‘Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature’ @ Museum of Glass

Looking for an exhibit that delivers wonder, weirdness and pure craft all at once? Head to Tacoma’s Museum of Glass for “Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature,” which opened last November and has been extended to run until January.

In a surprise, the exhibition opens not with glass at all but with Alexis Rockman’s arresting painting “Evolution” — an almost Boschian swamp teeming with colorful life. It’s a savvy introduction: a reminder that nature is unruly, extravagant and very much alive. Nearby, a vitrine of Vittorio Costantini’s exquisitely rendered glass insects echoes Rockman’s world, blurring the line between specimen and imagination.

From there, the exhibition sweeps back to the 19th century, where Art Nouveau’s devotion to blossoms, birds and curling tendrils unfolds in delicately shaded French vases. Jewel-toned pieces etched with parakeets and peacocks catch the light, while René Lalique’s vessels — adorned with mint-green grasshoppers or beetles in burnt sienna — almost hum with the intensity of the natural world. Some objects seem to glow from within, like a celadon bowl ringed with lilies of the valley.

The contemporary section brings a shift in mood but not in fascination. William Morris manages to make glass feel earthy and ancient. Raven Skyriver’s squid “Bolt” glints with green glitter, a creature mid-motion. Paul J. Stankard’s botanical paperweights, Deborah Horrell’s spare drawings of bird skulls cast in glass and Kathleen Elliot’s hyperreal figs each offer their own field notes — careful studies rendered with wonder. Taken together, these pieces form a century-spanning meditation on artists who treat nature as both teacher and muse, and it invites viewers to do the same.