His portrait of President-Elect Barack Obama appeared in the 2009 Commemorative Inauguration Edition of Newsweek. The magazine commissioned him to do the piece and gave him a photo of Obama. The artist said that he completed this commission in less than a week.
The Rebirth of New Orleans is his colorful work of a rebuilt New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. It presents the city gently supported in a large hand. Rebirth is on permanent display at the main branch of the New Orleans Public Library,
Constructions as a Child and as an Adult
Sawaya told Suite101.com that as a child he built a city of LEGO bricks in his parents' living room in Veneta, Oregon. It remained on display for 12 years. But about 2000 he said that his life really changed when he "challenged" himself to create a large sculpture using LEGO bricks. The result got raves,and Sawaya did a few more pieces. He put photos online and started getting commissions from across the globe.
The largest piece he ever created was a billboard for Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. He used 500,000 LEGO bricks in the billboard that was 53 feet long and more than 15 feet high.
The Art of the Brick at Museums
Some of his works are commissions from public and private clients. Others he creates from his own imagination. The latter pieces he exhibits at art museums. The Art of the Brick , his traveling exhibit, has been to at least six U. S. museums.
Most recently, it opened in May 2009 at the Turtle Bay Exploration Park and Museum in Redding, California and the Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Even though sharing a common name, the dual shows feature different pieces. One of the pieces on display at Turtle Bay is Sawaya's Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. It measures 20 feet long and contains 80,000 bricks. The Art of the Brick: The Pictorial, Sawaya's book about the exhibit, was published in 2008.
The Art of the Brick exhibition stop at the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia in 2008 included Stop, Look & Live. The piece presents a traffic light with LEGO-brick human faces as the red, yellow and green lights. The Box depicts a person seated on a bed and looking at a gaily wrapped box on the bed. Another piece in the exhibit is Sawaya's self-portrait. Rain features a large blue raindrop and a large black raindiop on a white background in a brown frame made from LEGO bricks.
Sawaya's works are colorful creations that will delight children. Their artistry and themes will captivate adults.
Sources:
- The Art of the Brick. Exhibition. American Swedish Historical Museum. August 23 to November 30, 2008. Philadelphia, PA.
- Sawaya, Nathan. E-mail Interview by Linda N. Riggins. 3 May 2009.
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