Photo By Weston Art Gallery

Ana England's "Touching the Air" is currently on view at the Weston Art Gallery.

The Essence of a Thing, the current exhibition at the Weston Art Gallery, offers hope that there are people out there who still have a close connection with nature, and that those who don't might reexamine their relationship with the natural world after seeing these thought-provoking works.

All 12 artists exhibit outstanding works in various media -- ceramics, drawings, video, mixed-media paintings and sculpture. Each draws upon nature in some way, using natural iconography, patterns, concepts, and organic materials.

Celine Hawkins' "Cascade: Overgrowth" greets visitors as they descend the stairs to the gallery entrance. This steel-and-wax sculpture sprawls down the wall, tangled like a bunch of weeds. The form evokes cellular structures, or even DNA. "Weed," a more delicate piece by Hawkins inside the gallery, spreads out in patina-covered, bronze wires. It looks like a drawing with its interesting play between the lacy bronze lines and the shadows they cast on the wall.

Ana England's three floor sculptures, "Touching the Air," "Touching the Sea" and "Touching the Earth," depict natural symmetry and patterns. Smooth, meticulously crafted white porcelain objects that resemble enlarged pollen (air), shells and diatoms (sea) and seed pods (earth) are juxtaposed against dark raku-fired ceramic shapes covered in what appear to be magnified fingerprint patterns. The work reveals the fascinating beauty of the microcosm and its echoes in the macrocosm. Isn't the planet Earth itself a sphere, after all, just like a grain of pollen?

This relationship between the micro-sized world and the larger universe is a prevalent theme in many of the artists' works. Carissa Barnard's mixed-media paintings explore the similarities between the visible world and the colorful realm of cellular structures seen through a microscope. The works feel like they are bubbling, almost molten layers of color. Joell Angel-Chumbley's mixed-media sculptures seem like giant-sized cocoons suspended from the ceiling, a bit eerie but compelling. And Kaili Brown uses the industrial material of aluminum to create minimal suggestions of basic natural forms like eggs or seeds.

Other artists address ideas of death or decay, another aspect of nature. Lisa Merida-Paytes' raku ceramics depict fossil-like fish skeletons, some layered as if cut from the sea floor, others mounted on pieces of wood as if trophies that perished in human hands. Paige Wideman's sculptures employ found natural materials combined with metal in minimal, geometric compositions. Her works relay the effects of nature on the materials -- wood is worn by sun, wind and water; metal is corroded by air and water into rust; paint on old boards is eaten away by the elements. The viewer is left with thoughts about the passage of time and the transient qualities of objects, both natural and man-made.

For me, Kate Kern's installation "See and Hear" carries the overriding message of the exhibition. The installation comprises a video projection and two small artist books. Each book includes quotes from the 19th-century naturalist Henry David Thoreau's journals containing the words "see" and "hear," respectively. Every page brings to life a particular snippet of his experience in nature, the marvelous things he saw and heard because he looked and listened -- birds, clouds, water, insects, and wind.

This is what we all need to do -- artists or not -- to appreciate this gift called Nature. Get out there and experience nature through your senses, sincerely and with abandon. And if you feel moved -- and I can almost guarantee you will be -- share that experience with others. Grade: A