REMINDER: Deadline for NeoRio Online Exhibition this Saturday, Sept. 26!

Almost all 100 wooden cubes have been picked up or delivered. We hope you got one and that you’re enjoying transforming it!

Saturday, September 26 is the deadline to submit your digital documentation (cube artwork and audio story) for participation in the virtual art show. Find full projects description and guidelines on how to participate HERE
and below.

Summary: how to submit by the deadline

1. Fill out and email your artist contract (if you’ve done this already, thank you!)
2. Finish your home cube artwork and title it
3. Take well-lit photos of your creation
4. Record a short audio story or reflection
5. Write your artist bio and statement
6. Email all these to emailforleap@gmail.com

Questions?
Contact Claire: emailforleap@gmail.com (575) 224-9066 (call/text)

Thank you for participating in NeoRio 2020: Home!

We are excited and grateful to you for adding your perspectives on home to the project. Your participation helps give wings to this project!

Here’s what to do now:

1. Ponder Home

What does home mean to you? Think inside and outside the box! Approach the theme of home with the broadest perspective: body as home, identity as home, garden as home, kitchen as home, family as home, traditions as home, Earth as home, memory of home, animal homes, imaginary homes, home during the pandemic, home as safety, refuge, confinement….?

2. Create Your Cube Artwork
Your cube came from a fabrication company in Maine, called HA Stiles. It is a starting point for your artwork. Think of the cube as a raw material to work with in two-dimensional or three-dimensional ways. Will the cube-box function as a vessel to be opened and viewed or be sealed and secret? Will the exterior six sides work in unison or be separate? Will the interior relate to the exterior? It can be modified in any way you like – carved, collaged, painted, drawn or written on, covered, attached to, drilled, cut, inlaid, quilted…..or destroyed? Just document the process and the outcome well! Take the cube and the theme and run wherever they take you!

3. Take Excellent Photos of Your Cube
The photos you take of your cube artwork are how people will experience it. Take high quality photos so that we can experience it authentically! Here are some tips:

1. Start with good lighting. The goal is to have the piece evenly lit. Outside is often good. On a sunny day, finding solid shade (like from a building) can work well; overcast days can create good, even lighting too..
2. Choose a simple, preferably solid background for your images. A wall or a solid colored fabric; white, light-colored, neutral tones often work well.
3. Make sure it’s in focus. Take a few photos for each shot to make sure you get a good one. If you’re taking photos with a smartphone instead of a camera, tap and hold on the cube in the image to make sure it’s in focus.
4. Give us a complete tour/view of your cube artwork. Shots to consider: a couple of overview shots from different angles, close-ups of each side, top and bottom, an overview of inside and a couple of detailed shots, if appropriate. Feel free to include any photos of the cube artwork in-process, other angles, or shots of particular details. Rule of thumb is to take more photos than you think you need, then select the best ones to submit.
5. Edit (sparingly)….but do edit. Digitally editing your photo after the fact is not disingenuous or ‘cheating,’ as long as you don’t go too far with it. The goal of editing is to make photos more accurately represent your artwork: cropping borders and rotating, increasing or decreasing overall brightness, saturation, contrast, temperature or tint.

4. Record Your Short Audio Reflection or Story
If you’re thinking, “I don’t have any stories to tell! I’m not a storyteller!” bear with me…. By “story” we mean a memory, experience or short reflection on a time in your life, a person or a place that relates to home. It could be a cozy memory of a favorite food made by a beloved relative, it could be about discovering an animal burrow as a child, or the story of how you came to be in your current home or a reflection on staying home during the pandemic. This short audio story or reflection can be related to your cube artwork or not, that’s up to you. Artist Heather Williams says it well, “Sharing stories reminds us of our humanity and relieves feelings of isolation.” There is power in oral tradition; hearing a person’s story in his or her own voice deepens its significance and impact. With this in mind, we invite you to reflect on the expansive theme of home and express yourself in a brief audio story. Krista Tippet, host of the radio show and podcast On Being reminds us that “….the more particular you can get with your story, the more universally it can be received, and others can join their life and their imagination with what you have to share.”

Here are some guidelines:

• We ask that your story be up to five minutes in length.
• You can use a free audio recording app on a smartphone like Voice Memos (comes preloaded on iphones – you can find it in “extras”) or Voice Recorder for android to record your story or we are happy to record it for you over the phone.)
• Once you have completed your recording, go to the file and “share” – choose the email option and email it to emailforleap@gmail.com. (If you need technical assistance with this step we are happy to help).
• OR if you don’t have access to a smartphone, we are happy to record your story over the phone. Just let us know and we can set-up a time.

Exhibition of Works and Zoom Community Roundtables

Saturday, September 26 is the deadline for receiving digital documentation (artwork and story) for participation in the virtual art show. The NeoRio 2020 online exhibition at LEAPsite.org, “Home: Thinking Inside and Outside the Box” which will go live October 8. Works will also be featured on Instagram and Facebook. On October 9 and 10, we kick-off the NeoRio 2020: Home community roundtables on Zoom, during which your artworks and stories will be shared. Please indicate which date works for you on the attached Artist Contract. (The Home story-sharing and digital archive is a collaboration with Questa Stories ~ Community Memory Project, QuestaStories.org.)

Participating Artist Commitments

As a NeoRio 2020 contributing artist we ask that you:

1. ASAP: Fill out and email us your Participating Artist Contract
2. September 25: Complete your artwork by this date or sooner
3. September 26: Email these five items by this date or sooner: 1. High-quality, well-lit photos of artwork, 2. short artist bio, 3. title of artwork, materials, and price, if for sale, 4. Short artwork statement, 5. Audio story, 5 minutes, reflecting on home and/or your experiences during pandemic – recorded on a smartphone, or we can record your short story by phone if needed
4. October 9 or 10: Briefly share your artwork at one of the Zoom roundtable discussions
5. Optional: Specify if you would like your work to be listed for sale in the online exhibition. Artists will handle sales and keep 100% of the profit.

Let’s come together and reflect on this poignant time and share our creations!
We can’t wait to receive your artworks and stories and share together in October.