(Radio Iowa) – A fourth-year dental student at the University of Iowa has carefully crafted a work of mosaic art immortalizing Hawkeye basketball star Caitlin Clark — out of more than 700 Rubik’s Cubes. Like millions of other fans, Sioux City native Brian Dang closely follows the Iowa women’s basketball team. He wanted a new project to sink his teeth into while also spotlighting the accomplished Clark, and anyone who’s seen his finished work agrees, it’s a three-point swoosh.

“I used to be an engineer, so I like all these different kinds of 3-D puzzles and I like to suffer a little bit,” Dang says, laughing. “I like to figure out the hard, difficult things, so I got into Rubik’s Cubes because I was pretty bored at home, my parents don’t have internet or anything, and then I decided I just wanted more of a challenge, like trying to make art out of it.” Dang found a bulk supplier who sold him the necessary 720 “mini” Rubik’s Cubes for around 300-dollars. He’s made a few other smaller pieces of art using the plastic cubes as his medium, but none of them were this big. Dang says the portrait took a lot of planning.

“You want to have nice contrasts and stuff because you only have so many colors you can use with a Rubik’s Cube,” Dang says. “I plan it out on a spreadsheet. It’s takes a bit. And then I kind of pixelate the picture a little bit, because all pictures are just pixels. And then once I have that all planned out, it takes maybe three days, and then I go about solving my Rubik’s Cubes to those different colors.” The work features Clark in a white Iowa jersey, with her right hand to her ear, and it’s remarkably realistic. While the Iowa City campus isn’t gigantic, the 25-year-old Dang says he’s never met Clark, nor has he bumped into her between classes, but he hopes their paths will someday cross.

Brian Dang (UI photo)

“Yeah, no, that’d be awesome. If I could get a picture with her with it, and have her autograph it, that’d be amazing,” Dang says. “But both of us probably have busy times because I’m in the clinic a lot here at the school, and then she’s busy playing in all these games, so it’s really hard to get in contact with each other, or even running into each other.” For now, the piece is on display at the U-I dental building. Dang says if the Hawks win the national championship on Sunday, he may be inspired to create another “cubist” Clark that’s even bigger and better.