Puzzle-palooza at Cine This Week

Sometimes the pieces just fit together perfectly.

Earlier this year, The Very Good Puzzle Company, a local company founded by Paige and Brian Dixon, rolled out a series of puzzles featuring local Athens art. Lou Kregel's Chrysanthemums (based on her painted chrysanthemums in town, like Marti's at Midday) and Five Star Day puzzles kicked off the series with a spring preview, followed by a summer release of puzzles by 11 other local artists. The launch party was an all-day puzzling hangout, where folks stopped by, sat down, and worked on puzzles for however long they wanted with whoever happened to sit down at the tables. Strangers became friends. Friends caught up on conversation while searching for that missing piece. People drifted from one puzzle table to the next.

Then this week Cine booked Puzzle, a movie starring Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire, Nanny McPhee) and Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi), about a woman whose passion for solving jigsaw puzzles draws her into an unexpected and unimagined new world. So it only made sense for Cine to ask Very Good Puzzle to set up tables of puzzles in their lobby, where guests who leave the movie wanting to put together puzzles could immediately sit down, enjoy a beverage, sort through those pieces, and have a little conversation.

And the puzzling is for everyone at Cine. Characters in Crazy Rich Asians chat over a mahjong table, and characters in Athens can chat over a puzzle table. And the quest can be just as alluring for those viewing 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Tuesday and Thursday evening, Paige and Brian of Very Good Puzzle will be at Cine, selling the take-home version of their puzzles. You can also purchase them in several local shops, like Community and Avid Bookshop, as well as online.

In addition to Lou Kregel, the local artist series includes art by Chico Lou's Fine Tattoos' Sara M Fogle, John Cleaveland, Vernon Thornsberry, Will Eskridge, Jill Carnes, Jason Thrasher/Don Chambers, Lisa Freeman, Terry Rowlett, Eleanor Davis, Susan T. Pelham and David Hale.

Read more about Very Good Puzzle.