Brendan Powell Smith

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For other persons named Brendan Smith, see Brendan Smith (disambiguation).
Brendan Powell Smith
Brendan Powell Smith

Brendan Powell Smith (born 7 September 1973) is an American artist, author, and atheist, best known as the creator of The Brick Testament in which he illustrates stories from the Bible by photographing dioramas constructed entirely out of LEGO bricks. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Born in Norwood, Massachusetts, Smith was raised an Episcopalian and attended church regularly with his mother, a Sunday School teacher, until his skepticism led him to become an atheist at the age of 13.

Contents

[edit] Education

Though no longer religious himself, Smith retained a fascination with the dominant religion of his culture, and went on to study Ancient Christianity in college, studying under Paula Fredriksen and Michael Martin, and graduating Boston University in 1995 with a degree in Philosophy & Religion.

While at Boston University, Smith combined his interest in religion and his iconoclastic sense of humor to create the daily comic strip The Second Coming which was published in Boston University's Independent Student Newspaper The Daily Free Press from 1992 to 1995.

[edit] Creations

After graduating college, Smith wrote and starred in the independent action/comedy feature Vendetta: A Christmas Story. Lack of any promotional budget prevented the movie from reaching a wider audience until several years later when the advent of internet movie distribution led to Vendetta becoming a perennial holiday cult favorite.

While Vendetta was still being edited in 1997, Smith moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he created his first website of note, BRAD: the game, a labyrinthine text-based choose-your-own-adventure style game loosely based on Smith's uncle Brad. Though originally intended only for the amusement of family and close friends, the game's bizarre sense of humor and raunchiness made it a popular pastime among college students.

From 1998 to 2001, Smith focused on writing and recording songs from a home studio. His quirky, melodic, intimate and brief lo-fi songs are found on two solo albums, 1998's IDEAS FOR SONGS and 1999's LIFE & DEATH. In 2000 Smith formed the indie pop band The Human Heads with Lila Tene and recorded the 2001 album here come the heads.

Since 1999 Smith has kept his personal website TheReverend.com regularly updated with the latest "news" about his life, some of which is true and some of which seems to be entirely fictional.

[edit] The Brick Testament

Main article: The Brick Testament

In late 2001, Smith began work on what would become his most successful creative project to date, The Brick Testament. The popularity of the Brick Testament website led to a publishing deal with Quirk Books who have released three books in the Brick Testament books series. Smith has indicated that he plans to eventually illustrate the entire Bible in LEGO, and continues to update the Brick Testament website on a regular basis with new material, which has last been updated on March 19th, 2007.[1]

[edit] Publications

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Smith, Brendan Powell
ALTERNATIVE NAMES The Reverend Brendan Powell Smith
SHORT DESCRIPTION website creator
DATE OF BIRTH 7 September 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH Norwood, Massachusetts]
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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