Castle In The Sky

Purple-loving musician Prince once sang, "This is what it sounds like when doves cry" – but he didn't actually tell us what it sounds like when doves cry. But I did my research, and it's a sort of... hooooAHHH, hoo-hoo!

Now that you've learned a fun new fact about doves, and began to question whether Prince knew what he was talking about at all, let me welcome you to today's beautiful avian build: A White Dove Castle, by Megatorious, aka Victor Krantz, aka someone who knows more than Prince about the Columbidae family. And he'd have to, because A White Dove Castle is a huge, gorgeous piece featuring a bird in flight – but look closer, and you'll see that the bird is also a castle. Actually, the title probably gave that bit away, didn't it? 

Our lovely bird friend is full of little details to appreciate, from the wisteria clinging to vines that delicately drape from below, to the lantern that the bird is clutching in its talons. Though these details raise questions, like "how on earth do they water those wisteria," and "what does a bird need a lantern for," I'm happy to just sit back and enjoy the nice art.

Although A White Dove Castle and many of his other works were solo projects, Mega is also a member of prestigious building team Blockworks, who you may remember from Minecraft's official Ten Year Anniversary Map. As part of the team, Megatorious worked on The Uncensored Library, a digital library that contains works from banned writers, journalists, topics, and even countries. "What really makes me proud... is the way that we managed to utilize Minecraft as a tool to address such an important topic as press censorship," he says.

But Megatorious hopes that he can make a difference in his solo builds, too. "I hope people like it," he says of his White Dove Castle. "My goal is to always evolve and create something better." He stresses that "better doesn’t necessarily mean bigger," though – the dove is by no means his biggest build, but the details and quality are what make it special. "I hope the build can motivate and inspire people," he says. "Hopefully, building something like this doesn’t seem unreachable." 

 
Render by Paul Sireau.