02/ 04/ 2007
by Shannon McRae
As an attorney, Nathan Sawaya used to build cases for his clients. Today, he's a builder of a different sort. As owner of BrickArtist.com, Sawaya is a professional LEGO artist whose work has been featured everywhere from NBC's "Today Show" to the Los Angeles Times.
Like many small businesses, Sawaya laid the foundation for his LEGO enterprise from a hobby. "I would build LEGO sculptures after work and put photos of them on my Web site," he says. "One day I got so many hits on my site that it crashed. I realized then that I had a viable business."
Sawaya's first exposure to the plastic bricks was on Christmas morning 1978. "My grandparents gave me my first box of LEGOs," he says. "I remember ripping into the package and building a LEGO house right then, oblivious to the rest of Christmas morning."
His creations have come a long way since his first toy house. Corporations and individuals now pay Sawaya thousands of dollars for custom sculptures that take him several weeks to finish. He has built a 7-foot replica of the Brooklyn Bridge, a life-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex and mosaic portraits of everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Lindsay Lohan.
Though recognized and endorsed by the LEGO corporation, Sawaya doesn't have inside access to their plastic pieces. "Part of the appeal of my work is that all of the materials I use in my sculptures are the same LEGO bricks anyone can buy at the store--I just use thousands and thousands of them."
