I hope every member of Royal Courts can take some time to visit this years Home and Garden Expo that raises money for Relay for Life of SL. Relay For Life is the American Cancer Societys signature fundraising event, and RFL of SL is one of its virtual counterparts. You can find more information about RFL of SL at http://relayforlifeofsecondlife.org/
DECADES/DECADES Galleries is participating for the first time. Since we are all about history, our "Wounded Angels" exhibit uses art of the last 1500 years to bring home the reality of the disease. Science can give us facts, but it is the artist who gives breast cancer a human face.
For example, Rembrandts Bathsheba at her Bath is one of his greatest works; art historians consider it one of the finest nudes ever painted. The model was Rembrandts mistress, and she died of breast cancer. Rembrandt portrays her with great tenderness, intimacy, and unflinching realism. I am far more motivated to have a mammogram after seeing breast cancer through his eyes than reading any textbook or slick television media campaign.
Rembrandts Bathsheba is one of the eight artworks that are the centerpiece of our Wounded Angels exhibit that also showcases the talents and creativity of several members of THIS community.
Claire-Sophie de Rocoulle knew I wanted to have art in the garden of a woman recently diagnosed with cancer. My first attempt to lay out the garden was pitiful and sterile. Claire visited, looked and said, Do a meadow . . . with a big tree in the center and four trees at the corners and the art on easels around the tree. She was exactly right. The end result forms the bones of what you'll see at the DECADES exhibit at Expo. (Claire's DRAGON PAVILION exhibit at Expo is NOT to be missed! She and Julia have created a folly that is just too wonderful--and fun--for words).
Jacon Cortes created a special edition of jewelry: a pink diamond heat-shaped necklace, earrings, pin and ring. He added magnificent Regency vases and an 8-light chandelier. These things are for sale, as well as for the pleasure they give the unseen woman who created the garden as her refuge and place of healing.
Lady Leena Fandango contributed tall potted evergreens and blooming potted flowers that I can practically smell. . . they remind us that spring WILL arrive
Shilan Folger donated a wonderful Ashanti Chief stool and sandals that I can imagine our unseen woman having brought back from a trip she and her husband took many years before
Tatiana Dokuchic created a book that is more than just decoration; it contains links that help people understand the unseen womans thinking and the importance of beauty in healing.
Lucien de Robion-Castellane (Robijn in SL)created a handsome carved wood sconce with a nice fat beeswax candle, another memory of our unseen woman.
I made a decent chair upholstered in 18 th century silk broch fabric woven in the manner of the famed house of Prelle in Lyons, France . . . and then finally got motivated to finish the DECADES chairs I have been working on for more months than I like to think. Ten chairs covering 1900-2000 that use textiles to show the history of interior design for a century. They are now in a gacha machine (along with 100 other gachas!) to help raise money for RFL.
Tiamat Windstorm von Hirvi created a healing shrine for our unseen woman; it too will have a home in the exhibit.
All these thingscreations of the historical communities in SLare for sale with 50%-100% of the proceeds going to RFL.
The art is not for sale; it belongs to the unseen woman, and is the vehicle for her telling her story in an exhibit catalog that Lucien de Robion-Castellane and I created. Just like an exhibit catalog in a real life museum, it contains art notes for each painting.
But there is something more in The Wounded Angels Companion Booklet. We present the thoughts of the woman as she looks at each painting she has collected to help her wage the battle. She talks to each piece of art. We learn what she feelsand fearsas she talks with other women through history who have battled the disease. Finally, the book closes with the husbands thoughts as he watches his beloved wife from their house. Theirs is a love story, as well as a journey of hope, fear and courage that every person who faces a cancer diagnosis makes.
The Wounded Angels Companion Booklet is a gift. We hope it helps to raise money for RFL. More importantly, we hope it makes all of us a little more aware of our health and our families and that it honors breast cancers victimspast, present, and future.
The Expo opens this SundayValentines Day. It covers 10 sims. It will be open until March 6, so please go to support the work of content creators from all over SLand all the creators of this community who work so hard to bring history to life. Ours is a small exhibit, but I hope it demonstrates to the general SL community that history is more than facts and figures and forgotten dates. SL gives us tools to bring it to life . . . in breasts, too.
Lorsagne
Aka SisterButta
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updated by @lorsagne-de-sade: 06 Oct 2016 06:39:10AM
