Charles A. Schultz’ Peanuts comic strip character Linus and his blue blanket are icons that will remain in Americans’ minds throughout time. Linus’s attachment to his blanket strikes a chord in many hearts — at one time or another everyone loved a blanket, a book or a stuffed animal.

The Palo Alto Art Center’s new exhibit, "The Transitional Object," considers these childhood objects to represent a transition for the child from depending on his or her mother to thriving by him or herself in the real world.

"We invited artists to create works to act as a transition in time and during their life," exhibit curator Signey Mayfield said. "It is a potpourri of creative works."

"The Transitional Object" is one of two exhibits now showing at the Palo Alto Art Center through December 22.

The second show is Kiff Slemmons’ "Re: Pair & Imperfection," which features the whimsical combination of beads, broken African platters, Korean bowls, tiny bones, and even a 24-karat gold ball.

This exhibit, according to Mayfield, is "an unusual form of collaboration." Slemmons asked 18 of her colleagues to contribute a fragment or an incomplete work of art. She then fused the donated objects together to form several larger pieces of artwork.

The idea is to "look at the original work by artists and to see how Slemmons merged what she usually does with their work," Mayfield said. "It’s the merging of two aesthetics."

"One way I came to think about it is if you have a debate about something, [and while] you are discussing it and arguing back and forth, you might come to a third thing that you both agree on," Slemmons said. "So the pieces in a way aren’t really a collaboration but they certainly contain both works."

All together, Slemmons’ exhibit contains 30 works, which are accompanied by photos of the original objects used in the pieces.

"It’s almost like giving someone a substantial [part of something] and then [allowing him or her] to see what it is in its entirety," Mayfield said.

According to Mayfield, this exhibit expands on what Slemmons normally creates — jewelry made from unusual, found objects.

"I’ve come to look at found objects in a very thorough way," Slemmons said. "I think about what the objects are already bringing with them to the piece."

For this exhibit, Slemmons used this idea in order to "preserve the integrity" of the donated pieces in her finished work. She did admit, however, that people who are familiar with her work could see her style in the pieces.

"There is definitely a similarity there [between my usual work and the new exhibit]," Slemmons said.

She did, however, describe the project as "totally challenging, scary and quite daunting."

Slemmons’ early work with jewelry inspired the exhibition.

"When I first looked into making jewelry, I saw many old ethnic pieces in a collection I was asked to help repair," Slemmons said. "These old pieces weren’t always perfect [in that] everything didn’t line up exactly, but that didn’t take away from how ingeniously made they were."

These ancient pieces contrasted with what Slemmons saw in present day jewelry.

"Craft [jewelry making] is ordinarily associated with perfection in that you find a good technique and make it [your piece] the best you can," Slemmons said. "So I began to feel that even though there were perfectly executed pieces around, they didn’t have a lot of vitality. There was something missing and I was questioning that."

Slemmons’ "Re: Pair and Imperfection" exhibit was the result of her questions.

"I was trying to find a way to investigate and explore what imperfection was and how it was valuable," Slemmons said. "I realized I could investigate imperfection through the idea of repair."

The goal of the exhibit "is to think about the broader value [of art]," Mayfield said. "[It’s fascinating] to think that a little object that someone was going to throw away can be [transformed] into a lively work of art."

According to Mayfield, both exhibits are connected.

"The two exhibits speak to the power of objects in our lives," Mayfield said. "We hope that it offers delightful insight [into that]."

The Palo Alto Art Center gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday.