Happy Monday Friends!
Do you remember seeing this Lego exhibit at the Albany Museum of Art last Spring?
Legos, the colorful, interconnecting plastic pieces that have entertained and captivated children for decades, have been elevated from child’s play to fine art by Athens, Georgia, native Mike Landers.
Landers is a self-trained photographer and designer who studied at the University of Georgia. He does photography, but he also has a very special medium--Legos!!
“Building with Lego bricks was a big part of my childhood,” the artist said. “Even when I was a kid, I marveled at the brilliant design of the bricks and the variety of colors and shapes.”
Do you like to build with Legos? Did you ever think you could make those little colorful bricks into a piece of art?
How do you build with Legos? Do you make towers, ships, or maybe robots? Landers does his art in a special way. He creates patterns with the bricks that can hang flat on the wall. From far away, they look like they could be paintings or photos. When you get close, you can see the tiny bricks all lined up!
Most of his current work, he said, “evolved as a result of my love of textile weavings and geometric patterns.” Landers says he enjoys the challenge of incorporating the limited brick sizes and colors into his designs.
“From the start, I wanted to maintain the tradition of Lego as a building tool that could be taken apart and rebuilt,” he said. “In that spirit, none of my work is held together with glue.
“This adds to the challenge as they must be transported, handled and hung without falling apart.”
Legos, the colorful, interconnecting plastic pieces that have entertained and captivated children for decades, have been elevated from child’s play to fine art by Athens, Georgia, native Mike Landers.
Landers is a self-trained photographer and designer who studied at the University of Georgia. He does photography, but he also has a very special medium--Legos!!
“Building with Lego bricks was a big part of my childhood,” the artist said. “Even when I was a kid, I marveled at the brilliant design of the bricks and the variety of colors and shapes.”
Do you like to build with Legos? Did you ever think you could make those little colorful bricks into a piece of art?
How do you build with Legos? Do you make towers, ships, or maybe robots? Landers does his art in a special way. He creates patterns with the bricks that can hang flat on the wall. From far away, they look like they could be paintings or photos. When you get close, you can see the tiny bricks all lined up!
Most of his current work, he said, “evolved as a result of my love of textile weavings and geometric patterns.” Landers says he enjoys the challenge of incorporating the limited brick sizes and colors into his designs.
“From the start, I wanted to maintain the tradition of Lego as a building tool that could be taken apart and rebuilt,” he said. “In that spirit, none of my work is held together with glue.
“This adds to the challenge as they must be transported, handled and hung without falling apart.”
 | Mike Landers loves to interact with people who are interested in his art! |
A Different Kind of Lego Project..
 Learn more about the history of printmaking here: |
Have you ever heard of printmaking? Printmaking is an artistic process of transferring images from one surface to another surface, most often paper or fabric. In printmaking, you have the ability to make several (if not hundreds) of the same exact image over and over. Think of what happens when you place a stamp in ink and then on paper. That's printmaking!! Traditional printmaking techniques include woodcut, etching, engraving and lithography. Modern artists have expanded available techniques to include screen printing. |
Printmaking with Legos
We are going to make our very own patterned artworks using Legos. Instead of building with them, we are going to use Legos in printmaking!
Here's what you will need:
- Paint
- Paper plate
- Legos (you can use one Lego for the whole project, or several different shapes and sizes throughout)
- Craft foam, Styrofoam tray, or paper
- Markers
Here's what you will need:
- Paint
- Paper plate
- Legos (you can use one Lego for the whole project, or several different shapes and sizes throughout)
- Craft foam, Styrofoam tray, or paper
- Markers
 STEP ONE Create your design. Look around your home at textiles for some inspiration for your patterns! Use your markers to draw your pattern ideas. It can be a simple pattern, or you can try a complex one! You can use two colors, or use all the colors you want. |  STEP TWO Gather your materials. Spread a thin layer of paint on a small paper plate, dip a Lego brick in the paint (don't worry, it will wash) and begin to stamp it onto the craft foam in the pattern you created. |
STEP THREE
Once you have finished your whole pattern, and the paint dries, you can fill in all the negative space (blank space the paint did not cover) with your markers! Decide whether you want your pattern to be colorful or maybe just use two colors like Mike Landers' black and white pieces.
Once you have finished your whole pattern, and the paint dries, you can fill in all the negative space (blank space the paint did not cover) with your markers! Decide whether you want your pattern to be colorful or maybe just use two colors like Mike Landers' black and white pieces.
