The third best day of my life was going into my boss to tell her I'm quitting to go play with Lego.
- Ryan McNaught
RYAN McNaught has built majestic buildings, imposing life-sized statues and sweeping portrait murals portraying the intricacy of people's expressions.
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Whether it's the glean of light falling on someone's face, the cascading colour palates of a flower or the chaos and bustle of a football stadium, McNaught has captured it.
And he has captured it all with Lego.
Yes, you read correctly.
McNaught, 41, who was born and raised in Bendigo, is one of 13 certified "Lego Professionals" in the world.
He and his team of four fill their days building giant creations of out the miniature building bricks adored by children around the world.
Most works are commissioned for special events but he also builds designs for Lego promotions, including the openings of new toy stores.
McNaught's latest venture is a giant, 1.9-metre by 2-metre flower, built for the Ballarat Begonia Festival, taking place next weekend. He has also built fairies, a cockatoo and garden gnome for the occasion, which will be used in a magical treasure hunt at the city's Botanical Gardens.
The festival will allow McNaught to spark children's imaginations and inspire them, his favourite part of the job.
"I know if I put myself in the shoes of an eight-year-old child and think of what it would be like to meet someone who does what I do that would be mind-blowing ... it would be kinda crazy cool!" he says.
We are sitting in McNaught's workshop at the back of his Pascoe Vale house, in Melbourne, where's he's talking us through his Lego journey.
McNaught brims with enthusiasm. He speaks articulately and with ease, conveying his experiences with animation.
The word "crazy", "cool" and "sweet" are frequently peppered into his conversation, delivered with the zest of a primary school teacher.
Lining two walls are stacks of color-coded Lego blocks and a third is a "prototype wall".
"This is where some of the not-so-good creations go, all the bits where we're kind of playing around and testing; this is kind of the 'wall of stuff'," McNaught says.
In the middle of the room is the giant begonia, about half-finished.
Like any significant structure, a lot of research and man hours has gone into its creation.
McNaught and his team spent about 120 hours of time designing and planning before they started building the flower, starting with basic sketches and working up to sophisticated 3D models.
"When you're talking about a model this big and you're talking about hundreds of kilos of Lego there's quite a significant process around engineering, safety certificates and that kind of thing," McNaught says.
"This is a crazy big Lego model."
When completed, it will weigh about 400 kilograms and will have taken 400 hours to complete.
Listening to McNaught talk about his day job is fascinating - the fact there's a job that pays people to tinker with Lego is enthralling. But while one might assume McNaught is simply a big kid who never grew up, he explains that he stumbled into his job by chance.
His journey towards his unique profession began in 2008, when he was on holiday with the US with his wife, Melinda, who was pregnant with the couple's twin boys.
In the US he decided to buy a Lego set for his unborn children, but upon returning to Australia he found himself playing with the set instead.
"I got back to Australia and I don't know what it was ... I just started playing and tinkering with it," he says.
McNaught loved Lego as a child but hadn't touched it since he was 12.
But it didn't take long for his childhood passion to be fully reignited.
Within a few months he made an Airbus A380, a double-decker robotic plane, which he also designed software that allowed children to fly it.
McNaught showcased the plane at a Lego convention in Melbourne and it went viral on the internet.
He was invited to attend a Lego show in Chicago, attended by the world's most zealous Lego fanatics, including managers from Denmark's Lego headquarters.
So impressed were the Lego managers with McNaught's creation, they offered him a job on the spot.
"It was a total accident - I didn't plan it, it was just right place, right time," McNaught says.
Until that day McNaught had been working a "boring, old desk job" in IT.
"The third best day of my life was going into my boss to tell her I'm quitting to go play with Lego," he says.
However, while McNaught's job certainly has a strong dose of fun and creativity, "playing with Lego" isn't all there is to it. To build such grand-scale pieces using only regular bricks available on the shelves requires pattern recognition, a sharp maths brain and problem-solving skills.
It also involves a fair bit of speed and precision, with McNaught placing 350 bricks per minute.
And when he's not building, McNaught is often away from from home, fulfilling his public speaking commitments promoting Lego.
But it's clear McNaught is grateful for his job.
McNaught will have the chance to inspire more children at an exhibition of all his works, behind held at Crown Casino from March 31 until April 12.
As well as displaying McNaught's impressive models there will be a range of hands-on activities for children to participate in, including the chance to build some "super, duper models" with McNaught. "I think there's somewhere between five to six million Lego bricks on display!" he says.
Bendigo children can also help McNaught build a giant model of Sun Loong, when he visits Bendigo Toyworld during March 20 - 22. With his and his wife's parents still living in Bendigo, his family visits the city regularly and he is keen to showcase his talent in his home town.
After all, it was in Bendigo, as a three-year-old that McNaught first discovered Lego, when his grandmother bought him a set for 29 cents. “For some unbeknownst and bizarre reason it all worked out for me from there," he says.
For more information on McNaught's exhibition, visit http://brickmanexperience.com.au/