Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Ecce, nunc in pulvere dormiam

et si mane me quaesieris, non subsistam.

Quoting from the book of Job, Jade K.oltai announced the offline death of her sim-building partner Serene Footman with this photo of Isle of May. With this photo above, she announced that she resurrected their Isle of May in his remembrance. [Click here to teleport to the Isle of May] 

As someone who spends a lot of time browsing SL Flickr, I’ve long noticed that their sims are the most popular sites for photos. Footman wrote about their work (and its relationship to real life sites) in his blog Furillen. In all, they created thirteen gorgeous sims. 

Here's some images from the late Serene's Flickr. This is a lovely whimsical pic:

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This one below announces the opening of the last sim that he and Jade created. It's different from his usual work because he added a texture layer to give it a painterly feeling:

In this one below, he most explicitly shares about his coming death, and cites "Crossing the Bar" by Tennyson, a poem that always makes me cry (my mom had me memorize it):

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Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark…

Second Life residents are mourning the loss of Serene Footman with gratitude for his and Jade’s work and with many photos expressing their feelings. 

For some of the photos honoring Footman, click here:

I love “Flying around forever” by polvere di gesso. It is an image reversal that creates a melancholy eerie loneliness beyond that of a simple black and white photo. It conveys the sense that the world is upside down, turned on its axis. 

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Melusina Parkin took several pictures at Isle of May “In memory of Serene Footman.” It seems to me that Melusina’s sparing photography is a perfect match for the landscapes of Footman and K,Oltai. They appreciate the beauty of simplicity, of the spare and disciplined, of emptiness and open space. You can see that in her collection of pictures she has taken at their sims. 

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Serene Footman posted this last photo in May. It is “The Bridge” with a poem by Octavio Paz that reveals his awareness that his death is imminent. 

Between now and now,

between I am and you are,

the word bridge. 

Entering it

you enter yourself:

the world connects

and closes like a ring.

From one bank to another,

there is always

a body stretched:

a rainbow.

I'll sleep beneath its arches.

Octavio Paz

Many of his last pictures reveal that awareness in poems from Hardy, Tennyson, and that quote from Job at the beginning of this story. 

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter, on her blog, and on her Ko-Fi.