By Brittany Anas / NewsBreak Denver
(Denver, Colo) If you’re not from here—heck, even if you are—the hulking blue mustang with glowing red eyes that greets passengers as they come and go from Denver International Airport can catch you off guard.
Mustang, more commonly known by locals as Blucifer, is the rearing public art sculpture that has a commanding presence on the windswept knoll between the inbound and outbound lanes of Pena Boulevard.
According to DIA officials, their blue boy, a fierce protector of the airport, is celebrating his 15th birthday this month.
Commissioned as public art, Mustang was installed in 2008 and said to represent the wild spirit of the American West.
But two years prior to its installation, a portion of the sculpture fell on its artist-creator Luis Jiménez, severing an artery in his leg and killing him.
Today, the sculpture, which some say is cursed, has become a central figure of the conspiracy theories that shroud DIA.
Here’s five facts that you might not know about DIA’s Mustang:
- The sculpture is 32 feet tall and weighs 900 pounds
- Mustang is made out of fiberglass, reinforced plastic composite, steel armature, and covered in polyurethane paint.
- Jiménez had an Appaloosa horse named “Blackjack.”
- Some are convinced that the red glow from Blucifer’s eyes are sinister. But, the glowing eyes, according to DIA’s art curators, are actually a tribute to Jiménez’s father, who had a neon shop.
- Prior to his death, Jiménez had finished painting the head of the horse. The final sanding and painting of Mustang was completed posthumously by Jiménez’s studio staff and family, as well as lowrider and racecar painters Richard LaVato and Camillo Nuñez.
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