NATHAN Sawaya got his first set of Legos when he was 5 years old, growing up in a small timber town in Oregon. He began building a Lego city in his parents’ living room and didn’t stop until he graduated high school.
Today he’s 34, with a law degree from NYU, an apartment in Gramercy Park and years of experience as a corporate attorney. And he still spends his days working with Legos.
Sawaya is a sculptor whose primary medium happens to be those brightly colored bricks we all remember from childhood. As such, he’s one of only six “certified professionals” officially endorsed (though not sponsored) by the Lego Group. His pieces typically sell for several thousand dollars and have been shown in museums around the country.
Sawaya works out of a studio in his apartment crammed with 1.5 million Legos organized by size and color, as well as several sculptures in various stages of completion. We met with him in this adult play land to find out how he turned a childhood pastime into a livelihood.
How did you make the shift from lawyer to full-time artist?
At night, after a long day at the law firm, some people go to the gym – I would create. That was where I would escape. I did all sorts of sculptures, but then I started doing Lego, like large-scale pieces. This was about seven years ago. I put them up on my Web site, and people all over the world started commissioning me to do stuff. The day my site crashed from too many hits I realized there was a viable career here. I was like, wow – this is it. So in 2004 I left the firm.
Why Legos?
At this point it’s because they’re my signature medium. There aren’t a lot of people who do it. It’s allowed me to take Lego to a place it’s never been before. And I really believe there’s nothing I can’t build out of Legos. I take all the crazy commissions that come in, as long as they make sense.
Like what?
I had a company approach me and say, “Can you build us a working industrial air conditioner?” It was like, well that’s nuts; I’ll do it. It took a few weeks to figure it out. They sent me an entire industrial air conditioner, and I broke it down and reconfigured it out of Legos. I had a working fan in there that could be adjusted to create different breezes.
What do you say no to?
Certain things I don’t think will do well with Lego, such as alcohol or drug-related themes. But I don’t turn down much – I’m working like crazy. It’s really taking off right now, so I’m just kind of doing it – as well as working on my own stuff, which is what really drives me. I want to fulfill my dream, which is to create whatever I want to create.
How long will you typically spend on a piece?
Anywhere from a few days to six or seven weeks. One of the largest things I built was a life-size T.rex, and that took all summer. It lives in a museum in Wisconsin now.
Do you ever have to take anything apart?
Mistakes, you mean? Well I built this large hand, 54 inches tall, and halfway through the proportions were just looking awful. So I had to tear an entire chunk of it apart. It was heart-wrenching, but it’s part of the process. You have to be patient with this medium.
Do you have a piece you’re particularly proud of?
After Katrina, I did a piece called “The Rebirth of New Orleans,” commissioned for the New Orleans public library. They collected hundreds of drawings by children after asking them, “What do you think is important for the rebuilding of New Orleans?” The answers were staples any kid would expect to find in a city: a fire station, a police station, a park, a school. So I came up with this city built in kind of a childlike way – the buildings are crooked, just like the drawings; the windows don’t line up; the colors are bright. That’s one of my favorites, because it’s unique, and it gave me a chance to do something meaningful.
As an artist, do you feel you can say all you want to say using Legos?
It’s been a perfect medium, for the most part. A lot of my pieces have to do with my changes, my transitions in life. So Lego has been a way for me to explore that. It goes back to this idea that I really can build anything out of it, and so I can express anything. There are no limits to what I can create.