Fine art, one toy brick at a time
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With a little imagination and a seemingly endless flow of LEGO building blocks, the possibilities are endless.
Thousands of people admired life-sized LEGO sculptures at the Austin Convention Center this weekend and had the chance to manifest their own ideas with classic toy bricks.
LEGO Master Builder Steve Gerling says the plastic toys are just another way to make art.
"I was trained as an artist, specifically with a degree in fine arts, with a major in sculpture,” Gerling said. "As a sculptural medium, it can be fairly difficult and fairly challenging to turn little square corners into fluid organic creations,” he said. “Very satisfying when you do it."
The creation process takes time. For the larger sculptures, LEGO master builders spend about a month making electronic designs, and six weeks building the sculpture.
"We come up with what amounts to a prototype, whether it’s a physical prototype or an electronic prototype, we do quite a bit of it with computer aid tools now,” Gerling said. “When it comes to it, it's just one brick at a time."
The Danish company was founded in 1932. It's name is an abbreviation of two Danish words which mean "play well".