Only a few Puzzles left

 30 x 40

 24 x 40

24 x 40

30 x 40


These are magnetic puzzles with approximately 70 pieces each. Each puzzle is framed.  Each frame was hand-painted.

1992 and 1993 was my Puzzle Period and these are the large ones that I still have.  Note the two on the bottom with the missing pieces. Those missing pieces were taken at the galley, by some deranged collector, where I was showing......and basically created a roadblock.  I was working on figuring out how to circumvent the roadblock when February 3, 1994 changed EVERYTHING. 

The beginning started on December 27, 1991 at 3am.  I was having a dream.....

Jackson Pollack and I were sitting around a big round oak dining table, drinking beers and smoking cigarettes and talking about my art work. Mr. Pollack said these exact words...."Well, I like your color sense and I think the flow thing you are trying to achieve is interesting, but if you want to fuck with people make puzzles of my artwork."

HIS WORDS SAT ME UP IN BED  (I've had two of those type of dreams in my life) and the next day I went to my office and made my first small 18 piece non-magnetic puzzle and the following day started a company called.....

"ART IS A PUZZLE, but then you already knew that."

My small gift item puzzles were very successful and then 7 months later I learned about magnetic fields and discovered I could buy rolls of magnetic adhesive and create larger pieces that would go into galleries.  I sold 11 puzzles for between $600 and $1500 in one Palm Desert gallery within the first 45 days and then the Universe decided I needed to be altered.  Three galleries within one month called with the same story......"someone took a piece of your puzzle....could you bring a replacement piece."  Since every puzzle was an original, replacement pieces were obviously out of the question.

I personally believe that since my puzzle period is well behind me, and I've created hundreds of new images and designs, alone with three new periods, that those four pieces shown above have a value that should be determined by auction.

Do I hear $2500? 

The idea is at the end of my show, when everybody is good and drunk, or stoned on medical pot, to bring out the puzzles and see what the Universe has in store for me NOW.

I think the Universe owes me big time and I'm ready for the debt to be settled.

Of course there's a good chance that everything is still one big puzzle and my art will always be the missing piece of my life.

A side bar.....I applied for a Jackson Pollack Foundation Grant a few years ago and told them the whole story.................. and never heard a word. 

It's the 20 year anniversary of my Puzzle Period and I'm still proud of how they look and how they've held up.

Do I hear $3000?


Michael Timothy McAlevey