632. Puzzles

Give me a good puzzle to work… ahhh! Puzzles speak of times alone or with family whiling away the hours with the brain, not shut off mind you, but focused, focused on things that aren’t your problems, with one simple problem in front of you… how to put together a puzzle.

Once upon a time there was an artist, a puzzle artist. His name is was, and still is, Tim Klein.

You see Tim takes pieces from different puzzles and meshes them together. In interesting ways. He looks normal enough you say?? Yeah, well what did you expect he is a puzzle artist after all. But take a look at his works and they surreally speak for themselves.

Cool right? Deeper meaning made from two puzzles?

Now listen to this…

Now read this about Tim Klein:

Jigsaw puzzle manufacturers often use the same die-cut pattern for many different puzzles. This makes the pieces interchangeable. As a result, I sometimes find that I can combine portions from two or more puzzles from the same publisher, to make a surreal picture that the publisher never imagined. I take great pleasure in “discovering” such bizarre images lying latent, sometimes for decades, within the cardboard boxes of ordinary mass-produced puzzles. As I shift the pieces back and forth, trying different combinations, I feel like an archaeologist reconstructing some curious, shattered artifact.

The originator and undisputed master of puzzle montage is art professor Mel Andringa, who has been extensively developing the form for over 50 years. (He usually refers to it as collage or mosaic rather than montage though.) I was inspired by a magazine article about him in 1988. If you like my work, then you’ll surely love his! (Click here for a small sampling. The octagonal lion face is the one that first captivated me.)

Over the years I’ve encountered only a few works by other artists who combined found jigsaw puzzles in this way, including Kent Rogowski, Geraint Edwards, and Dave Gorman. And then there’s Alma Haser, who makes exquisite artworks by combining custom-made puzzles cut from her own photographs, rather than found puzzles. I’d love to hear about any others who have explored this obscure art form. Maybe you’d like to try your hand at it yourself.

Thank you for your interest!

Tim Klein
Vancouver, Washington, USA
artist@puzzlemontage.com

And for your convenience and further reading, here is a link to Tim’s website Puzzle Montage.

Before you go check this funny Puzzle Song from Neil Patrick Harris…

And here’s the puzzle I’m working now as I get moved in, very intentionally paced, at my own pace. Life is like a box of chocolates… & a puzzle, ain’t it?? If we do it well, I feel, we’ll be putting that puzzle together for the “dash”… the dash between birth and death. Oh, life!!