52 of 52 1/2 - Shamen Gallery reopens!

Really no reason for a gallery to be indoors -  This is SL after all!

Back in July, I wrote about the closing of Shamen Galleries.  That was a rather sad happening.  So more the happy was I when Rune IM'ed me and told me about his plan to reopen for himself.  He kindly asked me over to check out the place before the official opening on Sunday, November 28th (at 10:00 am SLT).

I arrived meeting him and Tegan Jenvieve chatting around in voice while playing backgammon.  Now, for some reason, I am trying to force myselves to get familiar with Viewer 2, and doing voice there was a first-time.  I spent several minutes trying to find out how to activate voice, only to conclude that there is no way to deactivate it.  And the button has moved to the lower left, and stopped being a "hold down while you talk" kind of toggle.  If you want to do voice, just click on Speak, the green light is lit, and you just talk.  I had to admit the whole thing worked pretty smoothly, and it is a nice experience talking to people you meet.  I do feel, however, that doing voice makes me loose some of the immersion.  Voice becomes the main line of communication, and the avatar reduced to a kind of puppet.  But in a lot of situations thats quite OK. 

After telling me about his vision for the gallery, Rune called a nice turtle to show me around the lawn.

Anje Aichi has a nice series of female avatars - they kind of display some emotions and life that are very unusual in my experience.

Sandralee Palianta had some RL (almost) nudes (of herselves, if her profile picture tells the truth...).

He plans to have several exhibits where the visitor can participate in the art.  There will be a permanent exhibit along with themed ones.  The first theme is erotica, and this one will be open for the rest of the year. 

One of Shamen Galleries great strength was the connections Rune and Cierra had with a lot of artists in SL.  They allays seemed to be able to get both well-known and exciting new artists for their shows.  It is a pleasure to see that Rune have not lost that network.

Fuschia is doing erotic art - thats new!  

When I looked at them I thought "gee, these gives me sensations down my spine, whoever made those?", and when I did an Edit it was no real surprise that it was her.  One of SL's greatest artists, she makes great art in all the different expressions she explores.

Also on show is some of the work she has done togheter with Tegan.  A must-see.  Tegan is the director of the new Shamen Galleries btw. 


Bobbi Laval is a new artist for me, but I hope it will not be the last time I see her work.

There are lot of different artists' work around - and that's a big strength to this place.












I have always loved black rooms in SL, having built a few of them myself.  Rune has made one too, and again Fuschia blows my breath away with her sculpture "forbidden fruit":
 

The fruit of passion burning violet

After the tour it was nice for a sore-foot avatar to just sit down and relax for a while.  I'm glad the SL community still have people like Rune and Tegan, artists and hopefully a lot of visitors:-)  All people with a genuine love of life, beauty and art that makes this such a unique place to be.