The last weekend in January, I had the pleasure of meeting new people and watching precious young faces as we all experienced Brick Fest Live 2024. If you’re not familiar, Lego conventions are a thing, a 10,000-square-foot-full-of-plastic-bricks thing. Massive displays and endless creativity were on display for young and old.
What a thrill to show off my own creations. Over the last few years, I have taken the ideas in the Lego Art series to make my own mosaics. Mosaics take the smallest possible piece, a 1×1 round plate, in various colors to make pictures. There are sets featuring Iron Man, Batman, Harry Potter, and a map of the world just to name a few.
When deciding what I wanted to put into a Lego mosaic, I didn’t have to think about it for long. There is an artist named James Hance whose work I love. His work is wide but my favorites are marriages of classic works of art with pop culture references. One that I put into Lego form is a variation of Starry Night by Van Gogh with Batman watching the Bat-signal called, The Dark Starry Knight. This year I premiered another that looks like The Scream by Edvard Munch, only with Beaker from the Muppets thrown in. It’s called The Meep.
My favorite creation to display only uses the Lego sets as a backdrop to the main attraction. Nothing says “Hogue Family” more than Christmas and Lego so we display all of our Winter Village sets with small vignettes to find. In one scene, Imperial Snowtroopers are playing ice hockey against Hoth Rebel Troopers. In another, Han Solo, holding his blaster under the table, is sitting across from Greedo. My favorite this year was all of the Muppets hanging off the Christmas tram, reminding me of the bus for the Happiness Hotel!
All of these little stories were imagined by the Hogues. That’s what makes it so memorable, we come up with the ideas together. We laugh and encourage all the imagination that our kids show. It’s a great time to incorporate PRIDE skills (learn more HERE) during your interactions. Those are the moments that make us a Christmas and Lego family. It brings us together, memories are made, culture is nurtured.
There are many conventions traveling the country right now; Brick Fest, Brick Universe, Brick Convention. Check Facebook and Google for the next one coming to your town. It’s a great chance to spend some time together and see some things that you’ll remember for a long time.