Those close to Christian Bertram know he is good at a lot of stuff, but if the nation winds up finding that out, it will be because of the mad skills he and his wife Amanda have recently displayed in the world of Legos.
“I had a Lego collection from childhood. My parents always bought me sets…. I had a passion for architecture,” said Christian, whose father was a carpenter and whose mother was an oil partner, “so I got a little bit from both ends. They saw I had a passion for it and was pretty good at it.”
Growing up in Mattapoisett, Christian went to college for a year to study architecture but had to come home when his father became ill. His father passed away when Christian was 18 years old, and only recently, he also lost his mother. Along the way, Christian became a certified line-clearance arborist, an independent contractor, and a graphic designer.
“When I met Amanda — we’ve been together 12 years — I had kind of forgotten about (Legos), and my family had it all stashed away,” said Christian. “It was one of those winter activities that we could do in a small apartment. I was really surprised that she liked it so much.”
“It’s a little time consuming, the first time you do a build, the collaboration of everything,” said Amanda. “The small builds take an hour, maybe.”
What really caught Christian off guard was the realization that Amanda is a natural.
“At first, we would just buy each other sets, and there were instructions,” he explained. Amanda wanted to build something on her own and wasn’t very far along when Christian saw that “she knew what she was doing. There are different levels of skill when you look at [city design]. Her first build was very advanced as far as the level of build…. I like to feed her creativity and creative side.”
“That was one of the things that Christian was surprised about is I was like, ‘Let’s keep going,'” said Amanda, who took it upon herself to, shall we say, procure more Legos.
In between yard sale seasons, Amanda scours Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for deals, explaining that “not every single brick is Lego” and that there are Mega Blok and Duplo pieces that are compatible with Legos.
“My mom is also a yard sale lady, so any kind of Lego bins, my mom is super supportive of this, she thinks it’s the coolest thing,” she said. “My mom’s pretty good at picking out good ones. She knows what to get.”
Christian’s mother Christine kept her oil paintings in a fourth-floor space at the Hatch Street Studios in the north end of New Bedford but having fallen ill around the time she moved her work into the studio, she never got to enjoy it.
“I have all her oil paintings on display; I’ve been trying to frame her paintings. She had a massive collection of paintings and art supplies and antiques, everything you could imagine,” said Christian, who realized an opportunity to use the space to display his and Amanda’s works.
The idea to build a city was the product of smaller projects. “We did a few versions, first on one sheet of plywood because we had a lot of separate buildings,” said Christian, who figured why not try to make it all relate, “so when they did Open Studios, we could have something to show off ourselves?”
Showing off was never part of their motivation, but thanks to a post on Reddit, an Instagram account, and a sudden splash of publicity from as far away as WBZ Radio in Boston, the couple is now recognized when they are out to eat.
“It’s been unbelievable. I never expected one small interview to turn into all this,” said Amanda.
“We haven’t really been promoting ourselves,” said Christian. “It’s just something we did.”
Imagine what it will be like if the Bertrams are selected to participate in the second season of Lego Masters, the Fox show based on a British reality-TV competition of the same name in which two-person teams try to outperform one another with an unlimited number of Legos. The Bertrams awaits that news, but received a message from a casting director, then interviewed for the show on a Zoom video call. The show will be recorded this year in Atlanta and aired in 2021.
“Obviously, there are thousands of people…. I like to think we’re good, but there are so many great Lego artists,” said Amanda. “We never considered entering until we got this message.”
If this Lego-loving nation doesn’t get to see Christian’s and Amanda’s city of blocks, South Coast residents have their own opportunity on February 20-21 when the Bertrams will participate in Hatch’s Open Studio from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Their work is located in Studio 405B. Perhaps some viewers of the Bertrams’ art will catch the bug and go build their own Lego city.
“You really can’t get it wrong,” said Amanda, “that’s the best part.”
By Mick Colageo