Meet the artist behind Morton Arboretum's giant Lego sculptures
The Morton Arboretum's 2015 summer artist traded his life of cubicles and desktop computers for one filled with tubs of rainbow-organized Lego bricks and creativity, and he never looked back.
Sean Kenney, a New York native and Lego certified professional, walked out on his desk job after 10 years of website designing. Now, his collection of sculptures called “Nature Connects: Art with Lego Bricks” will be on display at the arboretum through Nov. 1.
The lifelike flora and fauna include a nearly 7-foot peacock, which consists of more than 68,000 Legos and took 625 hours to build. On the other end of the spectrum, a 19-inch bonsai tree exhibits the minute detail Kenney can create. There is even a mosaic face cutout for visitors to play the parts of ants burrowing beneath the ground.
A self-proclaimed “Lego maniac” as a child, Kenney's sole request on birthdays or holidays was a new set of the plastic toys. He built models through childhood and into his teenage and adult years. He worked as a cartoonist, graphic artist and eventually website designer for some time, but he could not get the images of buildings constructed from Legos out of his head.
“One day I stood up, took off my tie and walked straight out in the middle of the day,” Kenney said. “And I never looked back.”
At 28, Kenney had been publishing some of his more intricate Lego models on websites like the Lego Users Group Network or others he created using his previous website design skills. Relatively soon after that, he started to receive calls from people interested in purchasing his original work. One model he built was a portrait of him and his wife as an engagement present; this led to families requesting portraits of their children. Then, corporate businesses approached him to build their logos, and finally Lego reached out as well.
“One day, I was talking to my wife and I was like ‘I've got enough to do here,'” Kenney said.
He faced typical challenges of any entrepreneur, including finding businesses to feature his work. The art gallery scene in New York was too competitive, and department stores would rarely return his calls. When he rented his first studio apartment for some extra space, Kenney's sublessor was befuddled by his work, Kenney said.
“A lot of people were thinking to themselves, ‘Here's this 30-year-old guy making Legos. What is he doing?' ” Kenney said.
His family was supportive, however, and that helped him moving forward. Kenney's father is a model railroad enthusiast and his mother is a preschool teacher.
“I'm the perfect mix of both,” Kenney said.
Continuing his success, he was recognized as a Lego certified professional in 2005. The Lego Certified Professional program is a community-based group of adult Lego hobbyists who have turned their passion for building and creating with Lego bricks into a full-time or part-time profession, according to Lego's website. One of 13 worldwide, Kenney and his fellow artists are trusted business partners selected based on their building proficiency, enthusiasm for the Lego brick and building system and professional approach toward other Lego fans and the general public.
Since quitting his desk job, Kenney has lost count of how many models — both personal and commercial — he has built and has authored eight Lego-filled instructional children's books. He has a small team that helps him with problem solving and building the art as well. His works range from corporate logos to portraits to anything else he dreams up.
Kenney does not use computers to design his sculptures.
“It's far too complex,” Kenney said. “And, if you ask me, it takes a lot of the fun out of it.”
Instead, he gathers as many photographs or drawings of the subject as possible and plans out the basic shape and size by hand. Next, he builds a prototype and finally the finished product. The entire process can take anywhere from several days to several months, depending on the sculpture's size and complexity.
“The most challenging thing is to create curved shapes with those hard little plastic rectangles,” Kenney said. “Unlike traditional sculpture, you can't just carve out a shape or add to a surface. You have to think ahead as you're building upwards linearly.”
Despite the challenges entrenched in his building blocks of choice, Kenney sees results through his own eyes and through the eyes of his audience. His favorite creation is a 50,000-piece city inspired by New York's historic Greenwich Village. The sculpture was built part-time over six months, and the final product is so detailed it includes parking meters, graffiti, New York locals and tourists. He is also very proud of a small sculpture called “Success” because it is both an editorial statement on society's perception of success and a reflection of Kenney's life before he pursued art with Legos.
“I love that whether a 2-year-old or a professional master builder snaps two Lego pieces together, the end result is exactly the same,” Kenney said.
He added that the whimsical and cartoonish nature of that end result is also sure to make people smile.
Up to this point, he has not felt that he has reached the pinnacle of his career; he says that like his work, it is a slow and steady build. He works daily in his studio, surrounded by half-finished sculptures and with a hole in his jeans, but he would not have it any other way.
Kenney does try to limit himself to an eight-hour workday to spend time with his wife and daughter, 4, and son, 1. He is currently working on adding new pieces to the “Nature Connects” collection, and his eighth children's book recently was released.
“My daughter and I do enjoy building and playing with Legos at home,” Kenney said. “Watching the amazing creative mind of a toddler is inspiring, to say the least.”