LEGO as ART???

Ever since my oldest son, Aidan, was able to hold a crayon, I have been encouraging him to "create". We would paint and draw, play with play-dough and make crafts, but he never seemed all that interested. His younger brother, Carson, has always been more apt to want to colour, cut paper and glue sparkles onto anything he could reach. So when Carson's teacher mentioned to me that she had noticed lately how creative he had become I was very pleased, but not totally surprised. I thought to myself "I'm glad one of my children inherited my creative gene!!"
When I was young, I was always making something. Crochet, knitting, sewing, drawing and painting were all things I loved to do, but I also spent many, many hours playing LEGO with my younger brother. Aidan is obsessed with LEGO. Tonight, as he and Carson built, I was given the job of hunting down some much needed basic blocks to finish their detailed rebel fort. As I dug through our huge bin of assorted LEGO, I pondered to myself just how much money we had invested in all of those little plastic pieces. I wondered how I could have ever been convinced to buy even MORE LEGO when we were on vacation last week. But as I dug, I listened to Aidan describing to Carson how they would build their creation and I realized that maybe Aidan hadn't missed my creative gene after all, maybe he was just expressing it differently. Aidan's LEGO creations are magnificent and he covets new LEGO sets just like I covet new fabric. He reads and rereads the LEGO magazine just like I read my quilting magazines. He builds, tears down and rebuilds his buildings, spaceships, alien landscapes etc, until they are just right - just like I do with blocks on my design wall. It occurred to me tonight that Aidan's colourful pieces of LEGO are his art supplies and his creations are just as creative as anything made with paper, fabric, paint or thread! I just wish those little blocks didn't hurt so much when you step on them!!