REBIRTH. We live in an era where very little is sacred, where machines have replaced people along assembly lines and plastic has all but eliminated the use of more finicky materials like wood and metal in everyday objects. The cost of progress is the loss of the personal touch and the details that resulted from them. Maybe it’s for these reasons that there’s a growing awareness, particularly among the art community, to hold onto and elevate the objects of yesteryear. That’s the sentiment behind the exhibition “This, That & The Other — Art of 3 New Jersey Women,” which will be featured at the J.B. Kline & Son Gallery in Lambertville, NJ. The featured artists, Aylin Green, Ruthann Perry and Sue Dumas, share at least one significant quality: they all have an appreciation for the odd, the offbeat and the curious detritus of life. The cast-off object is both the catalyst and the primary ingredient in each woman’s art. It’s a second chance for the object and also for the artist, who gains an appreciation for what may have been glossed over the first time through. “This, That & The Other — Art of 3 New Jersey Women,” September 5 through Sept. 27, J.B. Kline & Son Gallery, 25 Bridge Street, Lambertville, NJ; 609-397-1173; www.jbkline.com/gallery.html.

GONE TOO QUICKLY. For the Brooklyn, NY-based oil painter, Christine Lafuente, creating art is a deeply internal process. Her eye is drawn to those naturally stunning scenes — the Brooklyn Bridge looming larger than life overhead, an unadulterated Irish landscape standing stark in its simplicity — made incomprehensible by a fleeting act of nature — a sunset, a flourish of spring growth. The type of moment, in other words, that brings everything into focus. But what appears on Lafuente’s canvases are not literal depictions of those sights. Rather, it’s her reaction to them, her humble attempt to do them — and the feelings they evoked in her — justice. The hues are moody, the details mostly lost. What results is an impression of a moment that lingers far longer than it actually did. Last year, Lafuente, who studied painting and printmaking at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts after receiving a degree in English literature from Bryn Mawr College, traveled to the Beara Peninsula of County Cork, Ireland, where her creativity thrived on the constant stream of new perspectives of Coulagh Bay wrought by the volatile climate. Those paintings, along with others of some more recognizable hills from Hunterdon County, will be on view in a solo exhibition at the Ruth Morpeth Gallery. “Beholden to Brevity,” September 19 through October 17, Ruth Morpeth Gallery, 43 West Broad Street, Hopewell, NJ; 609-333-9393; www.ruthmorpeth.com.

FAMILY REUNION. To begin to grasp the genius and impact of Jim Henson, consider the roles that characters like Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird play in your childhood memories. Around the time that “Sesame Street” debuted in 1969, TV, for better and for worse, began its rapid evolution from entertainer to babysitter. Kids across America, including us, were being plopped down in front of the boob tube for hours at a time to be entertained, educated and occupied. So, in that way, Henson and his whacked pack of puppets were as much a part of our families as our own brothers and sisters. We spent nearly as much time with them during our formative years. A traveling exhibition by the Smithsonian and the Jim Henson Legacy, featuring 100 original pieces, including drawings, cartoons and storyboards, helps define Henson, The Visionary. For the Michener, the show’s significance extends even further. “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” will be the inaugural exhibit in the Della-Penna-Fernberger | Paton | Smith Galleries, the centerpiece of the Doylestown museum’s $12 million expansion. “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World,” September 12 through November 29, James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 South Pine Street, Doylestown; 215-340-9800; www.michenermuseum.org.