Our Nephew Anthony Receives Recognition For Service

We are so proud of Anthony for receiving this certificate for being a Student of Service. The award recognizes students that go out of their way to be helpful to their classmates and faculty. What a great way to end the school year. Just a few more weeks until summer vacation!!!

Nathan Sawaya – LEGO Master Builder

 

In 2004, Nathan Sawaya came to national attention as a talented artist when he won a nationwide search for a professional LEGO Master Model Builder. Since then, he has been garnering accolades, as well as fans, with his colorful and whimsical artwork made entirely of the popular children’s toy.

Born in Colville, Washington and raised in Veneta, Oregon, Sawaya has a unique artist’s eye for creating awe-inspiring images and sculptures out of the square and chunky building blocks.

It was an expected beginning with an unexpected outcome. It started on Christmas 1978 when he unwrapped his first set of bricks. It wasn’t long before the living room was transformed into “LEGO City” complete with miniature boats, firehouses, restaurants, mansions, skyscrapers, train stations and a lake. There were even brick helicopters hanging from the ceiling.

Sawaya’s childhood dreams were always fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories and perfected magic tricks. Of course much of his playtime centered on the LEGO City in his parent’s living room. For more than twelve years the LEGO City flourished. This is where Sawaya’s imagination soared and consequently, fine-tuned his future art form.

Many years and millions of bricks later Sawaya’s creations are of a much grander scale.

A 7-foot-long replica of the Brooklyn Bridge, a life-size tyrannosaurus rex, a 6-foot-tall Han Solo frozen in carbonite, Curious George, Alfred Hitchcock and Lindsay Lohan are all now immortalized in plastic — thanks to Sawaya.

His work is obsessively and painstakingly crafted and is both beautiful and playful. Sawaya’s ability to transform LEGO bricks into something new, his devotion to scale and color perfection, the way he conceptualizes the action of the subject matter, enables him to elevate an ordinary toy to the status of art.

Sawaya’s art form takes shape primarily in 3-dimensional sculptures and oversized mosaic portraits. Some of his favorite pieces of art include a huge black and white self portrait and a gigantic Monopoly box.

He continues to build daily with the brick medium while accepting commission work from individuals and corporations requesting works of art and tradeshows looking for unique, eye-catching exhibits.

Sawaya enjoyed his first solo art exhibit in the Spring of 2007 at the Lancaster Museum of Art. The Art of the Brick was the first major museum exhibition in the U.S. to focus exclusively on the use of LEGO building blocks as an art medium, and is currently touring North America.

 

Mike Myers Sings “The Joker” From “The Love Guru”

Mike Myers is back on June 20, 2008 in the film The Love Guru, his first original character since Austin Powers. Co-starring Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake, The Love Guru follows the journey of Pitka, (Myers) a love guru who returns to America to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. His unorthodox methods are put to the test when he must settle a rift between Toronto Maple Leafs star hockey player Darren Roanoke and his estranged wife. Roanoke’s wife starts dating L.A. Kings star Jacques Grande (Timberlake) out of revenge, sending her husband into a major professional skid. Pitka must return the couple to marital nirvana and get Roanoke back on his game so the team can break the 40-year-old Bullard Curse and in the Stanley Cup.

Batman: Gotham Knight DVD – First Look

Batman: Gotham Knight is a 2008 animated Direct to DVD anthology film of six animated short films set in-between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  Each segment has its own writing and artistic style, just as the works from the DC Universe. The six films all star Kevin Conroy, reprising his role as Batman from the DC Animated Universe. The film uses a Japanese anime style for the animation. It is officially rated PG-13 for stylized violence, including some bloody images.  The DVD can be preordered here.

 

Chris Gilmour’s Amazing Life-Size Cardboard Art

The work of Chris Gilmour provokes surprise and amazement.  He makes everyday objects using only cardboard and glue!

 

There is no supporting structure, no wooden or metal frame. His interpretations of everyday objects are created in adherence to the use of a pure and single material, but instead of the marble or bronze, he has chosen one of the most humble and commonly found materials.

 

Gilmour’s work includes stunning life-size objects, as well as cruder and more essential reproductions such as a typewriter, a car, a bicycle, a wheelchair.   Please click here to see Chris Gilmour’s amazing cardboard reproductions.