New World Notes

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Angelika Corral Creates Stunning Images

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

“Splash” by Angelika Corral is one of these pictures that bring me to a complete stop. So much of my time browsing I will page down and down and down almost mindlessly. I might pause and like a picture or two, but it’s seldom that I come to a full stop and look at the picture in its full-screen glory before I am thinking about writing about it. Corral is usually a black and white portraitist with only an occasional splash of color, but none quite so literal. I love the concept and think she executed it beautifully.

More stunning photos with Corral’s unique perspective on color.

Friday Fashion Finds from SL Style Blogger Sydd Sinister

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

Sydd Sinister has been blogging for as long as I remember. Her archives go back to February 2009. She is widely respected for the thoroughness of her posts reviewing skins, but I was caught by this one, “Black Lives Matter.” This features a different place to find a Black Lives Matter shirt and Vanity Hair, a store doing hair for Black women for years. 

• Hair: Vanity Hair:Phases @ TLC – Tabata Jewell
• Hairbase: Revoul – Barbiana Tingz Hairbase – LuvEzek
• Top: .Q. #BLM – MrsHoodRoyal
• Earrings & Piercing: Fake Diamond Set by Madame Noir – Monxeria

After the cut, a more typical post that captures exactly why she is one of the top bloggers in Second Life.

Powerful SL Images Selected in Honor of Juneteenth & Black Lives Matter

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

Mahogany Soulstar’s photo “Exhaustion” captures the mental damage of knowing one’s life is devalued. She links to a powerful blog post that should give us all something to contemplate. 

I selected this image and the others in this post in honor of Juneteenth, an unofficial American holiday celebrating the end of slavery. On June 19, the Union Army took control of Texas and Major General Granger announced that the enslaved there were free. This happened a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. So it is a celebration of freedom, but freedom that was delayed. 

That seems apt because, despite the advancements of the abortive Reconstruction and the victories of the Civil Rights Movement, true liberation remains elusive. The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks remind us that Black people have never been fully liberated, not from the fear of being killed for living while Black. But just as Juneteenth commemorates the long-delayed Emancipation, this Juneteenth augers a reckoning with impunity with which police kill Black men and women. 

The last straw has dropped on Black America’s back. And finally, thanks to the contemptuous disregard with which the killer kept his hand in his pocket while murdering Floyd in front of witness. The majority of Americans are joining with Black people to demand the end of impunity for these abuses.

The next SL images feature more Black avatars addressing the movement that brings a kind of hope that the original Juneteenth brought.

Pashon Morales-Renee’s photo captures a demonstration. Yes, a police car is on fire. I guess we should quote Donald Rumsfeld on this: “Freedom is untidy."

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Jaxx Larson's Lively Slices of Virtual World Life

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

A soccer ball to the face is exactly what you should expect while browsing Jaxx Larson’s photostream. This untitled picture is exactly what his stream is about, living an active Second Life of play and exploration. I love the perspective. It’s full of energy and movement. 

More pictures of Jaxx living life below:

Cajsa's Flickr Pick: UnaMayLi Turns SL Screenshots Into Surreal Imagery

“Spring Is Near and the Goat Flips Out” is a bucolic picture on UnaMayLi’s photostream. It’s a lovely, romantic picture of a woman enjoying the lovely day and the goats frolicking, perhaps attention-seeking. They can be very social. I love how it looks so much like a watercolor with the desaturated colors. It is beautiful. It is also not representative of UnaMayLi’s far more surreal stream. 

After the break, a surprising and thoughtful call for empathy.

Cajsa's Friday Fashion Blog Pick: Shioru Inshan's Room 304

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

“Little Peonie” is a good introduction to Shioru Inshan’s lovely blog, Room 304. The colors are bold and her pictures are intriguing and artful. There is emotional element to this picture that caught my attention. Her pose is tentative as she contemplates entering this dark room. It just works so well.

• irrISIStible : WANDERLUST LITTLE PEONIE BODYSUIT
• Sintiklia - Hair Zoella - Naturals
• *:..Silvery K..:*RoseChoker(Red)
• *:..Silvery K..:*Rose curse-Bento mesh(Black)
• ANTINATURAL[+] Hospital for Souls / Insanitarium RARE
• the pose shop. Wallflower renamed Jackalope

After the cut, another blog post - one with a great color story.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Marina Münter Makes Marvelous Metaverse Pics

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

Marina Munter’s photostream makes me think of the women Julia Sugarbaker called the “toughest-talking big-shouldered broads that ever lived in this country.” She has a certain mid-century panache and style that seems very Golden Age Hollywood and I love it. Her love of intense color and unusual angles also harkens back to that era. 

After the break, more stylish and strong photos from Marina.

Cajsa's SL Flickr Pick: Avant Garde Style Photographer Paradox Mercury

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

“Spiked” is a great exemplar of Paradox Mercury’s avant-garde photostream. He is a model, stylist, and photographer who brings a high-fashion editorial edge to Flickr. Watch out, Jeffrey Graetsch, you have virtual competition! His work is instantly recognizable with distended and uncomfortable positions, a background the often radiates from the avatar to complement or echo the outfit, and always avant-garde experimental fashion. 

His stream is best viewed in your privacy or with safety settings. But as you can see after the cut, most of the time he expresses that side in technically modest ways. Technically...

Friday's Fashion Blog: Brandi Monroe's Oh Look! It’s a Blog!

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

“Pride” is a joyful blog post from Brandi Monroe’s perfectly named blog, “Oh Look! It’s a Blog!” It features items from the SL Pride at Home event, a shop and hop event that takes you to the main stores for 99L pride-centric items and Bad Unicorn’s Pride Party Gacha at The Arcade. 

• Balloon Arch: [Bad Unicorn] Balloon Arch – Pride Party Gacha @ The Arcade
• Confetti: [Bad Unicorn]  Confetti – Pride Party Gacha @ The Arcade
• Scattered Balloons: hive // bold floor balloons .  * SL Pride at Home

How many hoped to read, read, read during the shutdown? Brandi has a confession after the cut. 

Cajsa's Second Life Flickr Pick: Charly Rayne Takes Perfectly Composed Pics

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

“Chasing Butterflies” by Charly Rayne is a lovely picture that is made so much more dramatic and effective by use of a large expanse of whitespace. And yes, it’s orange, but the idea of whitespace is the energy created by emptiness. It is also called negative space, though some distinguish between the two and limit negative space to those empty spaces that create another visual element like the negative space between the E and the X in FedEx creating an arrow. Another term for it is from Japanese, Ma, “this interval which gives shape to the whole,” though Ma is much more all-encompassing. There is the pregnant pause in conversation, the rest in music, it is not just a concept in art, but also in life. 

Charly Rayne plays with space in her work. More examples are after the cut.