Creating your own puzzle can be a moment of relaxation, a short break from worries, and a great joy for those who piece by piece complete a work that will surely be a masterpiece.
But what if the last piece of this masterpiece were missing? How would the artist feel after so much effort with his masterpiece incomplete? What would he do about the missing piece ?
Throughout the history of puzzles, the risk of losing pieces is always present. In fact, professionals choose isolated rooms and, completely alone, begin to carefully and piece by piece, place each piece of their puzzle together.
Indeed, the beauty of the puzzle lies in its endless search for pieces and its profound introspective journey within the artist. However, the puzzle builder who decides to travel this difficult and arduous path risks getting lost simply because of a single missing piece .
In 2010, an English pensioner who had completed a puzzle after seven years realized he was missing the last piece, so he decided to do something.
This strange story of an 86-year-old man who loved puzzles so much that he despaired over the missing piece, after seven years of meticulous effort, went around the world.
For Jack Harris, that 5,000-piece puzzle had become almost a torment. Indeed, given to him by his daughter-in-law in 2002, it had been Jack’s companion all these years.
However, when he finally reached the end, Jack realized that a piece was missing and that his project would never be completed . Bitterness and disappointment took hold of him, and, as any fan of the genre can well imagine, the final surprise with the missing piece left him with a sense of helplessness and frustration.
First he blamed the dogs, suspected of having ingested the missing piece, then the caregiver, and finally every family member who ever visited his home. The disappointment was bitter, but Jack didn’t give up.
At that point, to complete what had by now become a challenge with himself, Jack Harris decided to write to Falcon Games LTD, the manufacturer of the “discord” puzzle, asking for the crucial piece.
Unfortunately, the company’s employees responded that nothing could be done about it because the puzzle he requested had been out of production for years.
However, the story reached the administration’s ears and moved the top brass, who decided to create the missing card from scratch, recovering the original design and giving the passionate gentleman a smile.
The puzzle represents a painting by the painter James Joseph Jacques Tissot entitled “The Return of the Prodigal Son”.
Looking at a puzzle with a missing piece can fill the hearts of both the artist and anyone watching with anger and frustration.
In the same way that a large painting cut with a utility knife could create outrage and dismay.
However Lucio Fontana born in Rosario on February 19, 1899, an Italian-Argentine painter, ceramist and sculptor decided to cut his canvas and thus create the spatialist movement.
Fontana’s works on canvas, in fact, express the desire for the painting to emerge from its frame and the sculpture from its glass bell jar. Thus, he begins his search for a third dimension, offering the possibility of relating the canvas’s surface to the observer’s space.
Even today, through small daily actions, we can become great artists.
Doriana and Roberto became one by creating their wonderful work: The missing “not” piece .
Through Doriana’s words, we want to tell you this story of art and love, part of Jackson Pollock’s Convergence puzzle.
I’m a fan of art puzzles, and when I saw this Pollock one, I immediately fell in love. I quickly grabbed it and began completing it, obsessively dividing the pieces as usual. I like to put them together while my partner reads aloud to us, since he can’t stand a puzzle for more than two minutes without going crazy or falling asleep! Imagine, during the first total lockdown due to Covid, we reread the entire Harry Potter series this way!
I care a lot about my puzzles, we have a closet full of them… so imagine my disappointment when, at the end, I realized that a piece was missing! I immediately started wandering around the house, turning it upside down, desperately searching for the missing piece. My partner, meanwhile, took a piece of paper and, matching it with the missing piece, wrote that message… I only noticed it when, exhausted and resigned, I sat down to admire the “almost” complete puzzle. And so, in the end, I decided to cut out a piece of cardboard and glue that message on, and I think I like this puzzle even more now than before.
