Hilarious, bizarre, grotesque, intriguing??  Anyone of these adjectives could be used to describe the show.

All figurative work.  The participating artists followed guidelines:  Each entry must be vertical on a prescribed set of panels, the head and neck on the top panel, torso on the middle panel, legs on the bottom panel.  Any medium.  The finished triptych would be 56 inches by 24 inches.  When hung the panels were mixed so that each assemblage became the work of three different artists—head by one, torso by another and legs by a third.

I watched some opening night viewers twisting their necks to get different perspectives on outlandish angles.  Given that any one artist within a group of artists will produce a highly individual piece from the same subject; when each artist's piece is restructured as in this show the finished product becomes totally unpredictable.  Beyond one artist's imagination.  Creativity tripley synergistic?  Or gone amok?  Organized chaos.  Beautifully ugly.  Or a comment on artists in general?

For the viewer to decide.

I first saw the 'Call for Entry' to 'IN THREE PARTS' while at a painting session at Basic Inquiry Centre For Figurative Arts.  The concept was novel and challenging.  More so than I anticipated.  My parts of figure wanted to go beyond prescribed boundaries.  Plus I wanted the finished piece to suggest a statement or mood.  My enthusiasm fired up, I did two and was rewarded by having both in the show and the legs of one on the invitation.

Basic Inquiry is a working studio so the sessions take place with hangings from the current show watching us from the walls.  During break we get a chance to make our own perusal.  There are three hundred plus members who attend sessions at various times, so many of us do not know each other.  In one such break two of us were making the rounds, commenting on pieces which we thought worked well—lining up with happenstance serendipity.  My companion pointed to a set of legs, "This is one I like" and went on to describe the belonging head and torso which were parts of other assemblages in the next room.  My painting!  He had taken the time to search out the matching parts.  I hadn't been too sure about this piece.  Painted quickly and spontaneously (animatic), last of my two entries, 'Push the Limit'.  It is of a runner straining to the finish.  But the feeling I think could be anyone stretching themselves for their best effort in whatever field...painting??

There can be no finer compliment than from a fellow painter who doesn't know he is speaking to the artist.  I thanked him.  He made my day.