Owensboro Speedcubing Club President Taylor Latham can solve a standard 3×3 Rubik’s cube in 9.2 seconds. But their club isn’t only competing to see see how quickly they can solve the unique puzzle. They’re also turning those cubes into works of art across town.
The club recently made a 3D version of the Owensboro Times logo. Latham said it was relatively easy to do in comparison to some other mosaics they have done because it’s only two colors, and it took them about an hour and a half to complete.
Prior to making the OT logo, their most recent effort was creating the Gramp’s Coffee and Donuts logo — which took 20 hands and roughly 430 cubes to complete.
“Everybody was completely focused on creating that. It took 1.5 hours, which is the fastest we had ever put one together,” Latham said.
The desire to make mosaics started as a challenge for the members of the club. The trick, Latham said, is only having to solve one side of the cube to be able to make the art.
Latham originally got into speedcubing to test how fast he could solve a cube, and that grew into challenging friends to do the same. The club originally only consisted of Latham, his brother, and two friends.
The four of them were challenging each other to get faster and faster, and at one point they thought it would be good to host a competition to find other speedcubers.
“That had about 10 people. Then we continued to grow the club from there just because we loved it so much and the kids enjoyed it too,” he said.
Now, roughly a year later, Latham said they plan to host another event in April with about 70 participants and more than 100 spectators.
Latham said the thing that keeps him excited about the hobby is the monthly meets with the group, when they just get together, play around with the cubes, and try to get better together.
“I do feel a lot of excitement each month whenever we get to meet up with all the kiddos and mess around with cubes. That makes me really happy and it makes them happy too,” Latham said.
Some of the kids in the club have also worked to form their own group for students at College View Middle School. Latham was a guest speaker at a CVMS club meeting, saying he was excited by what he saw.
“You have all these different people of all ages and speeds who get along very well just for the sake of the cube,” Latham said. “…When I went back to College View, there were two girls in there who were interested in learning how to cube, too. So it’s independent of gender as well. It’s a great sport, and I’m very happy to be a part of it.”
He said while it’s not a sport in the athletic sense, it is in the mental sense as the participants are working constantly and competing.
Latham said they showcase their mosaics on their Facebook page, and often take requests for if any business is interested in the club making their logo. To learn more, visit their Facebook page here.
