Denver’s Demonic Icon

ou’re on your way to or from Denver International Airport. As you drive along Peña Boulevard, a giant blue, unofficially dubbed “Blucifer,” was unveiled in February 2008—to the horror of many a Denverite. It was commissioned as a work of public art by DIA and was designed by El Paso-born artist Luis Jiménez. The fiberglass mustang stands at 32 feet, weighs an impressive 9,000 pounds, and embodies Jiménez’s affinity for pop art, Mexican and Southwestern culture, and bright colors. In a twist that sounds like the stuff of urban legend (but is actually true), the sinisterlooking horse killed its cre ator when a piece of the sculpture fell onto Jiménez during construction, severing an artery and fatally wounding the artist. The statue was completed by Jiménez’s studio staff and family members. Like an equine version of Frankenstein’s slighted monster, Blucifer now haunts the world in which it was created, forever misunderstood and rejected as an atrocity—or at the very least, to some, a red-eyed eyesore.