With his latest project, artist Alex Lockwood turns industrial materials into plants. If you think that sounds too weird to work, you must not be familiar with Lockwood’s history. He’s among Nashville’s most distinctive and original artists, and he’s used an offbeat approach to address grief, trauma, human evolution and, now, botany. It’s appropriate that his latest collection of sculptures finds its home at Shelby Bottoms Nature Center — he uses PVC, cut-up trash cans, shotgun shells and more to re-create wild plants that are native to the area, including Gattinger’s clover, limestone fameflower, glade larkspur and the Tennessee purple coneflower. For the birders among us, there will also be sculptures of cardinals, blue jays and goldfinches made from plastic six-pack tops.