Remember the pain that came with accidentally stepping on LEGO pieces in your childhood? Well, imagine the shoeless nightmare that must be the studio of New York-based artist Nathan Sawaya who creates fine art sculpture out of the some 1.5 million LEGO blocks he typically has on hand.
He’s created a number of human form sculptures- like Yellow pictured above- that I particularly enjoy; there’s something about using a childhood toy to create large-scale anthropomorphic works that’s decidedly eerie (even if they’re not violently hemorrhaging).
Sawaya’s work is currently touring museums in an exhibit dubbed the “Art of the Brick” that runs through late 2010. Many of the pieces pictured on his website are for sale and he does custom works! Clearly a twelve foot tall self-portrait in LEGOs is the best birthday present that one can give to one’s self.
That is eerie and really powerful. I’ll never look at LEGOs the same way again.