Menlo, Iowa – Ray “Bubba” Sorensen wanted to quit years ago, but there he was, turning up again and again at a 56-ton boulder to paint murals of the sacrifices of America’s servicemen and -women.
For nine years, each May he has painted on the boulder, dubbed “Freedom Rock.” It has made him a celebrity in this swath of central Iowa farm country and has become a Memorial Day tradition that draws thousands of people.
“I’m thanking these guys who signed up to do a job no one else wants to do,” said the 27-year-old graphic artist from Ames, Iowa, whose idea began with a spurt of patriotism after watching the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”
The rock is about 40 miles west of Des Moines on an empty stretch of Iowa 25. It takes Sorensen about three weeks to sketch out and paint scenes on the rock. Using floodlights, he sometimes works past midnight.
On a recent morning, Sorensen knelt on gravel, his sweat-shirt hood pulled over his head against a gusting wind. He methodically painted on the rock an image of Marines carrying a stretcher.
Sorensen tipped his brush to passing motorists, but he rarely took his eyes off the painting.
Every year, 54-year-old Marilee Kajewski of northeast Iowa stops to see the rock.
“I think it is an amazing tribute to the armed forces,” said Kajewski, whose father fought in World War II. “It kind of brings home the commitment, the sacrifice that they’ve made to keep the United States free.”
Last year, a group of California veterans riding motorcycles to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., stopped at the mural before its completion. They planned to sprinkle the ashes of deceased friends around the rock, but Sorensen offered to mix the ashes into the paint.
“Eight different Vietnam vets ended up in the paint,” he said. “It kind of made it a living memorial.”
Sorensen sells T-shirts and prints emblazoned with images from the mural, but the money covers little more than the cost of his supplies.
Sorensen emphasizes that his murals are in support of veterans, not blind backing of war.
“I’m not pro-war or pro-anybody’s policy. It’s just one big thank-you card,” he said.
