Wit, humor and intelligence inform the work of Portland artist Christine Bourdette. Bourdette smartly combines diverse materials - such as old kid-leather gloves, rubber and steel - to create exceptionally made objects. "The compelling issue that has driven my work for over 20 years has been the paradox of the human condition: its ornery, goofy illogic and the fact that we are all in this together. I have expressed this fascination via the human form, its body language and its group dynamics. In the past, I have appropriated the tools we hold in our hands as metaphors for various dilemmas, then adapted and anthropomorphized animal imagery in order to hold up a mirror to ourselves. Recurring themes include mortality, transformation, mobility and deception (both self- and otherwise). A turning point came in the early ‘90’s, when I abandoned literal depictions of the figure and began to explore essences of our humanity in a more pared down, elemental form. Reducing and abstracting the figure to vessels of structure, volume and skin begged metaphors of filling and emptying, harvesting, safekeeping, abundance and greed-- -perhaps a reflection of the times. Another decade of organic progression has brought me around to the figure in its literal form again. The undercurrents, or in some cases the overt qualities, are variously dark, peculiar, vulnerable and humorous."