The new art installation in the roundabout at UTEP is complete. It's called Cloud and it's ... in keeping with the crap El Paso considers art.

Who makes the decisions about this? It's the City of El Paso Public Art Program Board and they have an additional $863,000 in public investment (Translation: You're paying for this) to spend on 28 more public "art" projects.

That's almost a million dollars in public monies for things that are non-essentials. I think the least we could ask for as tax-payers is art that passes the "not-a-hideous-eyesore" test. Maybe there should be some more people giving input on these projects. I mean, 29 art projects and not one dog playing poker or giant lava lamp? C'mon!

As you can tell by visiting their Facebook page, the Public Art Board doesn't always get what they expected. There's a big gap between "artist's conception" and "actual artist's grotesquerie."

Here's are 5 of the worst:

The Airway at 1-10 Lights

What they say it's supposed to be:

"... Over 2,000 linear feet, creating a gateway to the El Paso International Airport and to Downtown. Inspired by images of flight and movement, the project includes an array of 50'-tall, functional, illuminated wind turbines with customized radial armatures,”

What people say it ACTUALLY looks like:

• "Egg-beaters"
• "Butt plugs"
• "Onions"
• "One of those wire head-scratcher things"

 The Median Artwork on Airway 

What they say it's supposed to be:

"Weathering steel that forms 'A rusted appearance when exposed to the elements.' "

What people say it ACTUALLY looks like

• "A sniper's nest on D-Day on Omaha Beach"
• "A semi-private bathroom for homeless people"
• "Like some scrap metal fell of a truck and nobody bothered to go back and pick it" up.

"CLOUD" at the P-4 Parking Lot at UTEP

What they say it's supposed to be:

"A floating, shimmering cloud. The structure will emerge from a unique, sunken roundabout that also acts as a below-grade pedestrian crossing.  The cloud structures will be formed from thousands of small steel flaps that will move with the breezes."

What people say it ACTUALLY looks like:

• "An 8-bit cloud from Super Mario Brothers"
• "A disco ball after an earthquake."
• "The world's shittiest small town water tower"

"Uplift" at the Country Club Roundabout

What they say it's supposed to be:

"A representation of 600 hundred birds in the powerful moment when birds try to  achieve flight and therefore freedom. This action is symbolic of the changing and diminishing violence facing our binational region"

What people say it ACTUALLY looks like:

• "A dinosaur skeleton put together by a museum employee who's never seen a dinosaur."
• "A bunch of plastic trash got caught in a dust devil."
• "The bones of his victims in Grendel's cave."