Silverdrake Sparrow has a build honoring other SL artists, and personally, I'm going to say the unpopular thing and state, for the record: Lilibet Moody HAS ISSUES.
Let's take "What's Behind the Curtain? as a sterling example of those issues.
Remember: this build is in the center with many beautiful tributes to SL, SL creativity, and SL art. Keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that Sparrow has bought into the whole stop-the-Labs-save-the-children mentality, and there is another of those prevalent white "LOVE family" boxes on the lawn in front of the structure--which is made to resemble a simple Victorian-age house.
It's what happens when one goes inside the house.
Now, I will be fair, here, and say many of these images were images taken at SL4B, when children and adults were allowed to be portrayed together. And I see nothing wrong with allowing that, anyway.
"What's Behind the Curtain?" features three children, on their own, so that controversy can't be applied to the picture anyway.
But others can.
Let's take the figure farthest on the right, to start. Her underwear--all three of the children are in their underwear--says "Monster". I can maybe buy that's meant in the "little brat" fashion, and leave it be. But then we move to the left of the image, and everything else breaks down.
The little boy and the demon girl--she has horns--are both wearing matching skull underwear. Huh? Why, for the love of all things? And let's mention the horns again--because while, for some, the concept of underage demons may be immaterial, to me, as a resident of the grid, where "demon" generally means "sex-crazed"...this bothers me a great deal.
Just to add to the oddity, in addition to the very large horns on her head, and the overdone child-sized insanely spiked boots...she happens to be carrying the creepiest freebie ever, the Linden "Friendship" bear.
And there's a suggestion of wings behind said curtain, and they do not look child-size.
Now, granted, this isn't Sally Mann we're discussing here--whose photography blurs the line in many ways between "valid artistic license" and "child pornography"--but even knowing that, this image is just disturbing.
Yet, it's put up as a celebration of the best that SL can be?
Keep in mind I'm all for controversy--and if what Miss Moody really wanted was to generate controversy, then more power to her, because sometimes, that is the point of art--to challenge our patterns, our thinking, the ways in which we relate to our world and each other.
Even so, it's still a disturbing image.
Cienega Soon, another participating in the "LOVE family" project, invites you into her build with advice to turn music on, and set lighting to midnight. Boy, does this work. It's a lovely build, start to finish, and somewhere on the grounds, is a free raven portrait. Search for it. It's set to sell for 0.
It's another lovely build, full of her artwork, much of it stunning and rich in image and color, all the better for the contrast of her dead winter trees, her fog-shrouded ground, her pale toppled stoneworks that surround it.
But again, it's this odd dichotomy--yes, asking that children and adults not be shown together? Is wrong. And yes, every child avatar regardless of comportment or dress, is an adult on the other side of the glass.
Even knowing that, though...to pair the treatment of child avatars with actual child abuse...cheapens the entire process.
This, um...
*coughs*
Alpha Fleet has some Star Trek freebies. Go grab 'em.
Toxia also has freebies out. And a chance for a genuine mutant queen attack. Try not to get eaten, track down the freebies, and don't fall in the water.
Or if you do, don't say I didn't warn you. That stuph is nearly solid.
Maldoror Damone is giving awayfree Chthuloid pets, but be careful--you have to go into interdimensional space to find it, and you just might be attacked by Dimensional Watchers!
In the Render sim, there's a ritual circle. No giveaway items, but it's quite the impressive build. Stone and stillness and carving and drifting, hued tully fog and scrub undergrowth. Just lovely, magically lovely.
Speaking of magical, Hogwarts Reborn has a build up at SL5B, including the Great Hall, which is rather lovingly rendered by the members of the sim. Floating candles and all. It's well worth a visit, and there's a set of Hogwarts house robes available.
And apparently Mr. Allen--in the form of the newest clockwork assistant to Autogenic, Penny Featherwright, our mechanical research librarian--is running around the rest of SL5B, garnering more links and freebies.
So there'll be at least one more of these posts to come.
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