Rushmore
Burning Man 2024 Honoraria Recipient
Here are North America's top animal predators presented in poses similar to the Mount Rushmore carvings of four, famed United States presidents. We have expanded our penny in concrete technique with coin shading, addition of nickels, dimes and concrete colors.
A community project with 8 volunteers and several friends who donated coins so that at least their fingerprint is on the piece. From an upcoming sale we will roll those good intentions back to wildlife conservation efforts.
Rushmore was displayed at Burning Man on the approach to the Man pavilion. This open air gallery brought in over 60,000 people and many we are sure were able to spend time with this piece. The theme of Burning Man 2024 was Curious and Curiouser. Rushmore was a great fit for that theme.
Here is what admirer Kendall Clark of Austin, Texas wrote for us on social media: “I loved this one. This was one of the first pieces I came across during my first solo bike art tour night out. I first saw it from 20-30’ away and thought, awe that’s nice, reminiscent of local mountain town art, warmly lit, a bit understated among the sea of pulsating colors.
As I was admiring it from a far, something tugged at me, beckoning me to go closer, perhaps there was something more for me to discover. And in fact there was!
This experience influenced the rest of my night, reminding me that part of the magic of the art installations at Burning Man is that there is always something more to discover, to interact with. An open invitation to the inner child, ‘ come play!’. Thanks for your contribution and reminder to see with open and curious eyes.”
The most obvious question asked of us at Burning Man was: “How heavy is it?” Just over 2 tons. The other most obvious question is the coin count? We have a total of $5,424.50 in coins on Rushmore and this breaks down to 79,070 pennies, 22,520 nickels and 16,280 dimes.
Many commented that they love the eyes on these animals. They were brought to life by Oakland glass artist Alexander Abajian’s Glow Glass Studio.
This project was made possible through Burning Man Arts’ honoraria program. They helped get us started and guided us to our landing place in the desert. This is our 8th honoraria project with them and we most appreciative of their support. We have great gratitude to our key volunteers Susan Kamman with steady hand for detail and Alex Millican with his tireless work ethic. Many thanks as well to long time volunteer Carol Benson who gives much of her time to Burning Man projects. Thank you as well to Brian Thoms, Sarah Peasley, Jason Decook, Stuart Philkill, Ilyse Opas and Tom Steele for his beautiful signage. We tip to hat to our Ferguson Welding service employees Miguel, Tanner and Anthony for their time on the project.
Not everyone can be available to be on hand with our projects but these folks kindly donated funds in the way of their massive coin jars: John Marx & Nikki Beach, Michelle Stehle & Josh Beisel, Claire Auliffe and the staff of Burning Man’s San Francisco office. We also received kind donations from Skip and Ellen Smith, Mark Barzman, Bob English and Kathy McQueen.
