A school project when he was in 5th grade got Wayne Kusy interested in using toothpicks to make art.
Starting Wednesday, Kusy, 44, will be showing his biggest project at Village Hall–a 25-foot sculpture of the Queen Mary that was made from 814,000 toothpicks and took eight years to build.
Working for an insurance company during the day, and playing in an alternative punk band called Heavy Mental at night, Kusy said his hobby sometimes earns him some strange looks.
“People say, `Gee, you’ve got a lot of patience,'” he said.
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Kusy lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood. His Queen Mary is 3 feet wide and 6 feet high. It was built in six pieces so that he can get it out of his dining room.
He has built versions of the Titanic, Lusitania and other ships–but the one going on display in Algonquin is the biggest.
“After this, I’m scaling them down,” he said.