LEGO Creatures

SEAN KENNEY DESIGN WWW.SEANKENNEY.COM

ONE BIG FROG: This tree frog sculpture is more than 8.5 feet tall and contains about 47,000 LEGO pieces.

SEAN KENNEY DESIGN WWW.SEANKENNEY.COM

DEFYING GRAVITY: This giant ruby-throated hummingbird appears to hover 8 feet in the air. That’s because this LEGO sculpture was built around a sturdy metal frame.

Artist Sean Kenney has created hundreds of giant, lifelike sculptures of animals, from snow leopards and polar bears to butterflies and bison. The statues aren’t carved from stone or cast out of metal, though. They’re made from tens of thousands of colorful LEGO® bricks. Kenney’s project, called Nature Connects, aims to raise awareness about threatened wildlife and the need to protect endangered species.

Kenney started building LEGO animals in 2011. He can spend weeks or months creating each detailed figure. The most challenging part, says Kenney, is turning hard, rectangular bricks into a sculpture that conveys an animal’s natural movements or facial expressions.

Kenney’s artworks have been displayed across the U.S., from the San Antonio Zoo in Texas to the North Carolina Arboretum. Kenney hopes people who see the sculptures will develop a bond with the animals. “The exhibit is about connections,” says Kenney. “Just as LEGO pieces interconnect, everything in nature is interconnected too.”

DENVER ZOO

BUILDING A BEAR: This massive 125,000-piece sculpture took about four months to assemble. It weighs 625 pounds—heavier than the average female polar bear (550 lb).

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