LEGOS in the garden

Years ago (okay it's been decades) we took a month off and booked round trip tickets to London.  From London we flew to Copenhagen to begin a tour of northern Europe.  At the time it seemed Denmark was all agog for a place called LEGOLAND and I remember wondering how an entire theme park could be based on a plastic brick.  I began to get the idea of just how flexible those blocks could be a few years later when a LEGO store opened in the mall near our home in Virginia and featured awesome constuctions of local landmarks and Star Wars vehicles.  Now there is even a LEGOLAND in California.

Recently I had an opportunity to see what an artist can do with LEGOS during a visit to the San Antonio Botanical Garden's display called Nature Connects: Art With LEGO Bricks featuring 27 sculptures made with almost 500,000 LEGO bricks by artist Sean Kenney.  The LEGO sculptures are built on a structure of steel rods and plates for stability.

The tour begins with an Eastern Swallowtail near the entrance to the gardens


A nice size, it's probably about four feet high or 1.2m.



Hummingbird on a trumpet flower.



The lawnmower was quite realistic and the information sign encourages visitors to consider reducing their lawn.



A rose in the rose garden of course

These Finches feeding looked almost real from a distance.

The objective is to encourage guests to visit the far reaches of the garden and view this dragonfly in the lake.  The Cypress "knees" are so cool.

LEGO sculptures even turned up beside the old log cabin



A gardener uses a LEGO hoe to work his plot

This guy is about eight feet tall if he stood upright.

The most impressive of the LEGO pieces in the garden...

...is this life size bison made of more than 45,000 bricks.

 

The little Hereford calf is so cute



A birdie doing whatever it is they do up there.  In Texas it's usually a dove.



That head!

I took lots of photos of this one and it goes without saying why I liked it so much!



A bit risky sticking my camera through the security wires.

Still stalking that bunny

It was an interesting circuit which took me through the entire gardens including this bee in one of the conservatories which I usually skip because glass houses can be quite hot here most of the year.

The LEGO Lily pads were fascinating

I went up the steps for an overhead shot.

Let's not forget the gift shop where LEGO lamps by the same artist are available.  Sorry about the pork butt.  

The exhibit will be in place until January 4, 2014 so there's plenty of time to check it out.