Lego mural, anime-inspired iconography feature in weekend exhibit in Eastpointe celebrating Church's first millennial saint
EASTPOINTE — Ever wanted to see a 16,384-piece Lego mural of Blessed Carlo Acutis?
Well, this weekend, you have the chance.
A 40-inch-by-40-inch Lego mural of Blessed — soon to be Saint — Carlo Acutis will be on display as a centerpiece in a Blessed Carlo-themed art exhibit Sept. 5-7 at St. Basil the Great Parish in Eastpointe.
Young St. Basil parishioner Nick Narduzzi, along with the help of a team of volunteers of all ages, have been planning and assembling the giant mural for months, hoping it would be ready by the time Blessed Carlo is canonized on Sept. 7.
“It’s divided into a total of 16 different pieces that take up most of our kitchen table, and it's something we’ve been working on since April,” Nick Narduzzi told Detroit Catholic. “The actual building of the physical structure took months, but even planning it out and coding all the Legos we would need took a year and a half.”
The Lego mural hasn’t been placed in the St. Basil social hall just yet, but a dozen other works of art capturing the essence of Blessed Carlo’s life are already on display.
The exhibit has given artists ranging from those in their youth to some young adults a chance to showcase their creative side in depicting the first millennial saint.
In addition to artwork completed by parish youths and young adults, the project was supported by carpenters and active tradesmen in the parish, who turned visions into realities.
“Most of the kids who did the artwork are in their preteens and teens, who did the sketches that have been turned into digital murals," exhibit organizer Colleen Narduzzi said. “And we have acrylic paintings that are original artworks, inspired by an iconography workshop they went to.”
The free exhibit opens Friday, Sept. 5, following the 8:30 a.m. Mass, open until 7 p.m.; Saturday, Sept. 6, following the 8:30 a.m. Mass, open until 6 p.m.; and Sunday, Sept. 7, after the 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Masses, until 4 p.m.
Visitors will meet the young artists, who will be dressed in Blessed Carlo Acutis-inspired red polo shirts, to explain the details of their artwork.
“It’s so inspiring because they have so many good ideas that they’re following through with and seeing how they are interacting with this saint,” said Christina Harning, a St. Basil parishioner and another organizer of the exhibit. “I love interacting with these kids and their creativity. I’ve gone to St. Basil since I was 5, and to see our parish being revitalized with all these young faces coming here, being excited to show their creativity and love for this saint, it’s really special.”
Lea Baugh of St. Joan of Arc Parish in St. Clair Shores drew a depiction of Blessed Carlo Acutis playing a Pokémon game on his computer.
“I started out with a sketch, and then I inked it digitally and colored it digitally,” Baugh said. “It’s supposed to be Carlo standing in front of the computer, and you see a Pikachu up here with the Eucharist. I did my research and learned he was very into website coding, so I added a C++ book. You see a little bit of HTML on the computer, because I dabble in that.”
Nick Narduzzi, in addition to his giant Lego mural, also digitized some of his drawings. True to Blessed Carlo Acutis’ style, these combine the digital with the divine, as he mixed traditional iconography practices with contemporary Magna-style anime depicting other young saints in the Church.
“They are anime-like canvases of different saints who were children or really young, like St. Tarsus or St. Francisco Marto from Fatima and his sister, Jacinta,” Nick Narduzzi said. “I chose the saints I did because, like Carlo, they were young people dedicated to their faith. It shows that while Carlo is the first modern saint, plenty of young people were saints throughout the Church. I hope it encourages young people to think that achieving sainthood is possible.”
The various artistic renderings allowed the young artist to depict other areas of Carlos’ life. Most people think of Blessed Carlo’s aptitude for computers or his iconic sunglasses, but Gianna Narduzzi chose to focus on his love for animals in her piece.
“Carlo Acutis really liked animals, he had four dogs, two cats and a bunch of goldfish, and he really looked up to St. Francis so much that he asked to be buried in Assisi when he died,” Gianna Narduzzi said. “Because most kids like animals, I think it makes him all the more relatable. So I’m trying to get as many little-known facts about Carlo in the mural as possible.”
Samuel and Lea Baugh, siblings from St. Joan of Arc Parish in St. Clair Shores, chose a different artistic vehicle to show off their creativity, literally.
The two, along with assistance from their father, who is an engineer by trade, turned a quad cycle into a modular van that is assembled from eight different parts.
“It was really just engineering a base and from there putting together different parts of a regular car that we could tear apart and put back together,” Lea Baugh said. “We knew Blessed Carlo liked certain things, particularly being creative. So through some sweat and tears and blood, we got creative.”
“It took a lot of work, and some pieces didn’t come together right at first,” Samuel Baugh added. “But we tried our best and feel like it’s a good representation of Carlo Acutis’ creativity and ingenuity.”
The weekend exhibit is planned to be the first in a series, Christina Harning said, organized by the parish’s Friends of Carlo Acutis group, which encourages young people to get more involved in parish life and share their creativity with the community.
“We’ve been doing market cafés on first Saturdays after our devotions at the parish, and we’re seeking out young people and their gifts and talents,” Harning said. “We’d love to turn this into a program where kids can learn the trades, learn about technology and use it for good, which was what Carlo was all about. It’s that kind of energy which so many people find so attractive.”
