Tenacity

It's amazing what one can accomplish with a little tenacity. I recently read an article on Art News Blog about Nathan Sawaya, an artist who uses Lego bricks as his medium of choice. He is currently having his first solo show at the Lancaster Museum of Art in Lancaster, PA , to sold out crowds. He received his first set of Legos as a Christmas present, and the passion began. He went to work making a model city, eventually taking up the living room of his parent's house. As he grew older he continued to "play" with his bricks. He graduated law school, became a lawyer, and in the evenings would come home and unwind by building things.

In 2004 he entered the competition for a nationwide search for a Lego master builder, and won. He gave up his lawyering, and became a full time Lego artist.

Who would have ever thought you could make a career out of something like that? Many times I get discouraged at how my art career is going, and every artist I know has similar struggles. But here's a guy who continued on. I'm sure a lot of people thought he was/is nuts. Didn't matter, he had determination and drive, and was adament about expressing himself on his own terms.

So I'm going to be thinking about Nathan those times when it seems nobody gets what I'm saying, when it would be so much easier to just clean my brushes and go to bed, when selling a painting is equivalent to climbing Everest.

(Photo compliments of Windell H. Oskay, www.evilmadscientist.com)