A 32-foot-tall fiberglass Blue Mustang called “Blucifer” has stood near the Denver International Airport (DIA) for 13 years. Certainly, Blucifer isn’t the image most would picture when one thinks of welcoming travelers. Nevertheless, the strange Mustang with glowing LED eyes has become part of the airport’s now-embraced and bizarre mystique.
Today, the airport sees the Mustang as the “patron saint of the airport” and a “majestic protector,” inspiring fierce loyalty reports Popular Mechanics. However, the sculpture has always inspired conspiracies, one of many at the DIA.
A Vortex of Conspiracy Theories
As you may know, conspirators say the airport is Illuminati and Freemason Headquarters, home to Lizard people and an extensive underground network of tunnels with a UFO hangar.
Inside, Leo Tanguma’s dystopian murals have been seen to contain an apocalyptic pictorial guide about the rise of a New World Order. Today, airport marketing has fun with the rumors, posting an image of Blucifer with glowing red laser eyes on its website.
Although some believe Blucifer might open a portal one day, what’s definite is the DIA has long been a vortex of weirdness for all sorts of strange tales.
The Story of the Blue Mustang
The haunting horse sculpture stands sentinel as a sort of “Frankenstein’s monster” which killed its creator. He’s seen as a fierce protector or a portent of doom, depending on one’s perspective.
According to Westword, New Mexico artist Luis Jiménez was first commissioned to create the sculpture for $300,000 in 1992. However, the artist’s work fell behind schedule by twelve years, and the city sued. In 2006, Jiménez, then 65, bled to death when a piece of the sculpture fell from a hoist. The piece, some have said, was the horse’s torso or head, pinned him to a support beam, severing an artery in his leg.
Luis Jiménez’s Life’s Work
According to Jiménez’s friend and colleague Dale Kronkright, the artist once said, “You know, this work is going to kill me” by phone. “And that was just this, at the time, humorous comment about how exhausting it was trying to figure out the engineering,” Kronkright said.
After his tragic death, his family and studio staff finished the sculpture, the largest work the artist had ever attempted. Finally, in 2008, it stood at the airport’s south lawn, 13 years after the airport opened. By then, the price had reportedly doubled to $650,000, paid for by airport funds.
“It was his life’s work,” said the artist’s Susan Jiménez. “He was a mature artist at that point. He got the commission in 92. And it was years of living with this sculpture.”
Thus, the imposing horse stands like a final tribute and flashback in time to a moment in the artist’s life.
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See more about Blucifer from Denver7:
Night Encounter with Black Jack the Blue Appaloosa
According to Susan Jiménez, her husband once had a hair-raising experience with a blue Appaloosa named Black Jack. It was this experience that inspired the giant sculpture.
One night, the artist heard a noise in the living room. After investigating, he saw glowing eyes, which he thought at first to be an invader.
“He sees these two eyes,” said Susan. “And he said the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.”
After he felt a nudge, he realized the couple’s horse somehow got into the house.
“And so [do the eyes] have anything to do with that incident and this kind of you’re afraid of something but then it’s OK [because you realize] it is familiar,” she said. “I don’t know. But the eyes do not have any evil intent whatsoever.”
Also, the glowing eyes pay tribute to the artist’s father, who owned a neon shop.
As for the blue color, the artist used many layers of color in a process he had done before. In his sculpture Vaquero (cowboy in Spanish), an anonymous Mexican American cowboy rides a blue steed.
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Blue Mustang Heralds a New Dawn
Over thirteen years later, the Blue Mustang continues to take on new life with many fans and critics. Recently, the Denverite shared the story of Emily Wells, who will forever have Blucifer tattooed on her thigh. The horse springs from a cluster of blue Columbine flowers. (see below)
“Loving Denver, commemorated moving here and the death of my marriage with a Blucifer tatt,” wrote Wells on Reddit.
After a divorce from a man with the last name Jiménez, she moved to Denver, where the horse was familiar to her. She had first seen the Mustang soon after its 2008 debut.
“I thought it was awesome,” Wells said of her first impression. “It’s one of those alluring-yet-scary, beautiful, ‘What the f**k? Why is this here?’ kind of art pieces. I love that kind of art.”
A month later, she got the tattoo to mark a new chapter in her life as she said goodbye to her ex-husband’s name.
“A mustang is a very powerful symbol,” she said. “The statue itself is just so strong-looking and resilient. That’s what I want to move forward with in this transitional phase of my life.”
After showing her tattoo on Reddit, it inspired debate, as good art always does. However, one person commented with optimism:
“When you’re through the fog, it’s glorious! Welcome to blue skies to go with your Blucifer,” they wrote.
And that seems the best way to interpret Luis Jiménez’s now-legendary sculpture – not as an ill omen but as a symbol of defiance and strength at the crossroads.
Featured image: Illuminati symbol by knollzw via Pixabay, Pixabay License with Blue Mustang screenshot via YouTube