You are in a darkened room.  At one end, a meadow with fir trees beckons.  Drawing closer, you see grasses pulsing.  As you step into the meadow, the room vanishes and the sky closes behind you.  Looking around, you see you are surrounded on all sides by sky, trees, and the distant horizon.  A dance ball allows you to dance gracefully through the meadow, or you can sit cross-legged on rocks.  You are in Alizarin Goldflake's "SunriseSunset," one of the works of art offered in Second Life in the blind auction "Artists Caring for Artists" from Aug 22 through Sept 4, 2009.

The auction has been organized by the Caerleon Art Collective, a group of world famous virtual artists who utilize ‘Second Life’ to produce immersive artworks, Artificial Life forms, and digitized representations of RL art pieces. All monies raised from the two week auction will be used to allow established artists to continue their work despite the recent withdrawal of major RL funding.
The pictures accompanying this article don't do the art justice. Many are dynamic, some changing shape as you approach them and changing back as you walk away, others are in constant motion, such as Sowa Mai's "Hands". The still picture shown here shows images very much like Second Life's hand logo, but when you see it in Second Life, it's a spinning, constantly changing image.  Another is Feather Boa's "Broken Angel", in which classic columns shatter around you as you approach.

The auction is an opportunity for you to acquire virtual world art by established artists and to at the same time help them to continue their work. Bidding will last for two weeks, beginning August 22, 2009. To place a bid, you click on the sign next to the art you want to buy, and then you make a bid by clicking "Pay" and paying the amount of your bid. If your bid is highest when the auction ends, you get that piece of art. One thing that may be confusing: all bidding is in multiples of L$200 (200 Lindens): L$200, L$400, L$600, etc. Bids that aren't multiples of L$200 will be rejected. You can see the current highest bid in floating text over the sign.

You can read more about the Caerleon Art Collective and its Virtual Art Initiative at its http://www.virtual-art-initiative.org/Virtual_Art_Initiative/Virtual_Art_Initiative.html, and Second Life members can teleport to the blind auction by clicking slurl.com/secondlife/Esterhal/197/222/23. There are three floors of art work being auctioned; be sure to visit all three floors.

The works of art displayed in these photos are by Alizarin Goldflake, FreeWee Ling (two works), Bryn Oh, Nonnatus Korhonen, Sabrinaa Nightfire, Feathers Boa, Jeb Soderstrom,  Pete Jiminy, and Georg Janick.