Big Brick Builds is the product of Jeff Cislini, a LEGO DUPLO artist based in Half Moon Bay, California, where he lives with his wife and two young children.

 

 

Why build?

 

While the urge to create is human, Jeff’s career as a corporate lawyer in the biotech industry leaves little room for artistic expression. Building with DUPLOs allows him to create with something tactile, have fun and involve the whole family as part of the project!

 

Hopefully the surprise of seeing “toddler LEGOs” used in a different way makes people smile.

 

Why DUPLO?

 

As Jeff sat on the floor for countless hours exploring the shapes, colors and textures of DUPLO with his young daughter, he began to create his own builds – first on toddler request (“build me a horse!”) and then ideas of his own.

 

Over time, he began to appreciate DUPLO as a building tool – the slightly rounded edges and open studs on the top of each brick create more texture than regular LEGOs. A sculpture should be more than just an accurate reproduction of an object’s shape – it also needs to capture the essence of the subject. The shapes, colors and whimsy inherent in DUPLO provide great tools to bring “character” to a creation.

 

LEGO is the perfect left brain/right brain medium. To create a new build, there is a constant back-and-forth between the right brain activity of squinting your eyes at the work-in-process to see if the aesthetics are coming together – and then shifting back to the left brain and solving the engineering problem of assessing potential brick shapes and colors and figuring out how to attach them.