GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A love of biology, painting and LEGO serves as the inspiration for the ArtPrize entry Pixels of Life.
By day, Aaron Liepman is a biology professor at Eastern Michigan University. By night he's not just playing with LEGO; he's painting them by hand.
In Pixels of Life, Aaron created a seven-foot hummingbird mosaic using 10,000 hand painted LEGO bricks. Outside of black, Aaron starts with all white LEGO and then mixes each color himself. He says there's over 70 different colors — the most he's ever used in a piece.
The hummingbird is set to a 10-foot backdrop of a giant pink cone flower painted in a pixel style by Ann Arbor Visual Artist Katie Hammond. Hammond also runs a communal art studio called Ann Arbor Artist Studios.
Aaron says it took between 100 and 150 hours over the course of six months to complete the hummingbird.
While he painted every single LEGO brick, Katie painted thousands of squares by hand to create the background's pixelated look to match the aesthetic of the LEGO mosaic.
She says this part took about 200 hours.
Aaron says one of the coolest parts about working in mosaic is how details appear, disappear and change as you move from different distances.
He says to make sure you check out Pixels of Life from up close and far away so you can appreciate all the little details.
"I just want everyone to come out and see it," says Katie. "I think it's great for kids and adults. It's a fun theme. It's like science meets art, but it's also animals and it's colorful and, you know, interesting and interactive," she explains.
In 2021, Aaron took this picture in front of Gogh Big, a bottle cap mosaic of Van Gogh's Starry Night.
Pixels of Life is now hanging in the same spot as Gogh Big — a cool full-circle moment.
This is Aaron's third entry in ArtPrize, and Katie's second.
They say be sure to tag them on Instagram when you stop by the piece: @brickmosaics and @katie.a.hammond
You can see Pixels of Life at Brush Studio Downtown Grand Rapids.
ArtPrize runs Thursday, Sept. 14 through Sunday, Oct. 1.
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