Logbook by C. G. Simonds

Artist/sculptor Charles G. Simonds has dreamed up a superb collection of highly-rendered drawings that fill LOGBOOK. Logs seemed to have played an important role in his life, with deep connections to his father's sailboat journeys on the San Francisco Bay, and grandparents's logging activities on Vinegar Ridge, Mendocino County (see Simonds' introductory statement). But certainly his ancestors couldn't have imagined the unusual log shapes Mr. Simonds has fashioned here--one pillar presents a vertical wooden boat stuck in its side, another has your everyday, several-foot-long, carved pair of scissors. There's a tiny house carved atop a log, with even tinier windows. Others just emit emotional responses, like some frightening spikes ("2 TRIPODS"), heads stacked high in a totem pole column ("LOGGERHEADS"), others simply exhibiting impossible configurations, with titles to match ("CYLENDRIGALS" is a favorite). Some shapes are recognizable, though never viewed before in this artistic context. These unusual works would make a fantastic sculptural show in any art gallery--a room filled with 6'-7' high wooden columns that speak volumes. They represent original visions, but spark a past recognition that our lives were once inexplicably dependent on harvesting such log-lengths from ancient forests for our log cabins. In delivering the 50 pages of his surreal log drawings, he has managed to somehow re-focus the viewer, conjuring up a "time land forgot." (Or maybe it's the other way around--Mr. Simonds' LOGBOOK can do that to a person) In any case, please enjoy how these elegant drawings can shift your reality, so that an everyday computer term like "log-in" suddenly has a brand new spin.