Don't Touch the Fine Art at Stumptown

There is something enormously satisfying about tools because they remind us that we are human. We have thumbs! We can build things! Emily Bixler's sculpture series Scapes/Bulges, on display at Stumptown, calls on the spirit of hand tools, appealing to our sense of functional beauty.

Most of the medium-scale, wall-hung pieces look like objects you would find at a stable or on a dock. Brushes with animal hair bristles, some burly and some exquisitely delicate, could be used to groom a horse or lay gold leaf. Bixler's wooden handles—a couple of which have a live edge—are sanded with care to bring out the luminous glory of different grains.

In many of her pieces, Bixler winds gray thread of different gradients around braided rope, the type you would use to anchor a boat. The natural sheen of the thread highlights the undulations of the rope, hinting at its original purpose while obscuring it completely. Sometimes the rope is showcased on its own, draped over wall anchors as a study in symmetry and asymmetry, while other times the rope travels through pieces of wood, creating loops that might serve as their own handles.

I am sitting at Stumptown as I write this, surrounded by Bixler's work. Two women have just walked in, and one exclaims to the other, "Cool tools!" As she sits down, she manhandles the piece that hangs above their table, combing her fingers through its bristles. She hasn't figured out yet that these are sculptures. Or she doesn't care. Bixler's pieces have a tactile quality that makes you want to take them off the wall and hold them.

Scapes/Bulges could easily be mistaken for a craft show because the objects appear functional. They aren't. They echo the forms of utility while remaining entirely aesthetic, keeping them in the realm of art.

It should be noted that the two most successful sculpture shows of late have been in marginal spaces (Shelby Davis' Inventing Problems and Congratulating Myself for Solving Them at Clackamas Community College, and this one, in a coffee shop). Galleries often shy away from 3-D work because it is more difficult to sell, but some of the difficulty is due to the galleries' predilection for showing inaccessible sculptures that no one can relate to. Scapes/Bulges is an example of a sculpture show that anyone can appreciate, without explanation.

SEE IT: Scapes/Bulges is at Stumptown Coffee Roasters, 4525 SE Division St., 503-230-7702. Through June 8.

Willamette Week