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Metchosin students build portrait of Lester B. Pearson with 1,200 Rubik’s cubes

Leo Yousif, a student at Pearson College in Metchosin, has created a portrait of Canada’s 14th prime minister from 1,200 Rubik’s cubes. Yousif used graphic design technology to convert a photo of Lester B.
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Pearson College student Leo Yousif stands next to his seven-foot-high portrait of Lester B. Pearson.

Leo Yousif, a student at Pearson College in Metchosin, has created a portrait of Canada’s 14th prime minister from 1,200 Rubik’s cubes.

Yousif used graphic design technology to convert a photo of Lester B. Pearson — the college’s namesake — into a pixelated image. Then, 60 classmates helped him manipulate the cubes so colours correspond to the pixelated image.

The artwork was unveiled Thursday in honour of the 50th anniversary of Pearson becoming prime minister in 1963. The piece stands seven feet tall and five feet wide and will be displayed in the Max Bell Hall lobby of Pearson College until late May.

Rubik’s cubes retail for about $10 each, which means the artwork would have cost $12,000.

But the Pearson College artwork was created with cubes on loan from the Rubik’s Cube Mosaic Lending Library.

After the Pearson portrait is dismantled, the cubes will be returned to the library.