Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ART CLASS — I don't know where I got this idea, but when I was a kid I thought the true sign of intelligence was solving a Rubik's cube. I had one and struggled like crazy to solve it, but I never even got close.
Then when I was about 20, a friend of mine filled me in that solving the puzzle is a series of patterns and he taught me how to do it. Once I learned I couldn't stop. I was always playing with one. Whenever I saw one I felt I had to go out of my way to solve it.
My 20th year passed, as did 21, and for some reason I stopped playing with a cube. Maybe it's because I realized learning a pattern isn't a sign of high intelligence, nor did it have the power with the ladies in college I hoped it would. Neither did my magic or my knowledge of movies, for that matter.
I haven since forgotten how to solve the Rubik's cube. But despite what most of the girls I asked out in college would say, I still think it's pretty cool. That's one reason I love this video.
Alex Ivanchak is a Rubik's cube champion; and he doesn't just solve them quickly, he makes art out of them. Yes, art. He creates pop culture portraits of celebrities like Will Smith, Tom Holland and this one of Leonardo DiCaprio.
This portrait took 400 Rubik's cubes and many hours to accomplish. Even though the video allows you to watch how he does it, it still seems impossible when you see the finished project.
Maybe if I did this I would have dated more in college.
The other amazing this is that one cube costs $9 on Amazon. That means this portrait costs around $3,600. Now I know why I have no art in my home — I can't afford it.
Well, enjoy the video and check out some of Ivanchak's other projects on his Instagram page.
