New World Notes

Cajsa's Flickr Pick: Grief & Loss in Real Life Expressed By Second Life Images

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“Start Again” is a gorgeous photo in the Flickr Group, "And in the end ... Grief & Loss in SL", dedicated to images created in Second Life to paingful real life changes, such as "the death of a spouse, a parent, a child, a friend, a pet. The loss of a job, of a home."  Sometimes I love taking a dive into a group photo pool as a way to discover new artists. Just paging through, I found a dozen new-to-me artists. One of them (above) is Charly Keating who kindly includes SLurls to his exploratory photos. Generally speaking, you should try to avoid centering, but when it works, it works, and wow, it really works in this beautifully simple photo with an amazing sky.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Junn's Elegant Virtual Self-Portrait & Landscape Photos

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“To the future” announces the temporary closure of Reverie sim, but it also suggests all sorts of activity. There’s the platform for watching swimmers, the bikes, the suitcases. There are people on the beach and if we can’t see them, it doesn’t matter. We know they’re having fun. I like the composition, the bike and fence leading our eyes to the platform which suggests swimming and water polo.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: The Sun-Drenched Screenshots of Simone Fiore

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I love Simone Fiore’s sun-drenched photos. You can feel the sun and sea spray in “When we woke up that morning.” It’s early and the sun has not yet burned off the fog so the sun is refracted by the moisture in the air, seemingly coming from everywhere. This is such an impressionistic picture, like a painting.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Let's Look at the Layered Imagery of Love Lethecus

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I love ‘Breath of Air’ by Love Lethecus. It looks like she played with light leak layers and fabric layers in a collage with a pose of her avatar. She used colors that match and complement her avatar’s dress making it seem as though she is coming out of the flux of color.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Chisato Kuriyama Photographs Virtual Teen Adventure

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“I’m a firestarter, twisted firestarter” is an exciting photo by Chisato Kuriyama. Her avatar seems a bit young, but then the work of fighting for freedom is often done by youth. Her avatar is a busy one, skateboarding, swimming, and defending the world. I love that her avatar really looks like a teen and I love her many action shots.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Kidman Latte's Elegant Pics of Summer Fun

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Kidman Latte’s photostream is a delicious blend of fashion and decor photos for her blog called Kidman’s Palette. She has a distinctive style that is exemplified by simplicity and consistency. Each of her photos is framed like a Polaroid with her name and a tag for decor or fashion. I love the yin and yang of this picture and the beautifully balanced small floating flower pots. There is a careful symmetry at play that is just enough off balance to feel dynamic, not static.

Cajsa’s SL Flickr Pick: Indigo Claire's Eclectic & Stunning Photostream

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

I struggled to choose only three pictures from Indigo Claire’s stunning photostream. With many artists I love several photos but can choose a few that represent their work. With Indigo Claire, her experimentation produces so many disparate styles it is impossible to point to a picture and say “this one is representative.”  With “Let’s Make a Summer”, Indigo names her inspiration, the artist/photographer Jan Saudek. He has taken many photos in front of the same window which may be an inspiration, but Claire does nothing derivative. The fish in this photo are a recurring motif in Claire’s photos.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Yoona's Glorious Photostream of Virtual World Kawaii

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

ʏᴏᴏɴᴀ *ૂ❛ัᴗ❛ั*ૂ’s photostream is as delightful as the smiley face in her display name. Although it sure messes up my typing.   Yoona is excellent at creating beautiful kawaii scenes. 111 stands out in being a single color, white on white on white. It’s very romantic.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Karma Weymann's Artful Portraits of Nude Avatars

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Karma Weymann’s photostream is full of sensual photos.  Midday Sun caught my attention with its unusual pose and the close crop so the avatar fills the frame. It is a perfect example of the Golden Ratio as well. 

Cajsa's SL Flickr Picks: Thalia Heckroth's Gorgeous Slice of Virtual Life Photos

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“Sun-kissed” by Thalia Heckroth is a slice-of-life photo, a woman walking down the street, her hair bouncing and lively in the wind, her hand raised to push it back.  I wanted to feature this picture because it beautifully illustrates one of my favorite things since mesh displaced flexi, the action-photo hair. Hair that flies away, falls back, blows in the wind, and in all sorts of wonderful ways does not just hang in smooth perfect. Thalia matched the pose to the hair and styled the clothing perfectly to create a story.