Colors from the Void

Right before SL7B ended, I met SL resident and artist Solkide Auer in front of his creation “Colors from the Void." The exhibit was fantastic. If you touched the base of the exhibit, you were instantly placed high inside the colorful ball. What a view!!!

Solkide and SL artist Shellina Winkler originally created the exhibit for an international event, Through the Virtual Looking Glass. This event happened in both SL and RL at the same time. Sixty artists exhibited their work in SL, and at the same time the works were presented in four RL locations, Boston, Amsterdam, Nice, and Australia, through megascreens linked to the exhibits in SL.

Although Solkide participates in many SL art events, this was his first time to participate in a SL birthday celebration. He said he saw many beautiful works during SL7B. “For me it was important also to be here for the birthday of this fantastic world,” he said.

Solkide is an interesting, international SL resident. While his RL counterpart resides in Pescara, Italy, Solkide is busy perfecting his art in SL and beyond. He currently exhibits his work in his own gallery Italic’Arts, located at Slitheen (176,41,76) and in a French gallery. In March 2009 some of his works were displayed by monitors in Adriano's Temple in Rome, Italy, during an exhibition about Digital Art. In October, 2009, five of his works were exhibited at "Virtual Renaissance" in Florence, Italy, in the Anthropological Section of the Museum of Natural Science.

He has also participated in Burning Life simultaneously here in SL and at the Burning Man exhibition in Nevada. Solkide and Shellina worked together during Burning Life 2009. They had each participated in Burning Life 2008, but with separate exhibits.

In describing his work, Solkide said, “I tried to express my ideas through different sculptures. I started creating geometrical shapes then I used more difficult techniques such as "the shade", which gives the possibility to manipulate a unique prim in a very complex way. As a result I obtained unexpected and different shapes quite unlike the ones anyone can find around.”

Solkide Auer is an artist to watch for in both SL and RL.

Grey Lupindo

Childhood in SL - A Visit to the SL Kids SL7B Exhibit

Kids! They are such a problem ! All moms and papas love them so and would also love to knock them in the head. This happens in real life and also guess what, here in SL.

I have talked to many and spent time with them having fun .. Riding, rafting .. dancing .. fishing ... I have spent some special times with kids fishing in contests and laughing so hard at their wit! They knock my socks off! Some are kids just to be kids. Some are reliving a time of their life that they really enjoyed and felt loved and safe. Some are living a life they never had when they should have had it. Imagine!

Isn‘t that why we are all here, hoping for something we don’t have or can’t have in real life? How many times have I heard “Why would anyone want to be a **** ?“ Replace that with anything you want, furry , vampire, tiny, greenie, slayer of zombies, model, stripper.

Some people think that the kids may be perverts. Forget it!! Perverts are not masquerading here as children. Some might try, but if they were they would be reported immediately by the KIDS! Also if a pervert does approach one of these SL kids they are reported immediately! There are SL kid websites and groups that watch and advise.

These kids want to enjoy this virtual life and have lots of fun doing it. Some are master builders and scripters. Some own sims full of furniture for sale, some have malls, some design clothing. I have seen some very weird avatars around in SL and I figure they must be that avatar because they want to for some reason. Live and let live. Enjoy what we have while we have it!

If you really would like to hear why a person chooses to be a kid now is your chance! You can do it easily without asking any kid. Visit the sweet build by Marianne McCann at the SL7B. There are toy blocks with the pictures of kid avatars. Click any block and you will pick up a note card that will tell you the personal view of why that person chose to become a SL kid.

The SL Kids Exhibit in SL7B is in the SL7B Visionary sim at (205, 184, 22).
Gemma Cleanslate