Q: How did you start building Lego models of Salem landmarks?

A: The first time I really started getting into the spooky kind of Lego stuff was when I visited Sleepy Hollow a couple of years back with my girlfriend. At the time, I still was only building things casually every now and then, but when I got back from Sleepy Hollow, I had a desire to build something out of Lego that was Sleepy Hollow-related. I built a little Lego Headless Horseman. I did a recreation of the Headless Horseman Bridge, and that was fun. There's an Old Dutch Church that's famous, and I built that. I started building other things from there. That was four years ago. We actually talked about going to Salem that year, but not realizing that if you're going to go to Salem for October, you’ve got to plan long in advance. Before we even went, I had made a MOC of the Witch House.

We actually went to Sleepy Hollow a couple weeks before that, and I brought my Sleepy Hollow Bridge MOC, and I took pictures of it in town alongside some locations. That was fun. Then, my girlfriend was like, "Oh, you’ve got to bring the Witch House MOC to Salem," and I did. We stayed in a hotel in town, in October, and it was crazy. I packed up my Witch House MOC in a box, and we carried it from the hotel. We went very early one morning before the crowds came, and we got some pictures in front of the real building. That was the first Salem building I made.

Then when I got home, I thought, "what other Salem things can I make?" I think I made a Samuel Pickman House next. Then I got the idea, "I want to do the mansion, the Ropes Mansion," not realizing it's a huge building. It was the biggest thing I'd made at the time, and it's still the biggest thing I've ever made out of Lego. I started buying all these Lego pieces online. There's something called BrickLink, which is like a collection of stores from all over the world. They're all independently run stores, Lego fans who have these pieces parted out in their homes or in their businesses. You can search through the stores. Like, say, "I want 300 of this piece in this color." You can see all the stores in the U.S. that have that piece and listed out by price so you can see the cheapest one, and you can just kind of go from there. It was really convenient. I tend to buy from buyers in my area, so I get it fairly quickly. I made all these huge orders, and I started building the mansion. I started building the template for it, figuring out how big it actually should be.

It was taking up half of my kitchen table. I sent a picture to my girlfriend, and she's like, "Dude, that's kind of crazy." I'm like, "You wait. It's going to be my masterpiece."

Q: Do you make any concept sketches or diagrams?

A: Sometimes I will roughly sketch things out, but for the most part, it's all in my head. I know there are Lego programs where you can build something virtually. They have all the pieces, but I've never used that. I like to have the pieces in my hand and physically put things together. Maybe it's old-school, but I like real Lego buildings, doing it physically in your hands. That's how I work. That's how my mind works. The way I design things, it's half in my head and half figuring things out on the fly.

Building a house is one thing because it's square and manmade, which is what Lego is set up to do. Trees are very organic, a lot of curves. Trees are the one of the most challenging things, I find — how can I make my trees look as realistic as possible? The biggest compliment I could get is if someone stands several feet away and they think my Lego things are scale models as opposed to being made out of Lego. That would be the end goal and the greatest achievement, I guess you could say, for building a MOC.

Q: Is this the first time that your Lego art has been displayed?

A: Outside of YouTube and Instagram, it is. Absolutely. It's actually funny. Some of my stuff is going to be displayed somewhere else very soon. I live in New Jersey, and there's a town in New Jersey called Westfield. Westfield, New Jersey is the home of Charles Addams, the guy who created the Addams Family.

Every October, Westfield does something they call AddamsFest, where they not only celebrate Halloween stuff, they celebrate Charles Addams things, the Addams Family, and they do costume masquerade balls and costume contests and all kinds of fun stuff.

This year, his theme is “Be Witched.” One of the Salem things I made that was a recreation of the Pioneer Village houses, like the houses that were in Hocus Pocus. Then I made a little scene. It's not historically accurate, obviously, but it's a little scene of a witch being burned at the stake. She's using her powers and bats to sort of help her escape.

I saw that AddamsFest was doing an art exhibit for witchy‑themed stuff and taking submissions. I thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if I had things in Salem and things over here on display?" They accepted my submissions, so some of my Legos are going to be on display there. It's been a good year. I started my YouTube channel last July. The very first video I did was the Ropes Mansion video. If it could pay for bricks some day, that would be great!

I never would have thought that an actual museum would want to display my Lego stuff. Even if I did think of it as art, I just wouldn't add that. Like, a museum wouldn't be interested in Lego. A museum that has actual priceless historical items!

Q: How did the connection with PEM happen?

A: John Andrews, who works for the Creative Collective, reached out to me because he saw my work posted on Facebook. He said to me, "I have connections at the museum. This might be interesting for display. Would you want me to reach out to them?" He put me in touch with Victor Oliveira, and we set the whole thing up. Yeah, it was amazing. It's great because I went to Salem for the very first time when I brought that Witch House MOC. Then, less than two years later, I came back with all these things to have an official installation. Because in the back of my mind I've always thought, "Wouldn't it be great if these were on display somewhere in Salem where people could actually see them and enjoy them?"

I wouldn't know how to go about doing that. I wouldn't know where to begin with something like that. It was amazing. It's fun. It was really fun. Like, "Wow." Now, it's there in October where tons of people are going to see it. I'm very excited for October because I know all the tons of crowds that come in. I'm excited for all the feedback.

When I originally spoke to Victor, it was just the Ropes Mansion, but I also had the Samuel Pickman House. I realized that it was a really good opportunity. I was like, "I'm going to build more of your buildings to make this a full display because this is an amazing opportunity. I'm going to make this as good as possible." I think it turned out great.