Cross & Crescent

For the last 12 years, Ray Sorensen (Iowa State 2001) has created an annual tribute on Memorial Day to honor U.S. servicemen and servicewomen by painting a four-sided mural on a 56 ton, 12-foot tall granite boulder on a highway in Iowa.

Before 1999, this boulder was known as “the graffiti rock,” but after watching the movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” then 19-year-old Sorensen was motivated to paint the rock as he felt patriotism had waned.

“It’s hard to wrap my mind around that a piece of artwork on a rock in the middle of nowhere means so much to some of these guys who got spat on, and told they were baby killers, and things like that…when they were just serving their country and doing their duty, says Sorensen. “So I’m glad to be able to finally give them a welcome home and a thank you.”

Each year, Sorensen paints over the previous year’s mural with white paint and starts with a black canvas. He draws a sketch of his idea on paper and then draws the design by freehand onto the rock. This takes him anywhere from one to three weeks to paint. He gets his ideas from books, movies, previous artwork and images by other artists.

For his 2010 idea: “Well the front side was inspired by a picture I saw in the Des Moines Register,” he says. “We lost a West Pointer from Grimes, Iowa, and it showed his buddies kneeling over his memorial…and a prayer from Eleanor Roosevelt came to mind and that’s how it came about. Each side has its inspiration.”

After he first painted the rock in 1999, he thought that would be then end of his journey. Little did he know the impact he had already had on local veterans.

“I never thought it would keep going,” he says. “That one got graffitted over and the veterans asked ‘Hey, will you do that same thing again for Memorial Day?’ I just took it a step fruther and got more meticulous and more detailed and painted all the way around the rock instead of just the front side. I guess is just snowballed from there.”

In 2003, after five years of painting the rock, he again thought the lifecycle of his project had come to and end.

“I got so many calls from so many different veterans,” he says. “I spent 2 1/1 hours on phone with an American Legion in Colorado and everyone of the members got on the phone and gave me a different reason why I needed to continue doing it. I promised those guys I’d continue doing it as long as I had the support, and as long as I was able.”

Of course, after 9/11 and the advent of email and the internet…his project and popularity has gone global.

“Initially, it was local military, ex-military. and then there was an email forum put together and once it started going around the internet I started to get responses from all over the place…and from non-Americans, too,” he says. “I got emails from Norway and Sweeden, few different European countries…I got a lot of emails from Australia and Canada.

He scratches his head somewhat about why non-Americans would so appreciative of his work.

“I got a letter from a guy in China,” Sorensen says. “He had come over here, started a Chinese restaurant, ran it and then retired and moved back to China. And he wrote me and said me how appreciative he was of American freedoms and the country.”

The Freedom Rock Tour

Sorensen is asked by military all around the United States to come visit them and to paint murals.

“One of the more recent ones, I went the U.S.S. Iowa,” he says. “All of the members meet. I went and spoke to them and hung out for the day. I’ve been out to California twice to Sacramento and San Diego to paint murals….wherever it takes me. I’ve done personal painting for people all over the country…and letting my artwork lead the way.”

One of his dreams is to find a large sponsor who would underwrite the cost of Sorensen’s trips to military bases, American Legions, and Veteran of Foreign War posts so he can paint patriotic murals for a minimal cost.

“They can’t afford to have me come out there and I can’t afford it as I’m by no means rich,” he says. “So we’re kind of at a stalemate there — I can’t afford to fly out there for weeks on end and paint these large murals and they can’t afford to pay me but they’d sure love to have me.”

If the right sponsor is found, Sorensen hopes one day he can paint The Freedom Rock at the beginning of each year and then spend the remainder of the year traveling around the country painting patriotic murals and paying tribute to the men and women who served the United States.

Lambda Chi’s Impact

After starting at Des Moines Area Community College, Sorensen transferred to Iowa State University where he majored in art and design. Two of his friends attending Iowa State had decided to join the Alpha-Tau chapter Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity and so Sorensen decided to as well.

With his art skills, he naturally was asked to help design T-shirts posters, banners, and marketing material for the chapter. He enjoyed contributing to the chapter’s success and he found Lambda Chi Alpha to be just the inspiration he needed at the right time.

Without his Lambda Chi experiences, he says: “I never would have gotten out and spoken. I don’t know if I would have allowed my artwork to become this big or to be out in the public like this and be okay with that. I guess my family says I came out of my shell…I don’t know what to pinpoint exactly what I learned…but I learned how to be a man.

One thing he is sure of, Lambda Chi Alpha came along at a pivotal point in Sorensen’s life as a young man.

The Rock’s Future

In 2006, Sorensen was asked to include veteran’s ashes in the paint he used to create the mural that year. This sacred act is something he has continued and he recently discovered how much this has meant to the military veterans.

“Recently, in March or April, a kid came into our studio and he said ‘I just talked to my dad he’s a Vietnam veteran and he’s dying of Agent Orange-caused cancer. I went in and asked him what his dying wish was and he said it was to be on the rock.’ So he dropped off some pictures and I painted him onto the northside of the rock. He came down and saw it and talked with me and literally the next day died. They’ve already contacted me and they’re getting his ashes together and they’re going to come out we’re going to paint his ashes onto the side of the rock as well.”

The impact of this 56 ton, 12-foot tall granite boulder on a highway in Iowa has made Sorenson step back and realize just how much his work means to military veterans.

Sorensen and his wife have started an art studio 12 miles from where the rock sits and his wife does photography and his artwork hangs in the studio. Together, they say they are committed to continuing the tradition of the annual rock painting.

“If we could start our own business and make it work, and make it work in this small community, which we’ve been doing for the past three years, then I would continue doing the rock,” he says. “We kind of joked that it’s going to be unreal if I’m 60 years old and still painting the rock. That’s something we’ve been thinking about. I really want to keep my promise to these veterans, show them that the men and women in the heartland appreciate their service and sacrifice. We’re proud of them…a little something I can do as an artist to say thank you.”