Jennifer Blauvelt's Posts
Surprising inspiration in S. Dakota
I was required to travel to South Dakota to oversee a photo shoot at a printer customer facility for Kodak's B2B ad campaign. I mentioned this trip to our CMO, Jeff Hayzlett, who is from S. Dakota, and he insisted that I visit Crazy Horse. I, of course, said "sure", not truly knowing a thing about Crazy Horse. I just know that I want to see Mt. Rushmore.
Our travel commences, and we get out to Rapid City and head straight to our sightseeing mission: Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Mt. Rushmore is quite a sight; we take pictures from the every vantage point and angle.
The monument is described as "a memorial to our four greatest presidents - Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt". It is an amazing sculpture indeed.
Then we went to see Crazy Horse. We were blown away!
First of all, the thing is HUGE. Although it is not completed, and will not be completed, likely, for a long, long time, the mountain carving is the world's largest sculpture standing at 563 feet high, 641 long and is three dimensional.
The heads of our four greatest presidents would fit in the hair of Crazy Horse.
Aside from its size, the story of Crazy Horse, and the Ziolkowski family, is amazing and extraordinarily inspirational. Korczak Ziolkowski, a prize winning sculptor, was invited by Lakota Chief Standing Bear, in 1947, to carve a mountain so that "the white man knows that the red man has great heroes, too". Korczak, and eventually his entire family, took on this request and made it their lifework. The sculpture is only the beginning. The Crazy Horse Memorial is a nonprofit education and cultural project created as a tribute to the North American Indians, all tribes. It will include a University, Medical Training Center, Indian Museum and, of course, the amazing sculpture.
In addition to the personal tour we got of the sculpture, we were honored by the company of Ruth (Mrs. Ziolkowski) and two of the daughters, Jadwiga and Monique.
They were the most delightful, selfless, down to earth bunch of people I've ever met. So, thank you Jeff, for insisting I go, I feel like a better human being for it.
For more info on Crazy Horse go to: www.crazyhorse.org
Our travel commences, and we get out to Rapid City and head straight to our sightseeing mission: Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Mt. Rushmore is quite a sight; we take pictures from the every vantage point and angle.
The monument is described as "a memorial to our four greatest presidents - Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt". It is an amazing sculpture indeed.
Then we went to see Crazy Horse. We were blown away!
First of all, the thing is HUGE. Although it is not completed, and will not be completed, likely, for a long, long time, the mountain carving is the world's largest sculpture standing at 563 feet high, 641 long and is three dimensional.
The heads of our four greatest presidents would fit in the hair of Crazy Horse.
Aside from its size, the story of Crazy Horse, and the Ziolkowski family, is amazing and extraordinarily inspirational. Korczak Ziolkowski, a prize winning sculptor, was invited by Lakota Chief Standing Bear, in 1947, to carve a mountain so that "the white man knows that the red man has great heroes, too". Korczak, and eventually his entire family, took on this request and made it their lifework. The sculpture is only the beginning. The Crazy Horse Memorial is a nonprofit education and cultural project created as a tribute to the North American Indians, all tribes. It will include a University, Medical Training Center, Indian Museum and, of course, the amazing sculpture.
In addition to the personal tour we got of the sculpture, we were honored by the company of Ruth (Mrs. Ziolkowski) and two of the daughters, Jadwiga and Monique.
They were the most delightful, selfless, down to earth bunch of people I've ever met. So, thank you Jeff, for insisting I go, I feel like a better human being for it.
For more info on Crazy Horse go to: www.crazyhorse.org
