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.