14th Raglan Shire Artwalk and Interview With Karmagirl Avro

by Marcel Mosswood

Raglan Shire Artwalk the 14th is being held at May 12 – June 16, 2019. This is an art exhibition involving several sims and includes the largest art exhibition on Second Life involving more than 175 artists. Yesterday, I went around all the sims all day at the Raglan Shire Artwalk accompanied by Karmagirl Avro (Karma Da Squabbit). She explained many things about the Artwalk.

The Raglan Shire Artwalk maps

“The first year we had two Artwalks, I think they were a three days event. Zayn Till, the Raglan Shire sims owner, saw a real-life art walk while living in Seattle, and wanted to bring that into Second Life,” she explained.

Karma said that the original intent of the Artwalk was a way for creative people to have a place to display their art. It was originally only for the community members but quickly spread to outside the tiny community. It is a free event, they've never charged rent for it, and this was the sim owners way of giving back as well as fostering creativity both in and out of the community.

The first year the Artwalk had two and it was a three days event. It is now a five-week long event. This one is the largest ever. Karma said that first few Artwalk had about 50 participants, and when she took over as director the Artwalk hit 100 that year. She set goals every year since and have hit them. It is over 180 participants this year, the biggest ever. 40% of the sculpture artists are first time participants to the Artwalk. 20% of the Artwalk participants are new. So even if you have been to every Artwalk you will see something new! “I am always excited to see both new and returning artists to the Artwalk,” said Karma.

One of the 2D art areas

The Raglan Shire Artwalk has had so many great works of arts from within and outside of the community, it's difficult to narrow it down to a few people. “But just off top of my head some very talented people: Silas Merlin, Panacea Pangaea, Maymay Maytov, Petunia Liveoak, Natalmari72, Reycharles, Skyblue Earthboy, Hadiya Draper, Denaliav, FionaFei, ViktorSavior, Layachi Ihnen,” said Karma.

One of the sculptures areas

When I asked her, “What do you think about art in Second Life? Is it have a good future?”

Karma answered, “I think art is evolving in Second Life with the advent of mesh. I remember how stunning it was to see mesh sculptures for the first time. There was one particular sculpture last year in Heron Shire that was so stunning I literally gasped when I saw it.”

“I was really excited last year that we had our first augmented reality art, which uses real-life sculptures and uploads them to a photo that can be scanned using an app to bring the sculptures to life! This display by Natalmari72 is back this year in Artwalk Area #4 in Raglan Shire. It's not to be missed!” said Karma while I watched the work of Magic Murti Lila on my Android phone.

The augmented reality art

Explore the great artworks by Second Life artists here:
Artwalk 2D art area #1: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/30/222/77
Artwalk 2D art area #2: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/68/148/58
Artwalk 2D art area #3: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/13/160/79
Artwalk 2D art area #4: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/75/245/22
Artwalk scuplture art area #1: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Heron%20Shire/125/131/22
Artwalk scuplture art area #2: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Morning%20Shire/237/168/21
Artwalk scuplture art area #3: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Athen%20Shire/68/233/23
Raglan Shire Tree Gallery: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/122/59/59
Artwalk 2019 Vendor & Freebie area: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/116/29/59

Marcell Mosswood