Most of us have our favorite childhood memories and past times, but for 33-year-old New Yorker Nathan Sawaya, playing with his LEGO blocks is something he still hasn't seemed to get over yet. As a matter of fact, his life is consumed by it. From his computer to his vase of flowers, what makes them unique is that they aren't real. They are plastic LEGO blocks that are created by Sawaya who calls this "art."
His passion for this LEGO was so powerful that it lead him to quit his career as an attorney in Manhattan because this is what he really wants to do with his life. As much fun as it is sitting there all day playing with toys, if everybody in the world quit their job to do something that was "fun" then what will the world come to? This kind of work can be described as cool and fun to look at, but to make a living out of something like this and call this art, is pushing it. People are getting education (not to mention that art college tuition is expensive) to get their art degrees to pursue their art careers and then this ex-lawyer decides to quit his job because he wanted to create "art" with his LEGO and inspire people seems to be a bit ridiculous.
Sawaya describes what the difference is between his relationship to the LEGOs and a hobby.
"I get paid! In all seriousness, I've tried to take LEGO in a direction it's never been before. I've tried to put it in a museum setting, and I've created very large-scale sculptures that are on tour for the next couple of years. And that's something that I think is a little different from your average hobbyist who's really just building for fun."
Well, whoever came up with inventing LEGOs probably didn't really think beyond creating these just for fun.
" I've built monkeys for both the talk show host Craig Ferguson, and the magician David Copperfield. I've also built a functioning industrial air conditioner."
In the history of air conditioners, people didn't really seem to have a problem using normal air conditioners to the point where they felt the need to upgrade to ones made of plastic building blocks and as far as monkeys -- its cuter to look at the real thing.
