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Making art feel at home By Chris Bristol You could be forgiven for confusing Scan Design, a furniture store in downtown Medford, for something else. The name is somewhat ambiguous. It almost sounds like a computer graphics shop. Now the store has added another description to its unofficial list of possible identities: art gallery. Make no mistake about it, the store sells furniture � hand-crafted, contemporary, Danish-made furniture. Scan is short for Scandinavian. Name: Scan Design Furniture. Service: Contemporary Danish-made home furnishings. Location: 50 N. Fir St., downtown Medford. Phone number: 779-7878. Owner : Jens Bruun, Bellevue, Wash. Nine more stores in the Northwest and Hawaii. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m., Sunday. But since October, the bedroom sets and dining tables have shared space with a new attraction � the wildly colorful work of abstract painter Marlis Jermutus, a native of Germany who recently took up residence in the Mount Shasta area. The installation of sorts � 34 paintings in all � is believed to be a first in the Rogue Valley. Although many local furniture stores sell framed prints by famous artists like Picasso and Manet, an exhibition of original work by a local artist is unique. Prints are nice, said store manager Christian Moller-Andersen. "But they�re just not the same as an original piece of art," he explained. "You don�t get the same feeling." To date, nobody has bought one of the Jermutus paintings, which range from $10,000 to $15,000. But Moller-Andersen said the concept is sound, and he plans to do more exhibitions by other local artists in the future, ideally two a year. "It just seems like the obvious thing to do," he said. "With all the wall space we have, it would be a pity not to use it well." The Rogue Valley is not exactly an art-free zone. There are more than 20 galleries and 100 private dealers in the area, particularly in Ashland and Jacksonville. But selling furniture and quality original artwork at the same location is not necessarily a bad idea, said Stanford Shaman, director of the Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University. Shaman hasn�t seen the Jermutus exhibit, so his comments were general in nature. "I think it�s really great to put the idea out there that it�s important to have original art in your home," he said. "Certainly we would rather see people buying original artwork than reproductions." Judy Barnes, executive director of the nonprofit Rogue Gallery and Art Center, agreed the idea has merit. Art is just as much a necessary part of furnishing a home as a good sofa. "You�re trying to make a statement about your life when you furnish your home, and art is a very personal thing," she said. "It�s good for people to be exposed to original artwork and to consider it as part of their surroundings." Scan Design, a nine-story chain based in Bellevue, Wash., also offers limited original work by other local artists, including Phoenix sculptor Alan Collins, Jacksonville painter Wynn Pedersen and Grants Pass raku pottery maker Geoff Cunningham. But it�s the extensive Jermutus exhibit that sets the store apart from its competitors. A devotee of yoga and the power of meditation, her art is as colorful as it is abstract. "Art, in any level of consciousness, can bring a healing force," she says, according to her Web site, www.well.com/~starseed . "Art can be a remedy for the body, mind and soul." Moller-Andersen said the paintings tend to elicit strong feelings from customers. In other words, they love it or they hate it. Either way, he said, the chance to debate the merits of art (as opposed to the merits of one dining set over another) has been a fun change of pace. "I�ve had people tell me they can�t relate to this stuff, and then they stand there for 10 minutes telling me why," he said. "That�s when I say to them, �Hey, you just spent 10 minutes relating to it.� " Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.