Nathan Sawaya Interview (re-post)

  It's finally here! On my old website (which you can still visit here), I go the chance to do an email interview with LEGO artist extraordinaire Nathan Sawaya! That blog post was very popular (Nathan even commented on the post, just look in the comments section here), so I decided that it should have a place here on my new blog. So I'm doing this! If you haven't read the interview yet, or if you want to re-live the memories, this post is for you! Hey, why am I still yapping? Let's get started! Enjoy!

Brady: You must have been building with LEGO's for a long time. How old were you when you started building with LEGO's?

Nathan: It was Christmas 1978 when I received my first box of LEGO bricks from my Grandparents.  I remember ripping into the package and building a LEGO house right then, oblivious to the rest of Christmas morning.  It seems like I have been creating with LEGO ever since that day.  Of course, these days my LEGO creations are a little bigger than a toy house. Playing with LEGO growing up let me build anything I wanted to build.  It 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.  It was the perfect tool to lead me into my current life as an artist, where I get to create whatever I want.  And get paid for it! With some other toys, if you lost a piece, then the whole toy couldn’t be played with, but not with LEGO bricks.  If you lost one LEGO brick, you just had to be creative and find some other way to build it.That creativity led me to becoming a full time artist.  As an artist LEGO is a great medium for creating anything I can imagine.  I still use those same rectangular plastic bricks that I had as a child, but now I try and use them in a way that hasn’t been seen before; by taking the bricks and making them more of an art medium rather than only a toy. By using LEGO as an art medium, I have been able to put together an entire museum exhibit that is currently touring North America.  It has become a very popular exhibit as both kids and adults are attracted to the idea of artwork created solely out of LEGO.

Brady: Who or what was your biggest inspiration to start your career?

Nathan: I have been fooling around with sculpture all of my life, but it was about eight years ago that I challenged myself to create a large scale sculpture using only LEGO bricks.  It got a good response and I soon put together a few more pieces.  I posted photos of my works on my website, brickartist.com, and soon thereafter I was getting commissions from all over the world. At the time I was reading a book of Tom Friedman’s art.  Among other things, Friedman uses non-traditional media to create sculptures.  I was inspired and I realized then that LEGO art was a viable option. I just finished publishing my own book, The Art of the Brick, which is a collection of my works from the past few years.  I hope kids use it to become inspired to be their own artists.

Brady: You must get thousands of ideas for your creations. What happens

after you get an inspiration for a model?

Nathan: I usually start by sketching an idea on paper before I dig into the bricks.

Brady: What are some other hobbies of yours, besides building with LEGO's?

Nathan: I like to cook and because I like to cook, I like to eat.  And because I like to eat, I have to run, which I don’t necessarily like, but I do it anyway.

Brady: You were on "Mythbusters" to help build a giant LEGO boulder. What

was it like to be on the show?

Nathan: Exciting!  Everyone involved with the production was cool, so that made it fun.  It's too bad the ball broke apart...and all my LEGO bricks went flying everywhere.

Brady: You must have hundreds of LEGO bricks. How do you organize them all?

Nathan: I actually have about 1.5 million loose bricks in my studio!  Crazy, I know.  I organize them in clear stacking bins.  That way I can see what is inside and they take up less space so I have more room to build.

Brady: You've made so many LEGO models. What's your favorite creation that

you've made?

Nathan: The next one!

  So, I hope you enjoyed this very special re-post of my Nathan Sawaya interview, and please be sure to visit the various links that both me and Nathan gave, to learn more about Nathan and his work. But for the best site related to Nathan, visit www.brickartist.com for his blog, and to see pictures of all of his latest works. Thanks again for reading, and I'll see you on Monday with a new post! Until then, please leave a comment and tell me what you thought about the interview, especially if this is your first time reading it! Thanks again for reading, and I'll see ya' later everybody!