Pop Art

When Jason Buchman moved into West University Place in 2011 with his two young children, his new home, taken down to the studs, was a blank slate. Truth be told, Jason felt a bit blank as well, he remembers. Newly divorced and in need of a fresh start, Jason found inspiration in an unexpected way: Lego building bricks. What started as a way to bridge some quality recreational time with son Aidan and daughter Sydney, Lego helped turn their home and lives into an exponentially larger world of vibrant, colorful joy.

Although he remembers playing with Lego bricks as a youngster, the now 52-year-old Jason says he was never a fanatic. But as a single dad with a then 7-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter, playing with Lego became a connector for them as a family.

“I was comfortable with Lego,” says Jason, noting that the simple act of fashioning the plastic bricks to make objects was restorative. “Lego allows people to create in ways that benefit them. It was therapeutic and relatable and accessible for my kids. It translated into comfort at a time when everyone in my house needed it.” Jason had some Lego kits of Star Wars and Batman that the three of them would tinker with and build together. “I played with Legos as a kid but only with instructions,” says Jason, referring to the Lego kits that have instructional manuals. “When I got into the house, manuals fell by the wayside. I got to do what I wanted to do.” And what he wanted to do, he realized, was to create objects that were dedicated to his family and his new life.    

Jason sits next to the bespoke Lego table for son Max. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

The Lego creations he made became a tangible expression of his love for his children. It started with The Wall. Jason, who is a lawyer, was looking at a stretch of empty wall in Aidan’s bedroom and had an epiphany: he would Lego the entire space. “This was the first project I did when I moved in,” he recalls. “And the joke is always, why did I put Legos all over my son’s walls? Because I could.” Armed with approximately 15,000 single Lego bricks and zero knowledge of how to actually complete the project, there were some trial and errors.

“That first wall took a year to make as I did not know what to do,” he laughs. “I worked in an unventilated closed room and the smell was so bad from the glue, I am sure I killed a few brain cells.” Because he was new to this art medium, he also painstakingly glued each individual brick to the wall, which was time-consuming. Additionally, he was limited by available brick colors. The learning curve, he says, was steep.

Mechanics aside, Jason loved the way the wall looked: floor to ceiling, side to side, he Lego-ed bright stripes inspired by the Houston Astros throwback jerseys – the family are huge Astros fans and count Jose Altuve as their favorite player. Both Aidan and Sydney would help their dad with building the wall. For his part, Aidan, now 19 and a freshman at Bucknell University, says that friends always thought he had the coolest bedroom.

“Legos are something we have been able to bond over for almost 20 years,” says Aidan. “I have built Legos with him my whole life. I always had a designated bucket with pieces so I could build. On the wall, I built things that came off of the sides, like stairs and platforms and it allowed me to build on a different plane.” Sydney says that The Wall was a “demonstration of love for Aidan and the bond they shared over the little bricks. I think Paw found so much joy in it and wanted to share this with all of us, which we would not trade for the world.”

Not long after starting The Wall, Jason and the kids began building tables constructed of Lego pieces. It was another opportunity for the trio to do something together. At first, Jason thought it would be a bespoke business and he did sell a few tables, but ultimately, he pivoted and donated them to charities. It was a fulfilling exercise and so, brick by brick, his life took on a new pattern: pain was eased, happiness was felt.

Wall art with a colorful and positive message. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

About a year after moving in, friends began telling Jason about a mutual friend he needed to ask out on a date. And so he did.

“Our first date was during the time he was making tables and he invited me over for dinner,” recalls Laura Buchman, of their initial meeting in 2012. “After dinner we just sat by the fire, and I helped him make a Lego table. It was one he was donating to a school auction, and I thought it was super. Instantly I saw that it brought him peace and I could tell it was something he loved.” Laura enjoyed helping build the green and black checkerboard patterned table. The success of that first dinner date extended and the pair dated for the next three years. In the meantime, says Jason, “I just started Lego-ing things around the house – a nightstand, a picture frame. I made vases, I made flowers.”

Lego art began to fill the shelves and decorate the walls. Giant Legos spelled out Aidan and Sydney’s names, a life-sized pair of Adidas sneakers looked ready to run, a map of the world was constructed of miniature bricks. And not all are stationary: a massive roller coaster actually loops miniature figures in carts, a typewriter has moveable keys, a piano plays. 

An intricate world map made of Lego. (Photo: hartphoto.com)

So it was no surprise, then, when Jason decided it was time to propose to Laura, he created a special box to hold her diamond ring. “The box took me so long to figure out,” says Jason of the multi-dimensional black and white Lego box with a bow on top. “I wanted to do something that was creative and unique in the sense that I wanted to make something for her.”

For Laura, the box is as prized as the ring. “I married into Lego,” laughs the outgoing and blonde Laura, who is a public relations consultant. “Anytime there has been a milestone or something to celebrate, he has woven Legos in somehow, some way, and it has been a part of our life together.” Their wedding was no exception. For the rehearsal dinner, Jason made a Lego-themed welcome video that mimicked the look of The Lego Movie. He also created a giant wall sign that displays their names together. Even their wedding cake was served with custom Lego-brick chocolate “L’s” and “J’s” on the side. Jason made the letters himself.

“I got two kinds of food grade silicone that I melted and poured over actual Lego pieces and it solidified and made a mold,” says Jason, who gave the molds to a chocolatier who made the orange-and spice-flavored chocolates. As a wedding gift, Laura gave Jason two pairs of cufflinks: one pair with an “S” and an “A” for the kids, another pair of miniature bride and groom Lego figures, the bride, complete with a veil.

Since the 2015 wedding, the love for Lego has grown – as has their family. Their son Max was born in 2017 and his announcement card was created to look as if it were made of Legos.

When Jason decided to propose to Laura, he created a special Lego box to hold her diamond ring.

Call him a Super Fan now. Jason says that as the years have gone by, he has gotten even more enamored of all the endless possibilities of Lego art. He spends time between freeform Lego creations and kits targeted to grownups – known in the Lego industry as AFOLs, Adult Fans Of Lego. “I like the fact that building slows me down and gives me the opportunity to listen to my thoughts or none at all,” says Jason. “I enjoy the quietness and stillness of it all. Legos fit together and are very mathematical, whether it is a set or a freeform, there is a beginning and an end.”

When the pandemic hit and the family was at home all the time, Lego presented another creative outlet. Inspired by a phrase Laura frequently uses, Jason built a sign that reads YOU ARE GOOD on a wall of their garage. The letters are in white and are set against candy-colored vertical stripes. “When I was building it in the garage, I kept the door open and people just walking by would come in and wanted to help. I mean, everyone wanted to help: everyone loves Legos. Anyone young or old, big or small can love to build cars and towers and ships.”

Which is why it is no shock that 5-year-old Max has followed in his father’s footsteps. “The greatest joy I have is to see Max and Jason together and to see them share building together,” says Laura. 

A miniature Lego bride and groom at Laura and Jason’s wedding. (Photo: David Jones)

And so more than a decade after moving into the house, Jason took down The Wall in its original form. After leaving for college last fall, Aidan and Max switched rooms. Max, Jason decided, would get his own Lego Wall – although this time, he used a streamlined process that took three and a half months, and he used better glue. Like his siblings, Max helped Jason work on the wall. Max helped choose the color scheme and he was able to place bricks on the boards that Jason then affixed to the wall – an easier process than gluing directly to the room walls.

Max’s wall has vertical rectangles that stretch from side to side in a kaleidoscope of colors. Every inch of that wall is new, except one small corner still retains the Astros stripes in a nod to Aidan and the original Lego Wall and a house that is shared and loved.

“Paw thinks that we think his Lego craze is weird but we all just watch him build and create all of this stuff in awe,” says Sydney, a junior at Kenyon College. “He is so creative and has ideas for things that we would never think of, which is why his passion is so wonderful. I think this new wall just sums all of that up. Paw has been through a lot in his life, and he deserves the world. At the end of the day the Legos are still toys, but the stuff he creates with them goes far beyond that.”