Edition 20

It's hard to believe that we've published so many editions of the Limoncello News but here is the twentieth. It has evolved from a notecard distributed to our Limoncello Friends group, to a web-based weekly. We merged with the BBB Gazette, then de-merged. We began by telling you what new artworks we'd bought. Then to write about exhibitions we'd visited and occasionally about the artists in our collection.

Our ambitions are humble and our objective is clear. Our home is in Bellisseria and we are non-commercial – even at our mainland annexe. We compete with no-one. This is not a journal of SL art – others write those and we're happy to be their readers. Ours is a private collection, open to the public. It simply seemed selfish to own art in a world where security and insurance are not an issue, but not let others enjoy it! We don't have a tip jar and the only gifts we ever accepted (and we didn't solicit those) are art works.

Most land owners in SL (even if they do offer rentals or solicit donations) know they must expect to spend their own money to build something they love. They are usually happy for others to enjoy it too. That's the spirit of SL. There are those who make a living here by providing commercial content. Good luck to them and we are happy to be their customers. But that's not who we are.

You are always welcome at our gallery and we love to chat with you about the art and whatever else comes up. We ask nothing of you – not even the chat if you don't feel like it – so relax, enjoy the art and please feel at home. As for the Limoncello News, if you ever have a story to tell or pictures to share that might be of interest to our readers, please don't hesitate to send your copy and/or images to Fenella.

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ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID

The most extraordinary thing in Second Life® at the moment is Borderless Pt. 2 by Gem Preiz. It's reviewed at Art Korner so we won't go into detail about it here. It's an installation with a series of enormous rooms, each on a different theme. You'll need to set your graphics to Ultra (no shadows) and use Shared Environment. Here are some photos Fenella took on her visit there. They will give you an idea but they can't come close to replicating the experience, which changes constantly. Seconds after each of these shots, they would have shown something different. You really need to visit yourself. 

Borderless Pt 2 by Gem Preiz

click to enlarge / scroll to see all

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NEW ACQUISITIONS

We are cautious about adding 3D art because we husband our prims very carefully but as Ferraristi (you may have noticed Dave's California outside the Limoncello News Office and Fenella has a 599 in inventory) we couldn't resist Cavallino Rampante, by qutsal.alex, which is now in the ground floor lobby of the LG Tower. He actually called it "Prancing Horse", but it so much resembles the Ferrari emblem (and Dave's tattoo thereof) that we thought the name just sounded better in Italian. 

Thus Yootz has an exhibition in progress at the Kondor Art Gallery, where we bought Red Dawn. It now hangs on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower. 

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!

Edition 19

First of all, thank you to Cranston Yordstorm of the Passport to Bellisseria blog (and now vlog) for his kind permission to use his photo of the relaunched Airship Limoncello as the new banner for Limoncello News. Cranston is an actor in RL and an affable, enthusiastic presence in SL. Thanks, Cranston, not only for the photo rights, but for all you bring to SL.  

Not least of Cranston's SL contributions is his singing and those of you who attended the Relaunch Party last Saturday for the Airship Limoncello will be well aware of his talent. He entertained us well and the party then continued under the expert musical guidance of DJ Female. Our thanks to them both and to all of you who joined what was a sentimental evening for us. The airship has been part of our Second Lives since the very beginning.

It was particularly good to welcome JMB Balogh and Zhu Juran. Both were at the first airship party back in 2007 and are great friends. We're happy that, despite the unsocial hour for Europeans, Leon Nobilis, who remade the ship for us, joined the celebrations. It was also great to welcome some of the artists whose work is represented in our collection to celebrate with us. Their creativity keeps us in SL. Without them, we wouldn’t have stuck around for the virtual experiences (and real friendships) that make our SL so enjoyable — and so unlike the seedy 3D chat room outsiders often imagine.

The party’s over but it’s not time to call it a day. It’s back — for the Limoncello and for us — to the quiet, satisfying pastime  of collecting and sharing art. We’re grateful to all of you involved in helping us make SL places to – we hope – bring pleasure to visitors.

Photo © Leon Nobilis

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ART UNBOUND

Discussions have begun with our partner Infinite Productions about the next pop up art gallery in our ART UNBOUND series. As you know, the big idea of the project is to take art out of its "temples" to places it might not usually be thought to belong. Cate of Infinite Productions is researching locations and there'll be more news soon. We can tell you that the next ART UNBOUND pop up gallery will open in July and will feature works by veteran SL artists as well as one newcomer.

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ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID

Under the Ice / click to enlarge

We love the enormous installations made by French Artist Eylinea Seabird. One called In My Mood has been in place for some time at our gallery and can be accessed from a door at the aft end of the Middle Deck of the Airship Limoncello. You should check it out soon if you haven't seen it already, or take a last chance to enjoy it again as it may soon be replaced. Don't forget to check out her 2D artworks in our collection, which you will walk past on the way to that door. 

Eyelinea's latest massive installation, Under the Ice, opened this week at the VeGeTaL PLaNeT Gallery and is cool in every sense. Provided, that is, you first turn on Advanced Lighting Model (ALM). Without ALM, you'll think we're crazy to recommend it!

Sadly she couldn't make its opening party, but Fenella visited the new Jamison Arts Gallery in Haven Village to check out the three-woman exhibition with which it was launched. Two of the three artists; Aruba DeCuir and Jaelle Faerye, feature in our collections. The third, Sabrina Cooke, was new to us. Their work plays well off each other. Their styles are all different but somehow work together as a show. We recommend you take a look.

We're always delighted to see new art spaces open. If this opening exhibition is anything to go by, the Jamison should be a great addition to the SL art scene. Our congratulations to Harlow Jamison, the friendly and welcoming owner, and to the three artists concerned. 

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NEW ACQUISITIONS

This week's additions to our collection include "She Dwells", By Sugah Pancake – another Mermaid image, and a spectacular one. It was bought from The Art of Sugah Pancake, an exhibition currently in progress at the new Kondor Art Square. The next addition is by the highly-productive Caly Applewhywte and is called GEISHA in the Soul - 04.  Then comes CW- Girando, by Cullum Writer and finally Intro and extrovert, by Awesome Fallen. All of the above are to be found on the third floor of the LG Tower at our mainland annexe in Nanga.

At the opening exhibition at the Jamison Arts Gallery in Haven Village, mentioned above, we also acquired two portraits by artist Sabrina Cooke, for whom that is her first SL show. They are called Tulips and Begonias and Ethereal and are to be found on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower.

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!

A message from our Founder, Tom

Tom can't be with us for Relaunch Party today at 4-6pm SLT, but sent this video message to those of you who will be there.

See you at the party!

Edition 18

PARTY TIME

Please have your tuxedos and evening dresses dry-cleaned and come to the relaunch party of the newly-refurbished Airship Limoncello from 4-6pm on Saturday May 15th.

The party will be on board the newly spiffed-up ship and live music will be provided by singer Cranston Yordstorm from 4pm, followed by tunes from DJ Female from 5pm.

It will be an emotional event for the Limoncello Art Gallery team. The first party our founder, Tom Paine (LastDitch Writer) ever threw in SL was an after-party on July 1st, 2007 for a blogging awards ceremony. As reported here on his blog, it took place aboard the then brand-new Airship Limoncello. At 124 metres of more than 700 barely-held-together prims – she was then the largest moving vehicle in SL – though the gentlest region crossing tended to pull her apart!

Many noobs partied aboard that night. Several fell out and had to be saved by teleports back from mid-air! The dear old Limoncello has been central to our Second Lives ever since. Tom will be there in spirit for the relaunch of his old ship and we will release a special video greeting from him at the time of the event. 

So, if you want to see nostalgic tears in the eyes of grown avatars, you need to be there. Bring your dancing shoes and your friends.

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LG TOWER REDEVELOPMENT

The Airship Limoncello having been rebuilt to save prims, our logical next step was to use some of them (163 in fact) to add floors to the LG Tower. So that's what we have done.

Since last week's Limoncello News, we have called in the builders and added five new floors. That gives us 20 in total, of which 19 are gallery floors. We can now sustain the present pace of acquisitions for a year without increasing tier.

The new 20th Floor is our LG Arts Theatre and is available (complete with stage, podium and lighting rig) to any artists or curators who would like to give lectures, stage performance art or present other arty events. There will be no charge for use of the theatre by anyone Dave likes. Take the elevator to the 20th Floor, check it out and lay your charm thickly on Dave to get the tag!

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PASSPORT TO BELLISSERIA VISITS THE RELAUNCHED AS LIMONCELLO

Cranston Yordstorm’s excellent blog Passport to Bellisseria has been documenting his visits to stamp-issuing locations for the Bellisseria passport from the BBB. Last week he was one of the very first visitors to the newly-refurbished and re-launched Airship Limoncello and you can read all about it here. It’s funny for us, having lived with the old girl for the whole of our time in SL, to read about her as the “latest annex” and “new”, but in a sense she now is. We are grateful to Cranston for letting us know that the passport terminal on board was malfunctioning. We’re not sure how that happened but we deleted it and rezzed a new one and all is now well. Please, if you ever encounter anything that's not working at our galleries, let us know!

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ELSWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID

Fenella attended the opening of White Canvas, an exhibition by Diconay Boa at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery last Sunday. The images were striking and the light show by Venus Adored was spectacular. The show is a study of second life tattoos.  Diconay says that;

Tattoos are jewelry for the skin. People get them for many reasons... Our current society craves individuality and self expression. And now many people wear their artistic expression. They are especially interesting in the virtual world because of the lack of permanence on a virtual mesh body. But someone talented in the digital arts can really make it look surreal and beautiful.

The show is well worth a look. 

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NEW ACQUISITIONS

We mentioned Aruba DeCuir's World Collage Day exhibition last week. It's still running for a little while so do visit if you haven't already. We bought two pieces for our collection, called Red Herring and Chopsticks – both by Aruba herself. You will find them on the Upper Deck of the Airship Limoncello.

We also acquired three works by Ghost, who is organising a charity event at her gallery in the Artists' Village at Campbell Coast. All the art is on sale at $L0 – that's right; entirely free of charge. Instead purchasers are asked to donate the usual price of L$250 per item to Relay for Life (RFL) the fundraiser for cancer research. Our three "purchases" are Vanity Blues - Biography, Urban Dystophia and Sunstruck Stone and also now hang on the Upper Deck of the Airship Limoncello. 

Finally, from her exhibition White Canvas reviewed in this week's EOTAG feature,  we bought 13. Slow kill, by Diconay Boa. You'll find it exhibited on the 11th Floor at the LG Tower.

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That's all from our Campbell Coast editorial offices for now. See you at the party. Until then, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!

Edition 17

AIRSHIP LIMONCELLO REBUILD

The renovation and refurbishment of the Airship Limoncello is complete! Fenella inspected the finished job on Tuesday and asked for a couple of minor adjustments, which our contractor, Leon, took care of. We took delivery yesterday.

It's looking good. Leon has managed to get the Land Impact down to 226, which is 21 better than his previous estimate and hundreds better than the original build. She's still a heavy object but is 124 metres long so there are limits to what can be achieved. Every prim saved is another artwork that can be exhibited, so we are delighted. We also love the redesigned control gondola and the new staircases.

We worked like crazy into the early hours of this morning to re-hang all the art. We need to update the catalogue to reflect the re-arrangements we have made – and some work is necessary to correct the build, so step carefully in places where the floors are incomplete – but essentially it's ready for visitors. 

We plan to have a re-launch party to match the original back in 2007 where the whole Limoncello story began! Watch this space for details. If you would like an invitation to the party, be sure to visit the gallery and subscribe to our mailing list. We hope to see you all there!

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ELSEWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID

We are late to this story but always like to give a shout-out to our fellow-gallerists in Bellisseria. We appreciate their sacrifice of the limited LI allowance at their Linden Homes to the cause of art.

There's an exhibition in progress right now involving two of our favourite SL ladies; Owl Dragonash and Inara Pey. It opened on April 18th and runs until May 15th at the super-cute Hoot Suite Gallery in Owl's traditional Winchester home in Ruthsburg. It features photographs by Inara – whose blog post about the relaunch of the Limoncello Gallery helped us enormously last year. The exhibition is called One if by land, Two if by water.

Inara says: 

I have been active in Second Life continuously since the end of 2006. My interests are widespread, covering many SL activities, although I am perhaps best known as a blogger, having been writing about Second Life for more than 10 years. My blog covers almost all aspects of Second Life. A key part of my blog comprises art and region reviews, for which I produce images for illustration. As such, I'm not a qualified photographer or artist in any meaningful use of the terms; I'm therefore genuinely flattered when people feel my art is suitable for exhibitions or purchase.

She's overly modest, in our opinion. We have bought and exhibited her work and there was no flattery in our decision. The only qualification that ultimately matters in the fine arts (delightful and useful though their study may be) is talent. Head over to the region honouring the original SL female avatar (whose name became a verb; back when to revert to basic form was to be "Ruthed") and enjoy the show.

May 8th is World Collage Day – an annual, international celebration of collage initiated by Kolaj Magazine in 2018. Artists and art venues are invited to hold events on that day to celebrate collage. Aruba DeCuir has decided to join in with the celebration in SL.

In order to celebrate the real world 'World Collage Day' I have made an exhibition of 12 new and some older collages here in SL. The exhibition will open Friday the 7th of May at 11.30 (SL time). There will be an initial two hours opening event. On Saturday – World Collage Day – the opening the opening will continue. I will be at the Collage Gallery as much as possible in European morning and daytime and you are free to come and meet me. All are welcome and I hope to see as many of you as possible! The show will be open until early June.

We love Aruba's work, which features in our collections. Why not head over and take a look?

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NEW ACQUISITIONS
Our friend Traci Ultsch has a show at the Imago Gallery at present called Overdose. Fenella mixed up her CET with her GMT and managed to show up to the opening party just as it was ending, but loved the show. Traci's work is striking, challenging and always makes you think. We bought a piece called I Am God, I Put Those Lights In The Sky and it's exhibited on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower. 

We also bought strokes of fate, by Sina Souza from her back-to-SL exhibition Retrospective at the Nitroglobus Gallery which we featured last week in a special ELSWHERE ON THE ARTY GRID supplement. Again, it's on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower.

Rising star of the SL art world (and our good friend) Anja (Neobookie) introduced Fenella to the work of Janus Fall. Anja currently has an exhibition in the garden of Janus's Red Dot Gallery. So, right now, a visit there will get you both Anja's super artwork and Janus's amazing photographic portraiture. We bought two pieces of the latter for our collection and both now hang on the 11th Floor of the LG Tower. The first is There Sleeps Titania from a series called Heart and Light featuring;

...images of the female face presented in atmospheric light to create a mood, feeling or emotion. Occasionally inspired by art or literature as the titles of the pieces suggest, the viewer is invited to create their own stories

The second is a wonderful portrait of a strikingly-beautiful SL lady called Tamara and prosaically entitled Tamara Pic Red Hair. 

Finally, also on the 11th Floor is our first artwork using augmented reality. La belle et la bete, by tutsy Navarathna was bought from the artist's exhibition currently in progress at La Maison d'Aneli gallery. It comes with a QR code which, once you have dowloaded the app EyeJack for your phone or tablet, you can scan. Then, when you hold your phone up to the screen to look at the artwork through its camera, amazing things happen. Be sure to have the volume turned up on your phone!

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Until next week, Limoncello Friends, stay arty!