I’m a participant in NeoRio 2020, and anyone can be! It all starts with a wooden cube box with a lid, which everyone gets. Then one ponders, What is Home?

I made something of it and wrote:

Finally, a way to use the materials I’ve been collecting into a theme of something so essential to human beings: home. As my family moved house every 5 years or so as I was growing up, and I continued this trend in my own adult life, I have often thought deeply about what home truly is. I’ve passed the 5-year mark here in northern NM now, and I’ve been working to “settle” and stay here in Taos County because there is an urge to pick up and move to live somewhere else and do something else. The pandemic offered a way to be more reflective than my usual “busy” m.o. and claim an inner home along with my outer home, as well as this project, for which I am so grateful.

We also recorded a video story in which I talked about how butterflies have appeared at crises in my life. In my cube artwork, I use the butterfly who appeared on my windshield, just as it did the last time I was in need of a reminder that life is always in chrysalis, always in process. Even though life felt very chaotic then and now, I am guided invisibly by a wisdom beyond my immediate knowing. When the butterfly symbol shows up, I am reminded, and calmed.

Here’s a closeup photo of the fragment of the butterfly wing that broke off and settled into the teacup face, representing myself, as I was making the box. As if to say, again, LOOK!

And some other photos of the art.

This was from an art show I saw in April… can’t recall where or who the artist was, but I loved it as a companion to my rainbow figure.

LEAP (a program of local nonprofit Localogy), brings innovative artists to the Rio Grande del Norte national monument each autumn through its cornerstone event, NeoRio, transforming the Montoso Campground at Wild Rivers Recreation Area with surprising, site-specific art amid the piñon and cliffs. 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers and Trails Acts, and was celebrated at NeoRio along with National Public Lands Day. Each year a different theme is explored; this year’s was Roots.

I was selected as one of the contributing artists.

The DNA of Root Words – Project description
Roots, root words, and human-created sounds that have persisted across culture and time fascinate me. The 15 most archaic and stable words across world languages have been distilled, according to one Soviet researcher, to these word-concepts: I/me; two/pair; thou/thee/you; who/what; tongue; name; eye; heart; tooth; no/ not; fingernail/toenail; louse; tear (as in weeping); water, and dead. My project is an interactive expressive typography installation, using a perfect tree on the site, natural materials, printed materials, light, and sound. It had its daytime and nighttime personas.