Sequestered among the redwoods, a short distance inland from the remote Mendocino Coast in Northern California, Salmon Creek Farm was originally established as a countercultural commune in the early 1970s. Today it exists as a kind of living art project, open to artists and others. After the murder of George Floyd, its current custodian offered one of the farm’s cabins as a sanctuary for BIPOC artists, with no expectations, expenses, or obligations. Emerging from this context, Lenard Smith’s ‘Refuge’ is about an artist being given the space to live freely, to think, make, play. It is about safety, and the richness of introspection, solemnity, reflection, and creativity that it affords.

Lenard Smith
Perimeter Editions
Paperback, 98 pages
ISBN 9781922545299