There are something like 360 art works by approximately 120 artists in the annual postcard show at South Puget Sound Community College. But who's counting. Actually, I am. I counted 118 names on the announcement card, but sort of lost my place while counting, and I multiplied that by three because the announcement said each artist was allowed up to three entries (I know some entered less than three and there were six pieces by Carol Hannum, but as I said: who's counting).

Each piece is the size of a standard postcard, and they are stacked around the gallery in three levels. There are many works by professional artists - including familiar names such as Lynette Charters, Susan Christian, Nathan Barnes, Susan Aurand and others who have been reviewed in my Visual Edge column many times - and many by amateurs whose names may be known only by their friends and family. Some of the works by amateurs stand up well beside those of professionals.

Nobody judged the show; everything entered was accepted. So, as you might well guess, there were a hundred or more pieces that were dull, trite, and not well drawn or painted or crafted. But that leaves approximately 200, give or take a handful, that were inventive, unique and beautifully crafted. Some downright stupendous.  

There's a theme every year. This year's theme was Wild Thing, and it seems many took that to mean wildlife. There are a lot of pictures of birds, bears, pandas, and at least one raccoon (I never before realized how much raccoons look like pandas). A few refer to Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Quite a lot of the postcards are surrealistic or wildly comical, a few are abstract, and many are simply drawings or paintings of animals. There are even three-dimensional postcards and a couple of little stained-glass windows in a light box by Britt Nederhood. One of them is a Mondrian-like design in primary colors, and the other is a comic picture of Donald Trump.

Here is a smattering of pieces that struck my fancy:

Barnes' two intaglio-print celebrity portraits, one of Prince and one of David Bowie. They're done in a media that's new to me, a kind of pvc pipe material that is gouged and coated with black ink to create a striking, high-contrast image. There's an image by Polly Zehm of three sets of panty hose hanging on a clothesline. The panty hose are cut out of paper, and the line is a string stapled to paper. It's funny in a creepy way, like the lower half of women hung out to dry.

Vicky Zarrell's collage of a woodland scene with a 3-D tree trunk glued over a similar tree trunk to create a tricky image such as in one of René Magritte's paintings of a painting in front of a window is outstanding for the same reason Magritte's paintings are.

Randolph Gerda has entered two relief sculptures, one of a bear and one of a bird, made out of what looks to be wool.

There are two lovely little landscape paintings by Mary McCann that are like the vibrant mountain scenes she recently showed at All Sorts Gallery and Tacoma Community College, which you might have read about in this column.

A dramatic photograph by John Korvell of a man walking a bike wearing nothing but a thong and a pith helmet has the dramatic look of a Carravagio.

There's a sweet sculpture in twisted sheet metal by Ron Hinton.

The afore-mentioned six works by Carol Hannum, which appear to be graphite, ink and watercolor, comprise figures and animals, and range from surrealistic to comical. My favorite is her panda.

And finally, there is a particularly enjoyable abstract painting by Lois Beck that reminds me of Marcel Duchamp's "Network of Stoppages." It's non-objective, but I think I saw a man's head.

Overall, this is a most enjoyable show.

"The Wild Thing," noon-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, through Feb. 3, South Puget Sound Community College, Kenneth J Minnaert Center for the Arts Gallery, 2011 Mottman Rd. SW., Olympia,
360.596.5527, spscc.edu/gallery