Silence

The silence invades it all, the dim of light is scarse.

My home forces introspection: the old clock, the old books, the high ceilings and long doors, wooden floors and the sutil smell of inciense.

I like it, I like to be obsessed with my insights…Even if the void can go both ways.

Teeth start to bite each other…Yet, in the search of pain, I ride the storm.

It has been a time since I the idea to do this picture. Being in victorian and steampunk sims, since almost day one, made me love the ways of dark victorians: prim and proper from the outside, rotten in the inside. The aesthetic of my automaton always evolves around it.

I wanted a sort of collodionish picture – I add the “ish” because if you know basics of photography is imposible to do it, unless you actually do a wet collodion picture-. The quality of product made with collodion is imposible to imitate, and has a sort of volumetric feel that is hypnotizing.

When the Darkness Comes

“…To a long lost soul
With a wanderer’s heart
There is hope hidden somewhere in the dark…”
When the Light Dies, from The Devil and The Almighty Blues

So I sit here, the lights of the day is fading, so is the winter. Seem that in Second life is all very intense, and very hard to keep it drama free, is almost like it missed a big sign “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate“. I often wondered what is with this little community of ours that drags everyone into an emotional tsunami. I think that the fact of being together when you want is not good enough, not when we live in a reality that is so damn meta.

Anyhow, stupid comment aside… when I started to concibe this picture was when I listened the theme When the Light Dies from the album II of the norwegian band The Devil and the Almighty Blues. Awesome band with some early Black Sabbath taste in it. Totally recommend it if you are up for that sort of music.

This picture was taken in the caverns of Abrahamstrup.

I am wearing: Olive‘s Yuky Hair from the Harajuku Event / Ladies Boots from Blues / Hannya demon arms, Kijo horns and Yokai scales from Ghoul / Rose Duelist Uniform from Cureless.

A Kiss of Blood

Lady Seymour Dorothy Fleming and Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed crossover with an Annie Leibovitz undertone

It seems as if we were running with wolves, too afraid to see the blood that pulsated within our veins… we tore the body of the human that brought us to the world, in order to breath.

A tainted kiss to the wind.

I shall live with this storm cunvulsing in my bosom, so lick the corners of my mouth and eat the maggots that fall off my hands. We are tainted, we are, we are… so the crown of butterflies is no more than a crown of blood and spikes.

You said I could run, you said I could try, yet you did not even give me the chance. The doors closed and here we are, strip of all guilt….in the darkness i shall be. In the silence and the void we shall be. It is the bifid tongue that squirms within your eyes that ties our fate.

Fall with me to the pitch black.

We are dead…and yet, we did not die.

Ligeia002

I am wearing the tricorn “Splatter” from Maison de Montgelas‘s gatcha, and the dress “Lady Worsley” form Belle Epoque. This picture was taken in Yorkshire, a beautiful sim to visit and rest. I i highly recommend it.

The Ecstasy

I came back to Second Life after a long time away, and I felt lost… so much had changed. I changed. My list of friends is filled with people that are gone, and so many places I held dear disappeared. It was as if I was dancing alone.

My avatar was always so clear to me. I have always been a doll, almost since day one… So what about now, when most of my roleplay partners were gone? when all was left was an old avi with old clothes…

I started to rebuild myself, searched for my favorite designers that were still here, and found new ones…and I started to take photographs again. So it suddenly it hit me, this was one of my main passions in SL: exploring and taking photographs.

When I was constructing this image, The Ectasy of Saint Teresa of Gian Lorenzo Bernini came to my mind, and this took form. I remembered… I always loved to dance alone in the dark.

Some of us are not meant to be around others.

When I left SL, I left so many things behind and shuttered so much… I am at fault, I took a decision based on my RL at the time…I could say “I did what I could”, but that is such a lame excuse. I made some friends that crossed the digital border, some people I hold dear to my heart…and they were all gone.

So I came back knowing I would find the remains of what It used to be…

I pushed my embarrassed behind and came back for one of them. To my astonished self, she was still here, and with her arms open. She is the sun for me, think there is no better explanation -she fills everyone with warmth and energy-. I dedicate this image to her…she knows who she is, so no need to invade her privacy. She is my light, the light that allows me to dance in the dark.

This photograph was taken in Witchwood (Beautiful sim, home of Petite Mort & Oubliette house of couture), the flowers are from Lode, and the dress from Pixicat.

AHIRU -Silent Devotion –

I went to one of my favourite sims with the plan to take a picture, and eventually photoshop it into a painting, to have displayed on my digital fireplace. So why not make a picture just because.

As it is common knowledge, the victorian times were a restrictive society in the surface, yet things are always more complex. The Lenguaje of Flowers was a kind of dictionary of what flowers meant, in order to say what was badly seen with words or could not be done so easily, such as a declaration of love or an insult.*

Apparently for the victorians the hydrangeas were a symbol of dispassion and were given to heartless person, so if you were given this flower, you were in trouble. The Hydrangeas change color when the ph of the soil is too alkaline, turning from blue to pink, so they were meant for someone voluble.

In Japan it seems they have a bad note too, yet they also have a beautiful meaning, as it stands for silent devotion**.

So on this note, blueberrys stand for eternal optimism, raspberrys for matters of the heart, and the camellias for devotion, gratitude and spiritual growth. So all in all we have a beautiful story here…only waiting to be told.

* https://archive.org/details/languageofflower00gree/page/10

* http://blog.alientimes.org/2011/06/hydrangea-ajisai-%E7%B4%AB%E9%99%BD%E8%8A%B1-in-japanese-history-and-culture-revisited/

Hair pice by lode and kimono by Zenith.

Here is the LM if someone wants to take a stroll:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ahiru/56/42/2502