The whimsical, wonderful world of Sean Kenney is proof that child’s play isn’t bound by age.

An award-winning New York artist, Kenney has built extraordinary sculptures from the ordinary Lego bricks favored by children: a monarch butterfly with a 6-foot wingspan, a foot-long mouse about to be pounced on by a snake three times larger, and a 5-foot-long praying mantis on the hunt for insects.

All three belong to a collection of 107 larger-than-life statues inspired by nature that will be appearing at zoos, gardens, museums and arboretums around the world over the next few years in five traveling sets themed Nature Connects. From Friday through July 10, McBryde Garden at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Poipu, Kauai, will be the backdrop for 14 of those creations.

“As the name Nature Connects suggests, the exhibits examine different relationships in nature,” Kenney said. “Like Lego pieces, everything in life is interconnected. Nature is an amazing system of balance and order, whether you’re talking about sun and rain, summer and winter or prey and predator.”

Lego bricks were Kenney’s favorite toy when he was growing up. He remembers building models of all kinds, which got more intricate and elaborate as he got older.

He also exhibited a gift for illustration and was seldom without paper and pencils for doodling.

After graduating from Rutgers University with a degree in computer science, he landed jobs as a cartoonist, graphic artist and website designer. For a decade he worked for various dot-coms, eventually winding up at Lehman Brothers in the early 2000s.

“I wore a suit to my office in a Park Avenue skyscraper,” Kenney said. “The whole time I was there, I couldn’t wait to go home and play with my Lego collection. I would spend hours thinking about my next great creations and building them — sometimes while I was still in my suit!”

One day, realization struck: He wanted to do that full time.

“So I stood up, took off my tie and walked out of my office — just like that, in the middle of the day,” Kenney said. “I’ve never looked back or had any regrets.”

Fast-forward 14 years. Among his clients are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Matthew Broderick, Derek Jeter, Google, Mazda, Microsoft, eBay, Wells Fargo, Samsung and Target.

Every sculpture begins with research, including numerous photos and drawings of the subject. Using those for reference, Kenney sketches ideas on graph paper that he designed in the shapes and sizes of Lego bricks. He and his team then build prototypes using the sketches as guides.

The prototype Kenney likes best becomes the template for a sculpture. One by one, Lego bricks are locked together and affixed to a supporting steel frame with a strong chemical solvent. The finished creation is coated with UV-protectant lacquer to shield it from the sun’s potentially damaging rays.

“Our biggest challenge is making something round and curvy with hard little plastic rectangles,” Kenney said.

“We don’t use custom Lego pieces; everything is exactly what kids can buy at stores. It’s cool that a 2-year-old child and a professional builder can snap two Lego pieces together, and the result is the same. It proves that this medium has more to do with creativity than skill. The key is to keep dreaming, keep building and don’t grow up!”

The sculptures coming to McBryde Garden were created from more than 378,000 Lego bricks. It took 60,549 pieces and 400 hours to construct “Butterfly on Milkweed,” the most intricate sculpture in the set.

Kenney is constantly adding to the Nature Connects collection to keep it fresh. He’s currently working on a 25-square-foot coral reef with seahorses that are 2 feet tall.

“I always love the finished products,” he said. “They’re bright, fun, cartoonish and pique your curiosity. You have to walk up to them for a closer look. And there’s something about art made with Lego pieces that makes you smile.”