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After building a large mosaic of the New York skyline, I knew that I had the pieces and desire to build another, larger, mosaic of a city in which I used to live: San Francisco.
I did not expect, however, that I would actually build the thing in less than two weeks.
Upon returning from New York, I realized that I had less than a fortnight before Brickfest got underway. I was scheduled to talk at a seminar about "large sculptures and mosaics" but knew that none of my sizable sculptures about my house and studio would survive a 15 hour drive to the convention.
"Well," I thought to myself, "if I actually built the San Francisco mosaic in time, I could box it up compactly and drive it up to Virginia for Brickfest."
I had nothing else to do for two weeks. Dorothy was still sorting vast quantities of bricks, so LEGO-activity was still permeating the house.
What the hell... it's only 110,000 pieces.
So I began.
For the next week and a half I clicked together about 10,000 pieces per day.
The Sunday before Brickfest (to which I was leaving on Thursday) Henry Lim arrived from Los Angeles (he would be trekking to the convention with me). He (gladly?) accepted my request for him to help me assemble the last few plates -- otherwise, he'd be a guest in a house in which the host was doing nothing but click, click, clicking away (had he not accepted, I had a back-up plan because Dorothy had offered to assist once the sorting task was complete, but secretly, I'm sure she was glad Henry and I got it done by ourselves [grin]).
So, anyway, the mosaic did, in fact, get completed. It was packed into two small boxes. The two small boxes were packed into a car along with myself, Henry, and Craigo Lego (who was also attending Brickfest).
On the Saturday of the convention the mosaic was laid out on the floor. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture of it, but considering it was not displayed 'properly' on a wall, and the quarters were rather close (preventing viewing from a distance), I think the pictures on this webpage due the work more justice.
This webpage details the process of actually hanging the mosaic in its current (and, I hope, final) resting place.
This mosaic was done as a personal project, not as a commission, so on the Monday after Brickfest (16 July 2001), Dorothy and I undertook the arduous task of actually getting this thing on a wall.
Three hours into it, Dorothy had to leave (and this was, in fact, the last of her LEGO skills from which I would benefit -- she was leaving for Colorado soon), so I was left to go it alone for what turned into another three hours.
Finally, as the sunset was dipping below the treeline I put the fiftieth baseplate in place.
It was hung.
A few touch-ups needed to be done the following day (additional 'spanning plates' between the baseplates were required, more hangers used around the edges, et cetera), but it was on the wall, and it hadn't fallen on top of me yet.
Here are some picture-links detailing the process:
