The Art of the Brick

The boys were off school on Friday and Nick happened to get home early, so Evander and I traveled to the Mansfield Art Center to see Nathan Sawaya's exhibit, "The Art of the Brick." 

It was super cool and super inspiring. Evander kept saying as we walked through, "I need more bricks!"

Nathan Sawaya left an unrewarding career as an attorney in New York City to build Lego sculptures. :-) He purposely uses ordinary Lego colors to instill the thought in people that they can build sculptures with the Legos they have at home.

The exhibit was small (and I will share it all, so if you want to see it in person and not be spoiled, don't look!), but there was also a room filled with Legos for building!  We spent about an hour and a half in each place.

Here is Sawaya's most iconic piece titled, "Yellow":

Another Nathan Sawaya icon is Hugman. He makes these and places them throughout New York City to put a smile on people's faces.  He has also placed some Hugmen all over the world including Akron, Ohio! (I'm not sure why he isn't hugging something in the picture that accompanies that link...)

To see Hugman in action click here! :-D

Hugman

We went home and started building our own Hugman...but this is as far as we got:

Pantsman by Michelle and Evander :-P

Some of the pieces were paired with a portrait, depicting the Lego sculpture in every day life.

A towel and flip flops:

A tree:

A dog:

Dog with a dress form torso in the background

Clouds:

Clouds with a bucket in the background

Railroad tracks:

An umbrella:

And a dress:

As we walked through the exhibit, Evander reiterated that he needed more bricks...like it was an emergency!  We wondered how many pieces were used in each sculpture, and how much they might weigh...

Evander telling me about the pattern :-)

Evander took note of a block he'd never seen before on this sculpture (I think they were small, gray windows. Evander thought they should be airplane windows):

The Brick Artist himself!

Evander definitely enjoyed the exhibit...but he was really excited to spend time in the play room.  I got a kick out of watching him interact with the other people in the room---especially a smaller boy there with his grandma. He took care of that little boy, bringing him all of the pieces he needed...letting him play with our creations---so sweet. :-)

My contributions:

I'm so happy that we had the chance to see this exhibit....but we need more bricks!!! :-P

Hallow-rain

For the second year in a row, we've had a bummer of a Halloween.

Last year, our inland region experienced Hurricane Sandy's high winds and crazy rains, postponing Halloween to a Saturday afternoon.  Trick-or-treating in the daylight was just not the same.  There weren't as many people handing out candy, either...which really is fine (less sugar consumption), but still a bummer. We didn't light our jack-o-lanterns and milk jugs because they couldn't be seen.

This year...it was raining...and it was windy.  Weather people and moms alike were urging municipalities to postpone Halloween again, but many hard-headed people in charge said no. Safety-wise, it ended up okay (I can say that after the fact, since nothing happened...but something could have happened, you know? Broken tree limbs anyone?).  It poured and it was terribly windy...and I stayed on the porch passing out candy.

Evander went as a Minecraft creeper (painted by me! :-) ), Emory was a Ninja Turtle and Marin was Super Girl (thanks to Cousin Anna's old costume!).

The best pic I managed to get of all three :-/

Evander's costume was ruined by the rain, and only one out of three of our kids made it beyond our little street.  Poor Evander and Marin hit a hot shower as soon as they came in the door. I couldn't keep a match lit to light the jack-o-lanterns or the milk jugs. :-(  How miserable.

Prior to trick-or-treating, our friends invited us over for dinner, to get the kids together, and to just be excited about Halloween together. :-)  Good food, good friends and good fun!

All of the kiddies! 

Two creepers!  SsssssSSSssss

The loot:

Too busy to pose for a picture by his candy. ;-)

Seriously, I checked the weather records and it has never rained on Halloween night like it has for the past two years! >:-/ Here's to next year!!!