Since I started dabbling with Lego again a couple of years ago, I have been increasingly drawn to the art of the Lego mosaic.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a mosaic is ‘a picture or pattern produced by arranging together small pieces of stone, tile, glass, etc’. Traditionally they are made up of small (regular or irregular) pieces of coloured stone, shards of glass and fragments of ceramics, but Lego plates, studs and tiles would seem to be equally well suited to the task.
@johnbtoys (one of the undoubted masters of the craft) recently posted this extract from a 1980s Lego instruction manual which included some ideas for simple mosaics:
However, it was the introduction of Lego Dots — with their delightful array of shaped and printed 1×1 tiles — in March 2020, which really breathed life into the genre. The good people at Lego subsequently brought out a range of wall art mosaics, including a version of Andy Warhol’s iconic pop art ‘Marilyn Monroe’ (set no. 31197):
And there are now several extremely talented independent artists working specifically in this field. Special mention must go to @legoitcdad, whose masterful recreation of the US flag (using ostensibly random red, white, and blue pieces) inspired me to design and build my first Lego mosaic:
@brickwyrm is the master of the 6×6 build. For example, she conjured up this gloriously simple Mandalorian helmet design (top left below), which inspired my own version (bottom left). However, she is also capable of producing the most amazing pieces on a rather more epic scale, like the one on the right below, which is entirely made up of repetitions of the smaller helmet design:
Many of the leading proponents of the art of the Lego mosaic have come together to form an incredibly supportive network of like-minded souls —posting new creations on Instagram every week using the hashtag #mosaicsonmonday:
(From top left to bottom right: the peerless @johnbtoys, @virginia_bricks, @stayhomeandlego and @lego_goblin).
But my all time favourite Lego mosaic is this piece by @mbrick_art:
(I particularly like the use of the classic moonscape base plate in the top left hand corner!). This is an example of a technique known as ‘greebling’. Greebling is defined as ‘cosmetic detailing added to the surface of a larger object’ to make it appear more realistic, complex or technologically advanced (https://wwww.
Quite gloriously, the term ‘greebling’ has (according to urbandictionary.com) also come to mean committing 100% to being the real you — ‘It means doing the things you enjoy that don’t necessarily benefit you or advance you towards your life goals. It’s a term for those times when you just want to indulge yourself’. Which — sad stories aside— very nicely sums up my relationship with Lego over the past few years . . . .
In designing and building my own Lego mosaics, I have — inevitably — been inspired by some of our favourite books, films and television programmes, my love of music, space and the natural world:
(From top left to bottom right: London (1959) (based on the book ‘This Is London’ by M. Sasek); ‘Bricks and Drums and Rock ‘n’ Roll’ – a selection of Lego record covers on 8×8 plates (The Stone Roses / The Stone Roses; Fatboy Slim / Better Living Through Chemistry; Happy Mondays / Wrote For Luck; Joy Division / Unknown Pleasures; Primal Scream / Screamadelica; New Order / Blue Monday; New Order / Power, Corruption and Lies; New Order / True Faith; New Order / Technique); Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny from South Park; a Bald Eagle).
Primarily for practical and financial reasons, the underlying aim of all my work is to produce something recognisable — and, hopefully, beautiful — using as few bricks as possible. Creating Lego mosaics has proven to be a particularly effective way of approaching this self-imposed challenge:
The mental challenge of producing simple pieces like these is utterly absorbing. It is also incredibly satisfying if and when you do succeed in capturing the essence of a particular creature or character — the unique turn of a bird’s wing, for example, or the idiosyncratic stance and lop-sided grin of a favourite cartoon character — using just a handful of plastic bricks.
Perhaps even more importantly, the building process itself seems to actively promote ‘mindfulness’ and mental well-being. I have found designing and building more abstract and repetitive mosaic pieces to be particularly beneficial from a mental health perspective. There is something uniquely peaceful and calming about working with these mesmerising shapes and colours:
Ultimately, despite — or maybe because of — the limitations of the form, working with mosaics is now far and away my favourite style of Lego building. The possibilities really are endless . . . .
