Art Notes

There are few visions in this country that will stir the patriot’s heart more than a view of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. These stone-faced giants serve as sentinels protecting the cornerstones of American democracy. Freedom, justice, resolve, and innovation are memorialized in these carved countenances as well as in the personal political histories of the men that are portrayed. Conceived by Gutzon Borglum, the monument took 14 years to sculpt and was left unfinished as funding ran out. The four Presidents carved into the hills, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln, were supposed to be realized from their waists to their heads, a goal which will now never be met. I have traveled to this area on several occasions and have always been struck by the sense of “one country” I felt while enjoying those visits. There in the mountains and in the shadows of those grand faces, the gathered community was not Republican or Democrat but rather simply American. I hope you enjoy this painting and feel about it like I do. “The Spirit of Rushmore” is less about this country’s past and more about the American future, one in which we remain one nation indivisible and continue to be a beacon of hope for all the world to see. Thank you for sharing my adventures in art.