Unknowingly You Support Us

Elemental Elf, Digital Art by Atlantis Jewell

This article is to praise, acknowledge, thank, and promote my good friends at  DeviantArt.com, where they have way cool stock photos that they share, royalty free, Photoshop brushes, and support of community.

These great artistes at DeviantArt.com unknowingly support Second Life artists by the offerings of quality royalty-free stock items!  Thanks gals and guys you all are the best.

The above photo would not have been possible without you!  I absolutely say two thumbs up for you all!

Mysterious Wave

By Cherry Magna

This month the Second Life Editor's Pick features Mysterious Wave by Cherry Magna. This is an immersive art sim that features the Mother Goddess and her powers of creation and from her flows all life, plant, animal and human.

This art installation is bigger then life! From the goddess grows a tree which gives, shelter, life, art, music, love, play and beauty. There are caged animals, free flying butterflies, and so much more! This sim is beautiful and worthy of the Editor's pick!

From the palm her the goddess's hand comes the moon and stars! Since are in interpreted through the viewer's own eyes, Cherry's artwork may mean something wholly different to you, but one will agree that this is a beautiful and artistically done up sim!

This sim is an absolute must see!

New Second Life Artwork

Skull Island, Digital Art by Atlantis Jewell

Join me as I begin a new journey in Second Life. As my loyal readers know, I have been traveling throughout Second Life reviewing art in SL and writing about my favorite galleries in this blog.  I have also done several sim reviews based on the amazing art in the builds. Along the way, I have collected hundreds of Second Life photographs; I have used them for this blog, posted them on Facebook, and on Flickr.com. However, I have been asking myself that to do with of the bulk of my not so perfect pictures!

All photographs are of scenery from Second Life, taken originally in my travels looking for the Picture Perfect Second Life pictures, which are hard to take! After taking 100 pictures and looking at the photographs 1 or 2 will make the final cut!

After taking a college course on Photoshop, my curve in learning the amazing way to enhance photographs has soared. Let's take the picture above, for an example. I have added a reflection to the water and gave it gentle waves, which were lacking in the original photograph!  If you don't believe me see the original photo below!

Grimm Shores

If you read my Best of Halloween Tour from October 2011 you may have seen this photograph! Isn't the difference amazing? Additionally, I have added sleet, snow, rain, thunderstorms, water, reflections, to the many photographs now available in my art gallery in Digital Art by Atlantis Jewell! 

Da Vinci Gardens - Before

In closing, I would like to leave you with a before and after pictures of my Fantasy Castle and I hope you will stop by and see the rest of my artwork!

Romantic Fantasy Castle, After

All artwork is placed on a lovely mahogany picture frame that is one prim and they are all mod/copy/NO TRANS. 

After you visit my art gallery, please come back and tell my readers your rating on my artwork:  one or two thumbs up or down! (I will publish them all.) Please state why you voted they way you have!

Enchanting Midalon

Midalon Love Garden

There are times in Second Life when you think you are going to find something, however, you find something quite different and so it was with Midalon. This sim is enchanting and bigger than life. It is best seen with the environment setting of midnight. 

The flora is gigantic and it makes even the tallest avatar feel small, but that is the idea because this sim is patterned from the movie, "Avatar." 

When you land for the first time, it looks normal, nothing special, however if you hike up to the top of the hill and take a left you will see a dragon you can hop on and ride to the Gardens of Midalon; where you will find every inconceivable plant in your imagination and then some you have not thought of as well.

The dragon leaves you on this level so that you can enjoy your exploration of the nooks and crannies, there are so many places to dance and to cuddle with your sweetie. The artwork in these plants is truly amazing and not to be missed.

Midalon Love Garden is two thumbs up! 

Relay for Life, in Second Life

The sim sponsored by the Peace Haven Communities

The opening ceremonies kicked off at 10 a.m., on the morning of July 14th, 2012. They honored those who have been fund raising over the last five or six months. This event is the biggest charity fund raisers in Second Life.

The honor lap for the survivors and caregivers opens the event! Watching the honor lap brought me to tears because I was remembering my late friends and family that have been victims of this disease and I stood along the side lines honoring those in my family who are still fighting. All Linden dollars raised throughout this entire event and today, will be turned into US dollars and given to the American Cancer Society.

The Relay for Life crosses 42 sims... the loop takes about 1.5 hours to walk or skate one loop! That does not count stopping to buy artwork, chat, or immerse your soul in the beauty around you! This is an opportunity to take fabulous photos of Second Life because after this day, these builds will be no more!

Be warned that sims, crash and you are blocked from coming onto the sim due to the capacity is full, however, eventually you will get onto the sims to walk the zombie track. The relay starts at morning and goes to dawn the next day, commemorating the struggle of survival. The morning signifies dawn of diagnose and the after noon about 2 p.m., is the time of treatment, evening is the time of struggle to overcome and the dawn of the next morning 24 hours after the relay begins is overcoming the disease!

We honor the victims of this disease and the survivors! Blessed Be! So log into Second Life and relay with us!  GO RELAY!

The Return

City of Lost Souls

The Return is set on the land set aside by the Linden Endowment for the Arts in Second Life. The creator is Marcus Inkpen and he represents society's return to spirituality. This topic means so many different things to everyone, so this author will take a stab at an interpretation.

The meaning of life what is it? The landing spot at this sim, gives you an idea. Life is about the path as well as the journey. There are choices to be made along the path. Life is no longer simple as it once was as represented by the empty, dilapidated cabin in the woods. Sometimes we get lost on our path as represented by the forest.

Sometimes we drown, metaphorically, on that pathway, until we meet someone who helps us along, loves us, or gives us a piece of invaluable advice. There may be times when we do not recognize the value of that advice until later.

We allow modern technology to cut us off from who we are and we have forgotten how to nurture our souls. The small empty building at the top of the hill represents this technology.  As we gain knowledge we have forgotten that some things must be taken by faith, otherwise, we loose sight that others matter and that they are souls too, maybe even more lost then we are.

Technology leads to spiritual death leaving us with nothing, but ash in our mouths as represented by the empty mausoleum of a castle, which is the main focus on the sim. Why empty? This represents our souls bereft of substance because we are robots to technology.

In the end, it is up the the individual how you are going to feed your soul, but whatever you do, do it! Our souls are important, feed it, reward it!

This is a not to be missed sim as it invokes thought, feelings, and self-exploration! Enjoy!

A Rare Moving Moment

It has been a pleasure to view the ice sculptures at the UTSA ArtSpace. Rebeca Bashly is an amazing artist and her work reflects her own "journey through [her] winter thoughts." All the artwork is made from white crystal.

All her sculptures explore the "parallels between the delicate and changing constitution of ice and of the female nature." She created "emotions allu[r]ing to the hazardous mind and hesitating soul." For me it was not until the final piece that the entire exhibition made sense.

This one piece makes my soul cry, it is beautiful and sad at the same time and it is called "Break & Enter." This is an absolute must see on the Highlights Gallery Tour!