It all went so fast. One day I happily paid my L$600 rent for the next month. The next day I found it was refunded. Must've been an error, I figured, however, there was an accompanying Group Notice. Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden and Aquarium was closing.Oh surely I never had the illusion it would exist for thousands of years, but surely no-one would've thought it'd be there for just over one year. But life in the end is unpredictable and it's a RL situation that kept owner Morris Vig too busy for him to also keep Oyster Bay a lively, moving place. So we only had a few days left.
A final closing bash on February 19th was all we had left. Oyster Bay regulars Spaceman Opus, Doubledown Tandino and Andreus Gustafson performed there one last time.
So why is it such a big deal? SL changes so fast. Places come and go before you even know they existed. Well, but Oyster Bay was so unique. It was voted Most Influential Venue and Owner at Best of SL Art 2007. If you wanted to see the best and newest artwork by SL's best artists, all you needed was a teleport to Oyster.
But yes, SL changes fast. And for a world that's not even five years old itself, one year of dynamic existence is really a long time. There have been several great shows at Oyster Bay, it's hard to imagine it all happened in 2007. Shows and events like 14 Days, 14 Sculptures, showing the biggest, coolest, hottest and greatest sculptures from Madcow Cosmos. Or Hidden Starax, a lot of the most awesome artworks by SL's legendary artist Starax Statosky (who already was gone when Oyster Bay opened). Lost of freebie items too! Still in my inventory is the "Huge Manatee" hot air balloon, Madcow's entry for Oyster Bay's balloon show.
The end of Oyster Bay, but surely not the end of the world. We can be sad for a while, but we should be looking forward now. There are new Residents every day. The next Morris could be registering right now! The next Oyster Bay could already be on the (WindLight hazy) horizon.
And also for myself I see this as a new beginning. You may know me as a photographer, Oyster Bay closing somehow gave me inspiration to start making sculptures. All the time I had my shop up with photos and textures (and a free Resident Bear), never taking the time to try out something new. Now the shop is gone, I don't need to worry about how I should remake the vendor and how many prims I have left for new stuff. All is open now.
And I would encourage others to think his way too. Think of all the new possibilities now the anchor in Oyster's lake broke loose. We're headed for open sea, who can tell what we'll find on the other side of the ocean.
