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From afar, Legos new set inspired by Claude Monets painting Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies looks like a slightly more vivid version of the original. Step a bit closer, though, and youll find that its intricate brushstrokes are composed of Lego bananas, katana swords, and carrot tops. The new 3,179-piece set was created in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Monets original 1899 artwork, inspired by his idyllic garden in Giverny, is on display. Legos designers spent more than a year working in tandem with the museums curators to faithfully re-create the original paintings iconic Impressionist scene. The set will be available to the public starting on March 4 for $249.99. Over the past few years, as Lego has begun to invest heavily in its sets and products targeted at an adult audience, its designers have had to develop new construction techniques to re-create a wide range of historical artworks. These include sets based on Vincent van Goghs Starry Night and Sunflowers, which use chunky Lego bricks to represent thick layers of paint; a set based on Art Hokusais The Great Wave, which achieves a 3D effect though cleverly layered bricks; and a re-creation of Keith Harings dancing figures, which relies on clear Lego pieces to imitate Harings line work. The new Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies may be their most technically challenging effort yet. [Photo: Lego] How Lego’s designers cleverly mimicked Monet’s style From the beginning, Legos collaboration with The Met was a hands-on process. This piece was chosen through close dialogue between The LEGO Group and The Met, says Stijn Oom, a Lego designer. Together, we identified a fanfavorite artwork that would translate well into an immersive build. Throughout the process, we worked with curators, reviewed color references, and explored how to mirror the paintings layered techniques with LEGO elements. The aim was to let the build itself echo the feeling of creating the original artwork, while giving fans new entry points into Monets world. [Photo: Lego] The process started with Legos design team visiting The Met to see Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies in person. There, they got an up-close look at Monets image of the Japanese-style bridge arching over his backyard pond, rendered in soft hues and small, densely packed brushstrokes. As Ooms team began work on the Lego version, Met staffers also made trips to Legos headquarters in Denmark to review their drafts. In an interview with Artnet, Alison Hokanson, a European paintings curator at The Met, explained that the painting represented a major undertaking for Legos team because of its intricate Impressionist technique, which is difficult to replicate with small Lego pieces. [Photo: Lego] Oom describes the process as both thrilling and challenging. Because Legos color palette was more limited than what Monet could mix on his canvas, Ooms team opted for a brighter palette and blended tones to strike the right color balance. Another key obstacle was accurately recreating the paintings sense of scale and depth. To create the optical illusion of forced perspective, Legos designers carefully layered smaller, darker elements behind the bridge, while positioning larger, brighter elements in front. [Photo: Lego] While experimenting with ways to mimic Monets depictions of light and movement, Ooms team stumbled across several clever uses for some unexpected Lego bricks. The works waterlily pads, for example, are made from a combination of tiles, painters palettes, brushes, and shields, all layered and overlapped to echo the varied thickness and direction of the real paint strokes. The willow tree in the works top left corner uses bars and carrot tops to mimic long, cascading green strokes. And in the vegetation under the bridge, horns, bananas, and katana swords are all carefully placed o guide the eye across the scene. There are plenty of delightful wait, is that . . .? moments built into the model, as we used a diverse array of LEGO elements including many pieces chosen to reflect Monets love of the natural world, Oom says, adding, Those unexpected parts are what make the build so enjoyable. Youre not just recreating a masterpieceyoure discovering it piece by piece.
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As national Democrats search for a unifying theme ahead of the fall’s midterm elections, a California proposal to levy a hefty tax on billionaires is turning some of the party’s leading figures into adversaries just when Democrats can least afford division from within.Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders traveled to Los Angeles on Wednesday to campaign for the tax proposal, which has Silicon Valley in an uproar, with tech titans threatening to leave the state. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is among its outspoken opponents, warning that it could leave government finances in crisis and put the state at a competitive disadvantage nationally.At an evening rally near downtown, Sanders told cheering supporters that the nation has reached a crisis point in which “massive income and wealth inequality” has concentrated power over business, technology, government and the media within the “billionaire class,” while millions of working-class Americans struggle to pay household bills.He said enactment of the proposed tax would show “we are still living in a democratic society where the people have some power.”“Enough is enough,” Sanders said to a pulse of applause. “The billionaire class cannot have it all. This nation belongs to all of us.”The senator, a democratic socialist, is popular in California he won the 2020 Democratic presidential primary in the state in a runaway. He’s been railing for decades against what he characterizes as wealthy elites and the growing gap between rich and poor. Health care union is pushing proposed tax to fund services A large health care union is attempting to place a proposal before voters in November that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires including stocks, art, businesses, collectibles and intellectual property to backfill federal funding cuts to health services for lower-income people that were signed by President Donald Trump last year.Debate on the proposal is unfolding at a time when voters in both parties express unease with economic conditions and what the future will bring in a politically divided nation. Distrust of government and its ability to get things done is widespread.The proposal has created a rift between Newsom and prominent members of his party’s progressive wing, including Sanders, who has said the tax should be a template for other states.“The issues that are really going to be motivating Democrats this year, affordability and the cost of health care and cuts to schools, none of these would be fixed by this proposal. If fact, they would be made worse,” said Brian Brokaw, a longtime Newsom adviser who is leading a political committee opposing the tax. Split among Democrats comes as midterm elections loom Midterm elections typically punish the party in control of the White House, and Democrats are hoping to gain enough U.S. House seats to overturn the chamber’s slim Republican majority. In California, rejiggered House districts approved by voters last year are expected to help the party pick up as many as five additional seats, which would leave Republicans in control of just a handful of districts.“It is always better for a party to have the political debate focused on issues where you are united and the other party is divided,” said Eric Schickler, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. “Having an issue like this where Newsom and Sanders among others are on different sides is not ideal.”With the idea of taxing billionaires popular among many voters “this can be a good way for Democratic candidates to rally that side and break through from the pack,” Schickler added in an email.It’s already trickled into the race for governor and contests down the ballot. Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, both candidates for governor, have warned the tax would erase jobs. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democratic candidate for governor, has said inequality starts at the federal level, where the tax code is riddled with loopholes.Sanders did not mention Newsom in his nearly 30-minute speech but name-checked a handful of billionaires, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as examples of a wealthy elite that in many respects “no longer sees itself as part of American society.” Sanders urges support for billionaires tax Citing protests against federal immigration raids in Minnesota, he urged the crowd to support the tax, saying Californians can show that “when we stand together, we can take on the oligarchs and the billionaires.”Coinciding with the Sanders visit and an upcoming state Democratic convention this weekend, opponents are sending out targeted emails and social media ads intended to sway party insiders.It’s not clear if the proposal will make the ballot supporters must gather more than 870,000 petition signatures to place it before voters.The nascent contest already has drawn out a tangle of competing interests, with millions of dollars flowing into political committees.Newsom has long opposed state-level wealth taxes, believing such levies would be disadvantageous for the world’s fourth-largest economy. At a time when California is strapped for cash and he is considering a 2028 presidential run, he is trying to block the proposal before it reaches the ballot.Analysts say an exodus of billionaires could mean a loss of hundreds of millions of tax dollars for the nation’s most populous state. But supporters say the funding is needed to offset federal cuts that could leave many Californians without vital services. Michael R. Blood, AP Political Writer
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E-Commerce
Baby care brand Frida is facing online backlash after screenshots of sexual innuendos in its marketing materials began circulating on social media. Frida, which describes itself as the brand that gets parents, sells a range of baby care, fertility, and postpartum products through major retailers, including Target. Last week, an X user shared images of several products packaging, writing: sexual jokes to market baby products is actually sick and twisted @fridababy this is absolutely appalling and disgusting. The post has since gained almost five million views on X. Among the examples highlighted is a social media graphic promoting the companys 3-in-1 True Temp thermometer. The image shows the device next to a babys bottom, accompanied by the caption: This is the closest your husbands gonna get to a threesome. sexual jokes to market baby products is actually sick and twisted @fridababy this is absolutely appalling and disgusting pic.twitter.com/cXhiksoaY8— stace (@staystaystace) February 12, 2026 Other screenshots highlighted by critics include phrases such as How about a quickie? printed on a thermometer box. An apparent Instagram post from 2020 that has since resurfaced also features a baby with what seems to be snot on its face. The caption reads: What happens when you pull out too early. @pink3424 What do yall think? #fridababy #marketing #babyproducts White blank page Mumford and sons – m a r e k s Parents and critics online have accused the company of sexualizing children in its marketing choices, with posts on parenting forums calling for boycotts of the companys products. A Change.org petition to hold Frida Baby accountable has more than 4,000 verified signatures at the time of writing. Not everyone agrees with the criticism. IMO, this is akin to Disney putting in jokes that only parents will get, one Reddit user wrote. They know who the decision-makers are. Frida is marketing to the parents. Others argue the tone crosses a clear line. A statement from Frida emailed to multiple publications reads in part: Our products are designed for babies, but our voice has always been written for the adults caring for them. Our intention has consistently been to make awkward and difficult experiences feel lighter, more honest, and less isolating for parents. It continued: That said, humor is personal. Whats funny to one parent can feel like too much to another. Fast Company has reached out to Frida Baby for comment. A scroll through Fridas social media shows the brand has long leaned into a deliberately risqué tone, often relying on double entendres and innuendo to target parents. In April, it teased a new product on Instagram with the line, Take your top off. Its current Show us what your boobs can do campaign aims to destigmatize breastfeeding by spotlighting what it calls milk-making boobs. View this post on Instagram As more brands adopt informal, attention-grabbing voices online, the lesson here is clear: context matters.
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