BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME
Remember the excitement you felt when you were a kid opening
your presents on Christmas morning? Well, would you have ever
imagined that opening one of those gifts could change your life and
cement your future career path?
It did just that for 34-year-old Nathan Sawaya back
in 1978, when his grandparents presented him with his first set of
LEGO blocks, or bricks, as they're called in LEGO-speak. Today, bin
after bin of colorful LEGOs crams Sawaya's New York studio, where
he carefully crafts the tiny cubes into giant organic architectural
sculptures - like those in his series of three-dimensional,
life-size human forms, which must be seen to be believed. His
commissioned pieces sell for as much as $65,000, and a collection
of his creations is currently touring museums across the country in
the Art of the Brick, the only exhibition to ever focus exclusively
on LEGOs as an art medium. We recently talked with Sawaya about his
art form and asked how he transforms something so ordinary into
something so extraordinary. - Jaye
Revell
How old were you when you got your
first set of LEGOs?
I was five. I remember ripping into the package and building a LEGO
house right then, oblivious to the rest of Christmas morning.
What was it about them that drew
your interest and inspired such creativity?
Playing with LEGOs let my imagination control the playtime. If I
wanted to be a rock star that day, I could build myself a guitar.
If I wanted to be an astronaut, I could build myself a rocket.
Also, with some other toys, if you lost a piece, then the whole toy
couldn't be played with. But not so with LEGOs.
That first LEGO house you built
in your parents' living room turned into a LEGO city as you
worked on it over the next 12 years. Just how elaborate did it
get?
It had the staples of any city, like a fire station, hotel, park,
and hospital. It also had some more-unique establishments, like a
LEGO lake, a LEGO ski lodge, the Empire LEGO Building, and a LEGO
amusement park.
How did that childhood obsession end
up turning into a profession?
I started doing large-scale LEGO sculptures in 2000. After my first
few, I posted photos of them on my website, Brickartist.com. Soon,
I was getting commissions from all over the world, and I realized I
might have a LEGO career in my future.
In 2004, you entered - and won -
LEGO's search for the nation's best builder, right?
Yes. The contest involved several rounds of timed building, in
which participants were given a certain number of bricks and asked
to build a themed piece within a certain amount of time. [When I
won], I was offered a position with LEGO as a master builder. After
about seven months, I really wanted to be able to pick and choose
my projects, so I left and became an independent artist.
Do you work in any other mediums,
like painting or sculpture?
I have sculpted out of more traditional media such as clay, wire,
and wood, and with some nontraditional media such as bottle caps
and even candy. However, building with LEGO bricks is what I'm best
known for.
What is the biggest piece you've
ever done?
The largest installation I've ever built was a billboard for the
film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. It measured over 53
feet in length and 15 feet high and had well over half a million
pieces.
How long does it take to make one of
your creations?
It depends on the size and subject matter. One of my life-size
human forms generally takes three to four weeks. The skeleton of a
Tyrannosaurus rex I did, which measured more than 19 feet, took an
entire summer.
If you make a mistake midway
through, do you have to pull off all the blocks and start
over?
Usually, I can catch the mistake before it's too damaging and only
have to take apart a portion of the sculpture. Sometimes, though,
the sculpture will already be glued together, which makes it much
more difficult to take apart. Fortunately, I'm good with a
chisel.
You glue your LEGOs
together?
I have to, to make sure they'll travel well. I would imagine people
would be disappointed if they got to the exhibit only to see a pile
of bricks.
So, do you map your structures out
on paper ahead of time, or do you just throw a bunch of bricks on
the floor and start playing?
At this point, I see the world in little rectangles. Sometimes I
catch myself staring at a building, or even at a person, and
breaking down what it would look like out of LEGOs. As for the
process, I just try to envision what the final sculpture will look
like prior to putting down the first brick.
How many LEGOs do you own?
I have about 1.5 million LEGO pieces in my inventory at any one time. And one Lincoln Log. I don’t know how that got in there.
Touring Schedule for the Art of the Brick
THROUGH FEBRUARY 3: The Building for Kids, Fox Cities Children’s Museum; Appleton, Wisconsin. www.kidmuseum.org
MARCH 2 to AUGUST 18: Stamford Museum & Nature Center; Stamford, Connecticut. www.stamfordmuseum.org
AUGUST 22 to NOVEMBER 30: American Swedish Historical Museum; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. www.americanswedish.org