & bbq

I ended my simploring tour visiting the island opposed to the beach with the flamingos. Cute little piglets run around on the beach of the island, some of them swim in the sea. On the island is a piggery and during my visit there was an adult pig inside – well as mentioned in the beginning La Isla Tropical is an adult sim.

Impressions of La Isla Tropical (5) – piggery, flamingos and sunset atmosphere at the beach

La Isla Tropical offers a lot of nice places to sit and chill be it on the beach or at the bar or at the ocean hangout. There’s a lot to discover and to watch and yes, also for those looking for particular kinks, La Isla Tropical has something to offer.
Thank you Manuel for sharing your sim to the public. I enjoyed exploring!

Landmark to La Isla Tropical
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sao%20Nicolau/165/221/23
Flickr-group
https://www.flickr.com/groups/4655409@N22/

Simploring 2019 (71) Groove One

22 Jun 2019 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

I visited Groove One of Friday June, 7th. I found the landmark on scoop.it SL Destinations.

Groove One is a full adult sim owned by Desterac LXIX (desterac laval) who says about himself “Music is my Mistress. And she is a very demanding bitch“. He’s a DJ in several clubs. More about him and his music can be found in his profile and you can listen to his own compositions at https://soundcloud.com/groove_one.

Groove One – Overview

Groove One is a weired sim. I found no theme, no real idea what it is about. Some spots look clean and neat and invite you to stay, others are just dirty. Nothing really fits together. I found several spots for events, one of them is hoovering above the motel.

Impressions of Groove One (1)

The sim is very full and obviously takes a lot of ressources. I couldn’t turn on shadows and even with no shadows my frame rate dropped below 2 fps sometimes. Textures did load slowly if at all. The vegetation is rich and Desterac also used light effects.

Impressions of Groove One (2)

There’s a complex of Mediterrean houses and a Mediterrean villa and both look inviting. There’s a colossus at one corner of the sim, a big rock with attached houses, a church which carriers another church on the top of its curch spire, the broken head of the statue of liberty, two sailing ships, an old BMW isetta, an Elvis rock club, dancing models, a board with sexual warnings (right at the landing), a piece of art by Mistero Hifeng (che ci importa del mondo), an old railroad engine where you can walk in, elements from cities like a subway entrance, residential homes (even furnished nicely), swimming pools, several beaches, the bridge suspended on three balloons (which I saw on several other sims already), boats and a harbour, animals, and and and ….

Impressions of Groove One (3)

That nothing fits, that there is no connecting element, no theme, that it is just an agglomerate of items and buildings collected with time (a lot of nice stuff by the way) is the connecting element. It is what makes Groove One outstanding and an interesting place to visit. Or maybe I just didn’t get the key to it all? I think my pictures provide a first impression of what to expect.

Impressions of Groove One (4)

Anway, exploring was fun and there’s still a lot that I didn’t see yet. As it is an adult sim I summoned Emmi (rileylynch) and had her accompany me. Hence we both could speculate what Groove One is about.

Thank you Desterac LXIX (desterac laval) for sharing your place with the public. I enjoyed exloring parts of it.

Landmark to Groove One
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Groove%20One/99/121/22
Desterac LXIX (desterac.laval)’s music
https://soundcloud.com/groove_one

Simploring 2019 (22) Undertones

26 Feb 2019 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, February 15th, I picked “Undertones” from scoop.it SL Destinations. The short article and the short landmark description of “Undertones“ did tempt me:
“Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect – a public gallery, garden, music, videos, artwork, and little shops to explore, snap, and hangout. Welcome all friendlies!
On the docks: T3T Rez zone, gacha yardsale and random freebies 🙂”
In addition, I hadn’t heard or read before about the artist, who owns “Undertones”: Art Oluja (artistik Oluja)

Undertones – overview and entering the gallery

At the landing point you can grab some freebies and a landmark at a raft, that is close to the landing point (one freebie is the raft itself). Getting up the stairs you enter a labyrinth of connected modern buildings with a lot of space for the art. In the first hallway one wall is full of posters of galleries. Seems, as if I will never be able to discover and see all of them.

Impressions of Undertones – the art of Art Oluja (artistik Oluja)

Apropos missing – I looked up Art Oluja’s profile to find out about her art. She says about herself: “Addicted to mental stimulation, synesthetic appreciation, and art in all its forms. I admire creative processes, online and off, inside and out. Im an explorer and admirer of all the many creative experiences here, but sometimes I zone out enough to experiment myself :)”
I learned that Art Oluja had participated in the LEA program, having own installations and collaborated with other artists. I didn’t see any of it though.

Impressions of Undertones – featuring the art of Silas Merlin, Pearl Grey (pearlgrey) and Elle Thorkveld

At Undertones Art Oluja has exhibited her art as well as art from other artists. I came across Pearl Grey (pearlgrey), Klaus Bereznyak, Silas Merlin, Mistero Hifeng, Elle Thorkveld and Haveit Neox. I’m pretty sure, there’re more.

Impressions of Undertones – featuring the art of Mistero Hifeng, Silas Merlin, Klaus Bereznyak and Haveit Neox / Diomita posing at Undertones

I visited the garden, the event area, the shops and some nice spots to sit and enjoy. I had fun looking at all the art, there’s so much to discover that my one hour visit was by far not suffient. I grabbed some of the freebies, some of Art Oluja own work is given away for free as well, some are sold – and yes, I got one piece for my own collection of art.

Impressions of Undertones – featuring the art of Pearl Grey (pearlgrey) and Klaus Bereznyak / Diomita trying out the freebies (lower left and middle) and placing the art of Art Oluja (artistik Oluja) at home (lower right)

And at home, I had a look at the freebies – funny!
I enjoyed my visit to Undertones and seeing Art Oluja’s work as well as the work of other artists arranged thoughtfully and I had fun looking around. Thank you Art Oluja for sharing your place, for the freebies and for a very enjoyable visit.

Landmark to Undertones
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Catocala/149/86/22

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