The attendant artist statement is as straightforward as the work itself: “A poetic meditation on the desire to make permanent what is ephemeral.”

This works, and well, because of its simplicity and strength as a poetic gesture. Salise Hughes is a Seattle-based artist whose work showed in Portland last night as part of the Cut + Run Tour in the psychic space of Grand Detour (as hosted, physically, within Recess Gallery, which is next to MKRM in the old Oregon Brass Works building). How do people feel about the Russian doll phenomenon of (in this case, excellent) small arts organizations and the goofy ways we end up describing events? It reminds me of this and the clunky, pseudo-sexy, film-punny and “surreal” names of the myriad “production companies” whose wack bumpers are, in many cases, the best part of a bad film.

Salise Hughes, though, is no bullshit. Good works, blue eyes, can’t lose.