The Art of Brick: Lego Sculptures

I recently saw that The Magic House, which just happens to be one of my favorite, unique St. Louis attractions, was hosting a lego art exhibit called The Art of Brick. The exhibit contains 30 large-scale sculptures made entirely of standard legos. I spent quite a long time checking out all the incredible creations, and even learned a bit about the artist. I’ll insert some fun facts between the photos. I’ll also get a bit philosophical and travel-love-mushy towards the end.

Lego sculpture of crayons

The artist, Nathan Sawaya, created his own graph paper to sketch out his sculptures before building them with legos.

Lego sculpture of a man holding the world

I find it very impressive that the artist was able to use square and rectangle bricks to create round things such as this globe, or even the portrait on a 100 dollar bill.

Lego sculpture of money

The headless man Lego sculpture

Sawaya formulated a special glue to keep his sculptures intact as they are moved to be displayed in different cities. This is great for keeping them together, but if he makes a mistake, he has to use a chisel to get the bricks apart.

Several pieces in The Art of Brick Exhibit

“The fundamental purpose to my art is to captivate people for as long as I can keep their attention. I strive to create artwork that is interesting and that is unlike anything they have seen before.” – Nathan Sawaya

Before I talk about my favorite piece, I should mention that the portraits in te background are also made completely of legos. The one on the left is a self portrait of the artist, Nathan Sawaya. This amazing story book sculpture was by far my favorite. The castle and moat grew out of the pages of a fairy tale book. The legos were also printed with a poem:

This is a poem

About a girl in a boat

Who kept sailing around

The confines of a moat

The moat went around

A very big palace

Inside lived a prince

And his maid Alice

The prince has no problems

His life was pure pleasure

But his love for that girl

He could not measure

And the girl loved him back

Their love had been bound

But she still sailed on her boat

Around and around

She didn’t dare stop

For around the moat’s edge

Were sharp jagged rocks

Where her boat could not wedge

“I’ll catch you,” he promised

“There will be no harm”

And she wanted to go

And live in his arms

But the boat seemed so safe

And the jump seemed so big

She could not just leave

And abandon her rig.

“Finally,” the prince said,

As he jumped on her boat

“If you won’t come to me,

Then I’ll sail on the moat!”

And they sailed on her boat

Just watching the palace

But they could not go back

‘Cuz it was now owned by Alice.

The moral of the story

If you must know

If you stay where you are,

Then you may never go.

So if one would jump

And prepare for the hassle

One day they will find

They can live in a castle.

I found this poem could relate to a lot of things, and my perception colored it to relate to travel. These lines in particular: “But the boat seemed so safe, And the jump seemed so big, She could not just leave…” and “If you stay where you are, Then you may never go.”

I feel as if so many of us have struggled with these very things when deciding whether to take the proverbial jump and embark on a new journey. When I decided to move to Argentina, it was so hard to leave behind what I knew was safe and simple. Yet, when I did take the jump, I discovered a whole new life, that was even better than the safe one I had before. I am currently back in my hometown of St. Louis, MO. I came back as a freelancer, and I have built a very solid working life for myself. I am happy, but I know that St. Louis is not the place for me. I plan to move in the fall of 2013. I am very excited, but I can also feel the familiar fears tugging at me. St. Louis is safe. I am doing so well. The question always seems to be, “What if I leave and regret it because I have a good thing going here?” when truly, the question should be, “What if I never leave, and I never get anywhere, or make a good life great?”

It seems these legos had quite an effect on me.