|
Portraiture of Saddle of Independence Premieres During 45th Anniversary
Stock Show
Rapid City, SD -- As scrapbooks go, it’s nothing fancy. But inside is a
real treasurer; page after page with hundreds of written messages from all over
the world, people from all walks of life, from kids to grandparents to visiting
dignitaries.
All moved by the story of a saddle built to honor the American people and
their President. Was it the mystique of a cowboy’s saddle that drew them by
the thousands to gather around the display at Mount Rushmore; to reach out and
touch the tooled leather engraved in intricate relief of 383 acorns and 431 oak
leaves; or the story it told of hardship and loss?
“Truly touching,” reads one message from New York. “Thank you for
keeping us in your hearts in such a way. Happy Trails...”
Perhaps it’s something inside all of us that connects somewhere in the
recesses of the mind and heart - when we know what it is to remember and be a
part of the cowboy way.
Staff at Mt. Rushmore where the Saddle of Independence was presented to
President George W. Bush and where it remained on display prior to being shipped
to Washington, say they’ve rarely seen visitors respond in such a way where
people so readily connected with and felt a part of a piece of history.
“People gravitated towards it, they spent time with it,” says curator
Bruce Weisman. “We tried to discourage folks from touching the saddle, being
concerned about discoloration or cracked enamel, but after so many times of
saying that, it just became apparent there was a need for people to be able to.”
The story of the Saddle of Independence, commissioned by the Black Hills
Stock Show Foundation and made by Texas saddle maker Benton Moore will continue
as it makes its way to the President’s Library. “Gratitude and respect to
a country that pulled together in a time when it needed to is what that saddle
is built on,” says Foundation President Joe Norman. “Sometimes we hold our
own legacies pretty close to the chest and don’t share them. But we saw so
much of people living the cowboy way in the days after 9/11, how could we not
extend that recognition to them? And our thanks.”
Before the saddle left South Dakota, it became important to preserve its
image - to preserve it as a part of the story that marks its young history. “How
do you capture something like this?”, wondered the Foundation’s community
relations director Diane Norman. “How do you make a saddle come to life in a
picture?”
There was one person who could answer those questions. “Portrait
photography is all about detail - hand painted detail,” explains Dan Smith of
Smith/Jones Portrait Gallery, Rapid City. “The artist’s ‘brush’ and
technology create all the color and depth as if from the painter’s palette. An
image contains subtle lines, shadows, contours. While photography certainly
captures those, it’s the application of portraiture that will breathe life
into a photo still.”
His decision to donate his time and talent was an easy one, he says. “I’m
proud to be part of this - to be part of a timeless message Somewhere, someone
will see this and come to know more about a country that stood together; people
who came together to help one another. And if that’s not the story of the
cowboy, I don’t know what is.”
Mastered onto canvas the portrait of the Saddle of Independence will have its
first public viewing during the 45th Anniversary of the Black Hills Stock Show
& Rodeo. It will become a traveling display throughout the spring and summer
and will eventually be housed with the saddle itself; one more piece to an
American story of courage, faith and hope.
|
