Howie and Gigi

Susan and Flo

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year filled with health, prosperity and a much more peaceful world.

Gigi

Flo

Susan

Howie

There are a lot of supremely talented people operating in SL. Obviously there’s the clothes designers and sim builders, who have great talent in their areas of expertise. But there’s also other creative types, those who perform live from home to provide entertainment to an exclusively SL audience.

And a look on Flickr shows there are more for whom digital photography, in an SL context, is their thing. Sometimes, they’re also creating art in the real world and offering SL variations on it.

At Su Casa Naturist sim there’s a gallery on the beach featuring the real life and Second Life work of various users/members there. This work below by ‘Susan’ is called ‘Coming Storm’ and it’s available to buy…for L$0! So I’ve got a copy of it as I think it speaks volumes for the talent involved. RL photographers would give a lot to be able to replicate such an image! And, of course it also demonstrates naturism in nature, always a winning theme.

From there I hopped over to LeMelon Rouge’s Soho gallery. Another exceptionally talented artist whose work features nudes a lot.

I’m standing in front of one called ‘Alone 3’, and again the vivacity of naked life just spills out of the art.

Incidentally, I am standing in front of the photos in order to ‘spoil’ them. I’ve noted that this blog’s policy is one of not intentionally infringing anyone’s copyright, hence me there to break the photos of the original art up a bit. Of course, if any of the artists have an issue with us using their artwork we will take the photos down immediately.

LeMelon has his own (real life) website that you can find here, and another web presence here. He’s also on Facebook.

This brought me to Yoko Ireto’s gallery. I haven’t included any of her stunning SL photography for the reason that the photos are hung at a height that makes it difficult to photograph with me in them and, as explained above, ‘break up’ the copyrighted works.

Which brings me to the genesis of this post – SL avatar Stacia Reneoir, whose Flickr page alerted me to the fact that she produces some fabulous art on her page, but she also had an exhibition on in a gallery, Stacia’s Stories.

I teleported over there immediately and was simply blown away with the exhibition, as I am with her Flickr page.

There are those who like to detract from SL as ‘pointless’ or ‘just a game’, but I feel that when people as talented as these are are working in SL then it can never be dismissed in such a lazy manner. I would urge you  to try to visit one of SL’s many galleries where you will find some remarkable (often naked) art that is testament to their various creators’ skills.

Naturism is peripheral to this blog entry, but the fact remains that the naked body, in marble, in oils, in watercolour, in photography and now digitally, continues to fascinate and engage artists.

Gigi

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Christmas, we are told, is a time of family and togetherness. But for many it’s possibly the loneliest time of the year.

Susan, our photographer, is much more inclined to capturing many of SL’s lovely photogenic sims than she is necessarily to photographing anything else. We all play SL in her own way and that’s hers.

So she was out in the Ponto Cabana sim, photographing winter when she chanced on an artist’s studio.

She took some photos, and I’ll let her explain in her own words in the IM she sent to me. ‘It occurred to me that creative types are prone to depths of despair, and the poses reflected that sense of despondency. So I got a male friend to pose, simply to illustrate how there can be a sense of loneliness in the act of creation and something that can lead to depression. It seemed apt for the holiday period where we’re sold the idea of togetherness, but it’s forced and actually drives people apart. So I ended up with a small portfolio I’ve called ‘Study in Solitude’ as well as some more general landscapes.’

I love it when someone essentially writes a blog post for me, lol.

I agree that the photos do convey a sense of loneliness that can become stark for many people at this time of year, and I love the photos. It can be bleak in midwinter, not only weather wise, but emotionally too. I suppose what I want to say is that there are many lonely people out there, and if you know of anyone liable to ‘a blue funk’ maybe now’s the time to reach out to them and offer some emotional support.

Gigi

It’s called Boxing Day here in the UK, but other locations around the world might refer to it as St. Stephen’s Day. (I know Ireland does, more than call it Boxing Day).

Whatever you call it, it’s possibly a better day than Christmas Day, being a holiday, less stress involved in the presents and the cooking, and a time to kick back and relax, something not quite as easily achieved on Christmas Day itself.

So we’ve had a shower, cooked a light breakfast and are now spending time beside the fire that he stoked up while I was doing the dishes.

It seems that the kitchen is and has long been a place for people to enjoy nudity in whenever the opportunity arises.

Maybe not at this time of year (unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere) but I know I do tend to roll out of bed (I sleep nude) and make breakfast naked on a warm sunny morning. And it’s a lovely feeling to have the cool, fresh, summer air on your skin, particularly on mornings where it has been a humid, sleepless night.

Flo

Edited to add: We’re not the only blog linking SL nakedness to cooking around the SL blogosphere 🙂 Check out the Vandalizes blog 🙂 It’s also great to see another blog that isn’t nipple-phobic.

What is everyone else doing this Christmas morn?

Theres no sign of snow where I am, but I’m already up at a (real life) 7am and doing some of things you see in these photos. I’m not particularly religious, but I do love the Christmas morning service in my local church. As Flo has provided some background detail about her real life, I shall do the same. I’m in my 50s and divorced, and it was quite a bitter breakup over 10 years ago now. The first Christmas I was on my own (the few prior to that hadn’t been particularly great anyway, with my ex conducting one of his many affairs by text and phone while I cooked the dinner) I felt terribly lost and alone, and felt compelled to seek other people. The only place I could find any sense of communion was in the local church on Christmas morning, and it’s a habit I’ve found hard to break ever since. So a snowy church scene seemed appropriate, as did giving thanks (to Santa) for all the things I do have in my life.

Santa is basically an allegory for some more powerful, higher being. ‘The Universe’, ‘God’, call it what you will. I believe there’s some higher force that guides us, and certainly felt as if I was guided through some lonely times.

Snow would have made a Christmas morning walk perfect, but it’s unseasonably mild here today. So I can pretend I’ve been out in the chill of a morning and found a fire to warm me through. In reality I won’t need the heating on today, but I can pretend.And how better, in my imagination, to find a small cafe serving hot chocolate and marshmallows to further warm me through, by which time I’ve been joined by my beloved, and the two of us adjourn to our hot tub to make for the perfect Christmas morning.

How better to seal it all with a Christmas kiss and the words ‘Merry Christmas, darling’ whispered in each other’s ears.

Whatever you’re doing this Christmas Day, I hope it’s wonderful for you.

(Top 4 photos taken at Snow Falls sim – try to visit it as it’s gorgeous)

Gigi

We’ve received a message from Ella to say that she’s getting notifications in her email each time we respond to a comment on the blog.

Apologies to Ella. That appears to be one change that got missed when we did the changeover from Ella’s tenure as editor to ours. I’ll try and alter this to mine and Flo’s collective email address this week.

Of course it gives us a good excuse to republish a Christmas card from Ella from years gone by, the photo archive being something we did successfully change over.

Gigi

GIGI

The staff have been out and about in suitably wintry sims to capture scenes for each of our individual Christmas cards to you.

Some photos from SUSAN

Christmas can be a funny time of year with people markedly thrown out of their usual routines. Bearing this in mind we’re posting this today because Christmas Eve and Christmas Day can often take unexpected turns.

While Christmas photos such as those posted above aren’t naturist, they do demonstrate that even many non-naturists like nothing better than getting naked and having fun with Christmas props.

And why not? It should, amongst other things, be a time of frivolity and fun. A time when a lot of lingerie is purchased. Not naturist, but anything that encourages non-naturists to feel at home in their skin is a good thing as far as we’re concerned.

FLO

Looking back over previous years postings from this time of year it’s also clear that it was a time to rob the advent calendars 🙂 for suitably Xmas, but sometimes naturist related items. With that in mind, we all set off in different directions to see what goodies we could find!

Flo’s boots and scarf came from the ALB Xmas advent calendar, the hat from Brii (all free)

Susan opted to not go searching for freebies and instead take photos of some beautiful looking sims.

Gigi

Howie’s annual 2 day Christmas party took place earlier this week. Neither Gigi or myself are in this gallery of SL photos, but we’ll feature in the one we’re currently putting together for ‘Part 2’.

Flo

I’ve given you some background to me before, and thought I should provide some more (limited 😉 ) information about the real Flower Fairy, the one who exists away from SL. In real life I’m a yoga practitioner/teacher and reiki therapist.

And yes, I take naked yoga classes as part of that.

I would guess that I spend more time in naked (mixed gender) yoga than I do in a purely naturist setting, but it means that when and where I do experience a naturist environment I’m already entirely comfortable with my body and those of others.

Naked or dressed, yoga is beneficial to body and mind, and if you’ve never tried it, maybe now is the time to think about it as one of your new year resolutions.

Flo

We’ve already written about a new puritanism in SL and RL. We’ve also noted that Ella used to tie real life news stories to SL replications of events, and it’s such a brilliantly simple idea that we’ll certainly keep on with our own version. Bearing this in mind we picked up on a story about a skiing event in Semmering, Austria, whose promotional material has caused a bit of a furore by depicting a naked woman. This makes it sexist, apparently.

It didn’t take much research to discover this merely replicates a kind of imagery used in 2010, so it’s kind of thematic.

But eight years ago this seems to have passed unremarked, and demonstrates how the world has become so much more uptight in the intervening period. Or has become much more whiny. We can’t quite decide which.

I was able to disprove the ‘sexist’ aspect of naked skiing by taking to the slopes myself, au naturel. 😉

Gigi