Artist creates world’s biggest Lite-Brite display

A famous painting was re-
created with the toy’s pegs.

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A popular children’s toy inspired one local artist to turn on his own magical shining light, to paraphrase the popular advertising jingle, when he created the “World’s Largest Lite-Brite.”

Mark Beekman, a 26-year-old resident of Charlestown, used more than 125,000 Lite-Brite pegs to re-create a 1:9 scale version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”

Beekman said he got the initial idea for the “World’s Largest Lite-Brite” in January 2006. At first he thought about using Legos, but decided that Lego murals have been done to death, plus the smaller Lite-Brite pegs would allow for greater resolution in the picture.

He played with Lite-Brite toys when he was younger, and decided to relive those days, albeit on a much larger scale. He also wanted to bring a novel approach and a little excitement to his first major artwork.

Making it not boring

“When I was a kid, you couldn’t have paid me to go to an art museum. I thought art was boring,” Beekman said. “With this piece, I wanted to appeal to kids as well as the kid in all of us. I want people to realize that art is whatever they want it to be. It doesn’t have to be boring.”

Hasbro began manufacturing the Lite-Brite toy, which allows artists to create a “glowing picture,” in 1967. Lite-Brites use translucent plastic pegs placed through opaque black paper, creating an image when a light behind the paper is illuminated.

Beekman’s creation is quite a bit more complicated than that. He started by constructing a frame made out of aluminum pipes, which he cut by hand. He chose aluminum, he said, because it’s lightweight but still very strong.

Instead of paper, he used perforated sheet metal as backing, in the largest size he could find, 5 feet wide by 10 feet tall. He bought his initial supply of Lite-Brite pegs direct from Hasbro.

The piece is illuminated by Cee-Lite electroluminescent panels — high-tech flat flexible sheets that light up. He also made and painted the frame by hand, using antiquing effects.

Beekman used computer printouts to help him determine where the different colored plastic pegs should go, except for some freehand in the faces. The pegs are attached to the perforated sheet metal with eight layers of glue.

Buying up supplies

When his supply of white Lite-Brite pegs was exhausted before the project was completed, Beekman had to improvise. He ended up buying out the Lite-Brite toy supplies of all the stores in the area several times over.

Putting the Lite-Brite pegs in was one of the easier parts of creating the piece. Beekman said planning everything out and considering all the different options was quite challenging — that and handcrafting the frame.

“Now I’m an expert in industrial adhesives,” he said.

A perfectionist by nature, Beekman is still putting a few finishing touches on the project. He’s also starting to look into his exhibition options.

Beekman’s piece is about twice the size of the record holder for world’s biggest Lite-Brite. He is getting his creation certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Overall, he’s glad to be wrapping up his ambitious effort and is pleased with how it turned out. Soon he’ll be moving on to something else. He doesn’t know what it will be yet, but chances are it will be considerable.

“I like to think big,” Beekman said. “Go big or go home.”