The Passionate Redheads, a SL Relay for Life Team was reminded in a most personal way the importance of what they do when one of their members, Artistic "Fimi" Fimicoloud, Stephanie Koslow in real life, passed away on Monday afternoon having succumbed to cancer. Upon hearing the news of her passing, members of the team, her friends and admirers of her art gathered at Park Galleries of Art to remember and honor her life, first and second. The outpouring of love and sympathy of the mourners has left a memorial scene complete with flowers, poems, candles and pictures of Fimi.After arriving at the memorial site I paid my respects to her memory and then found her gallery. While sitting and admiring her work, I scanned around the space and came across this quote from an article written about her in the Poughkeepsie Journal on January 7, 2007:
Seeking solace from the fears that surrounded me, I began to paint - not the fears inside me, but my joy for the landscape I so loved. Flowing from some deep-seated force within me, out it poured - color, light and energy - not mourning what I'd lost, but celebrating the gift I'd been given.
I couldn't help but smile thinking of a woman I'd not met, seemingly not afraid of what life had dealt her and using it to share with us her passion for living and the visions she saw reflected in her art. One could see in her paintings the vivid colors of the Hudson Valley landscape she loved. A note card that came with a picture of yellow tulips I bought, told me that in each of her paintings, "I've tucked a small pink breast cancer ribbon into each painting which people love hunting for."A bit later I spoke with a member of her RFL Team Members, Daaneth Kivioq who was at the at the memorial when I returned from the gallery. I introduced myself and offered my condolences. "Thank you Nazz, she will be missed." He replied then continued: "We are, in her honor, putting up special donation kiosks until the end of the SL RFL halfway there fair, on Sunday June 1st. Let me pass you a note with the SLURL's. All donations to these kiosks will be matched 1 for 1, up to 100,000 L."
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Southern%20Colorado/163/55/26http://slurl.com/secondlife/Park/235/43/79
I also spoke with another of Fimi's RFL team members and fellow artist Tricia Aferdita who had this to say of Fimi's passing in an announcement to her Cetus Art District Group: "This week, the SL art world lost one of its bright stars... The little pink fox who was known as Fimi … She was an amazing artist, kind person and beautiful soul. She will be missed."
In remembrance, a friend of Fimi's, Angel Enoch has written the following:
Fimi - Her Royal Pinkness
When I built Park Galleries of Art in Park Region...I advertised for artists wanting an inexpensive place to show their work. One of the creatures who showed up was a little pink fox...Artistic Fimicoloud.
She was brash, bold...right in my face. Even though two other people had appeared wanting the empty gallery before her, I had to give it to the little pink fox who announced loudly to all she was a breast cancer survivor, a real life artist also. Before I knew what was happening to me, Park Galleries was full of little party-happy furries and our first DJ party was the best that ever happened!
After some time, I felt Park had become quiet … and I felt it was time to end the galleries there.Fimi was so upset! I didn't realize that she was so attached to the little space, and she begged me to sell it to her. With Fimi at the helm, Park became alive again. It was the life within her that gave it a new spark...it blossomed, most of the artists who were there previously stayed on.
I feared it would become a museum instead of a gallery, with nothing new ever happening, but she proved me wrong again and again. May it always be so....and now that I've learned Miss Fimi is comfortable making her transition to another world....I know there is something in Park that will live on. Someone with that spark of life touches everything, and you find yourself in love with them and everything they do in spite of yourself. : )
And now every time I see a pink furry tail I'll think of Fimi!
By Nazz Lane
