Brickworkz Blog

BrickShow 2008

2008-09-29T19:52:31Z

Loading up the Brickworkz-mobile for Ohio, I finished the design for the LEGO mosaic floor of the Guinness World Record-breaking castle.

BrickFair 2008

2008-08-29T19:05:51Z

I loaded "Soul Searching," "Baby Mia," "Wall-E" and the newest LEGO mosaic "The Paxtons" into the car on Friday morning and headed to Tysons Corner, Virginia for BrickFair 2008. The trip was quiet, so I thought I'd go straight to the LEGO store in Tysons and find out what kind of deals they had during the event weekend. Boy, was that a mistake.]]> the same questions, but that's okay. I must have spoken to 8,000 people, and I was so glad to see so much creativity in one room. The AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO) who were there brought some amazing creations. We call them MOCs in the LEGO realm, which stands for "My Own Creation" - Anyhow, there was some amazing stuff at Brickfair. The video below is 2.5 hours of people coming by my mosaics. Check out the madness! What a great weekend. The Wall-E mosaic design won "Best Mosaic" trophy. Everyone seemed to like how the yellow transparents were shaded because of the gray LEGO plates underneath.

Taking Lego to camp!

2008-08-22T00:29:56Z

Today was a great day at camp! I was invited by Comfort Zone Camp to lead the children in building a Lego mosaic of the CZC logo. More 70 people worked on different parts of the two Lego mosaics that were designed to benefit the children’s organization.

Brickworkz presents at MDA Fundraiser

2008-08-02T23:56:50Z

The 3rd Annual Lego build-off in Danville, Virginia began as a fun and entertaining fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This year, different categories were set up and judges (including yours truly) scored each creation based on a pre-determined criteria. Dozens of vendors donated food and door prizes. The event also had a Lego tower building contest and a drag-racing contest for Lego cars that the kids made before arriving. I spoke briefly about Brickworkz and what we do, inspiring creativity and making children smile. They got to see more recent photos of Lego mosaics we have made at Brickworkz and ask questions. It was a great time once again, and I was happy to help with such a worthy cause. If you have a charity or non-profit that Brickworkz can help promote, please contact us.]]>

All this for a Photoshoot

2008-06-28T00:09:16Z

Richmond Magazine contacted me recently to create a Lego mosaic header for their upcoming summer issue. ]]>

Brickworkz goes to School

2008-05-23T00:19:02Z

I just got back from Highland Springs to show the kids my Lego art. What a blast!

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub!

2008-04-17T00:27:48Z

After my long run this morning, I drove down to 8th & Main to clean the windows of the building displaying my Lego mosaics in downtown Richmond, Virginia. The windows on the bus stop side of the building were getting pretty gross, and I didn’t feel like that was a good way to show off the works! It took about 3 hours to really clean all the glass- more than 13 giant windows, and 4 tall glass doors were Squeegee-cleaned. The place looks great now. I also went inside to drill more anchors for hanging additional mosaics as they get assembled. It’s very possible that my mosaics will sell out by the time the upcoming Lego events are through, but just to be on the safe side, I’d like to keep on building!

Creativity doesn't leave when you graduate.

2008-04-05T18:41:54Z

A few hours after the Monument Avenue 10k in Richmond, Molly and I drove to the South side to present Brickworkz LEGO art to a group of home-schooled children. Contact me if you're interested.]]>

Brickworkz donation landed a $3,100 bid at live auction tonight!

2008-03-30T20:18:37Z

A Brickworkz donation of a custom LEGO mosaic at Comfort Zone Camp's Grief Relief Gala was sold at auction for $3,100 tonight. The proceeds from the auction will directly benefit Comfort Zone Camp, an organization designed as a safe and caring environment for grieving children to have fun and realize that they are not alone in their grief. The 9th annual Grief Relief Gala was a black-tie affair silent and live auction event held at the Science Museum of Virginia to raise funds for Comfort Zone Camp. The item up for bid in the Grief Relief Gala's live auction was a "Custom LEGO mosaic by Brickworkz," sized 30" x 30." Bidding started at $800 and rapidly increased to $1,000 before a bidding war began between two couples in the crowd of several hundred people. The auctioneer announced "Sold!" when the biddings reached $3,100. Emily and Richie Gallimore were the winners of the live auction. "I'm thrilled," said Emily, coincidentally a Comfort Zone employee. "I wasn't expecting to win, so I'm excited." The couple plans to have Brickworkz Lego artist Brian Korte design a portrait of their wedding. "I am so thrilled to raise so much money for Comfort Zone," Brickworkz founder Brian Korte said. Korte, a Comfort Zone Camp volunteer, contributed the mosaic valued at $800 to the Grief Relief auction. "The camp is free to the kids, so fundraising is so important to [Comfort Zone], and I was honored to be a part of it." Total values are not yet in as to the evening's finances, but it is assumed that Comfort Zone benefited significantly from the Richmond community's involvement and participation in the Gala and its auctions. About Brickworkz LLC: Brickworkz began in 2004 to create art and conversation pieces for people from a unique medium- LEGO. Founder Brian Korte has created works for Fortune 500 companies and private clients all over the world, and currently holds the Guinness World Record for designing the world's Largest Lego image. Please visit www.brickworkz.com for more information. About Comfort Zone Camp: Grieving children often become miniature adults before they should have to. Comfort Zone provides a fun and safe healing environment where kids can have fun, be around people who “get it” and get back to being kids again. Please visit www.comfortzonecamp.org for more information.

Almost there...

2007-11-27T21:23:15Z

Old paint is removed, new paint is done, Curtains are ready, lighting is ready, electrical is ready, mosaics are hung. 8th and Main is almost ready to go! With the hanging of "Baby Mia" and "Pooch" today, I can finally see the end of this project! It is tangible and I think I'm going to make it! ;-) The lighting guys came through for me, as did Tom with the tools, so I got a lot accomplished this afternoon down at 8th & Main. I set the timers for 3pm so the windows would light up right about when the sun hides behind all the other buildings. It should look amazing in the evenings. The glass still needs cleaning on the outside, but things are really looking nice!

Painting and Preparations for 8th and Main

2007-10-08T08:17:31Z

What started as chipped paint is really starting to look great! The window sills are now painted black... track lights are in place (not hooked up yet, but close) and the mosaics are resting (not hanging) in the windows. It's starting to look like something! This is good stuff.

We Got the Guinness World Record!

2007-10-01T00:35:05Z

I pulled into town around 4pm and got settled in quickly. Dan had a room filled to the brim with Lego parts. Lego pieces in piles, some sorted by color, some in boxes, some poured out over the tables. It was more Lego than I’ve ever seen in one place. The scale of this project was beyond comprehension. Sure, I didn’t have to build it all, but even designing the thing was tedious. It took more than several hours a day for a month to compile the 525 instructional pages for the mosaic build. In a normal Lego mosaic, you can illustrate flowers by adding a few colored Lego pieces to a field of green. With this project, the flowers were 20 studs tall, and they were meant to just be a background afterthought! It took Dan and his team a long time to build, and for 36 hours, I was in the trenches with them. When the doors opened the next Saturday to all the children, the project really took on a life of its own. To fill the space of the truck’s trailer, the kids got to decorate their own baseplate with the spare Lego parts laying in the many many piles of brick and plate spilled on the floor of the build area. The lighting wasn’t great in the gymnasium, where the Lego mosaic lay, but I captured the weekend’s activities on video, regardless. We took photos along the way and I got some great shots of Dan standing by the project to give a sense of scale to the whole project. Later this week, the mayor of Bellaire, Ohio will come in to officially measure the mosaic and we’ll submit the project to Guinness for our application. ]]>

Records are meant to be broken.

2007-09-25T07:59:48Z

The challenge came in from Ohio. Break the Guinness World Record for the largest LEGO image. Sounded like fun. Over the month of September, I spent several hours a day working on designing a project for Dan Brown at the Toy Museum in Bellaire, Ohio. The mosaic is based on a LEGO 18-wheeler toy, and (as a shocking coincidence) will include a mosaic on the trailer of... you guessed it... LEGO minifigures. For now, Dan has set up a date for the street event later in the month. So if I don't have time to design the LEGO minifigures stuff on the trailer, we can leave it gray or figure something else out, then just go back after we get the record to do the fine-tuning. I've read over the Guinness requirements a few times today and it looks like my design will blow the previous record away by more than just a little. It's A LOT of Lego parts, with lots of potential to keep other competitors away for a while. So this weekend, I'm driving up to Ohio to help build the mosaic. We'll have a bunch of kids there helping to build it which should save a lot of time. I'm planning on a few all-nighters this weekend to get as much done as possible. Here goes!!

Scraping Paint (or: How I use my M.B.A.)

2007-09-12T02:24:20Z

Cleaning out the new storefront on 8th and Main has me wondering one thing... am I going to die of asbestos poisoning? My first day inside the new Brickworkz storefront on 8th and Main in downtown Richmond was breathtaking. Sure, the inside of the building is completely run-down and trashed, but none of that matters. From the street, the only thing visible will be the Brickworkz Lego mosaics, displayed in each of the 11 huge windows. There are four windows on the Main St. side - three are 39" wide by 80" high, and one is 65" wide by 80" high. The other seven windows are all huge, and face 8th street foot and car traffic. Each window has a sill about 2.5 feet, so there is plenty of room for a display. I will throw up a curtain behind each mosaic, preventing anyone from seeing the inside of the building, as it would be quite distracting. Primary goal now is to paint the window sill areas so that everything is neutral. I'm going with black paint to make the most contrast with my Lego art. Step one for that goal involved scraping off the old paint. It took about 5-6 hours to do, but I finally got it all off. I have some very dusty shirts at home now.

Vacant Spaces = Artful Places!

2007-09-02T02:10:35Z

Brickworkz is about to have a new storefront. The best part about it? Well, where do I begin? Some time ago, a Richmonder named Tom Robinson decided it would be a great idea to drive or walk by some of Richmond's more neglected streets and actually ENJOY the scenery. Whether he passed by too many boarded-up storefronts or barred front windows, or just longed for the days when the city of Richmond Virginia thrived, something lit a fire under him. Tom approached the City with an idea: to contact the owners of vacant buildings in Richmond and re-open their storefronts. Not the entire building, not even a few feet beyond the door... just the precious sidewalk-facing windows that in their prime used to be a big part of Richmond's culture. And in those windows, he'd help to bring Richmond's culture back in a major way by having artists display their works in these newly restored windows. Tom got the nod from the City and began to contact the landlords. Months later, he had the keys to more than 65 buildings. I attended one of his meetings (also heavily attended by city leaders, vendors and artists) We learned about the downsides to these areas (heavy graffiti, destruction of property, etc) and then learned about the upsides... Art in these windows restores the culture of Richmond to a place where perhaps it never could have reached before. It brings wonderful exposure to the artists. For the landlords who now have showcased their storefronts, it provides terrific exposure to the buildings. For the city - the real winners - we don't have to look at concert flyers and lost dog posters or bars on windows. Nope- now we get art. and lots of it. I was excited to be approached about this opportunity and am proud to announce my participation in Vacant Spaces, Artful Places. I was handed the keys to an old bank with BEAUTIFUL windows along 8th and Main Streets downtown. I'll post the progress of my plans here on the blog as time goes on. This exposure will be terrific for Brickworkz, and hopefully will get a lot of lunch-hour foot traffic. More to come. Count on it.