Home Hunter July 28, 2013

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CYAN-AOOO MAGENTA-OAOO YELLOW-OOAO BLACK 012908

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Home

Hunteris li a:

www.aiksadad.c

Click on Real Estate.


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By AlexA VAughn

The Seattle Times/MCT

SEATTLE After 9/11,Rich Ormbrek bought the

biggest ag he could nd

one about 16 feet wide and nailed it to the eaves ofhis bright orange house inBallard, Wash.

We wanted to let theterrorists know theycant intimidate us, saidOrmbrek, now 70.

But there was a littleproblem with Ormbreksshow of patriotism: Windconstantly blew the agto the ground or swept itatop his home, sometimestearing it. Not evenattaching the bottom of itto 10 strong stakes stabbedinto the lawn worked.

My son got reallytired of getting the ag

off the roof, he said.Daniel Ormbrek one ofOrmbreks four kids isin the Army Reserve nowafter a tour in Afghanistan.Hed come out thiswindow up there to get it,and I got worried he couldeventually get really hurt.

So, in 2002, father andson found a way to displaya ag so that the windwould never knock itdown again: They painteda 20-foot-wide ag ontothe side of their house at

Northwest 73rd St reet and27th Avenue Northwest.

But Ormbreks work onthe ag wasnt done. Sincethen, the ags red andwhite stripes have beenovertaken by dynamic rowsof hand-painted Americana.Each of the ags morethan 300 and counting

interchangeable paintedtiles capture colorfulimages of Americanhistory, landmarks and

pop culture, forming apictu resque mosaic that hasbecome a neighborhoodlandmark.

The ags bright colorsinitially alarmed Ormbreksneighbor across the street.Ormbrek had used hishouse to display various

polit ical messages before,said Kathleen Galloway,who says she could neverquite label him left, right,moderate or libertarian. Shewondered what messagewas coming next.

I thought, Maybe itllfade, and my husband said,No! Hes using specialanti-fade paint! Galloway,57, recalled. But whenhe started putting the

paint ings up I realized thiswas folk art.

Since then, she says, shes

loved it as much as all theother people who drive andwalk by and take pictures.Ormbrek loves watchingneighborhood kids pokearound his yard to get a

closer look at it.Now its not political at

all. Its more about what Ilove about this countr y,Ormbrek said. Were

blessed to have people fromall over the world that makethis country what it is.

Ormbrek ts about 160to 180 of the ber-cementtiles onto his house withscrews, and then switchessome in and out throughoutthe year.

Some depict classiclandmarks like the GoldenGate Bridge, St. Louis Archand Cadillac Ranch. Thereare pop-culture-based onesfeaturing the Wizard of Oz,

The Flintstones and TheSimpsons. Others highlight

Norman Rockwel l-typemoments such as the onesandwiched betweenFourth of July reworksand Frank Lloyd WrightsFallingwater house: arow of little girls in tutusdgeting on a bench.

But one of the rst tilespaint ed for the display, theone with We the Peoplescrolled on it, has stayedin place at the top for morethan 10 years.

Thats the mostimportant one, Ormbreksaid. It kind of set the tonefor the rest of them.

Most of the tiles arepaint ed by MargaretSmart, a foster mother ofOrmbreks late wife. TheCamano Island, Wash.,woman perfected a wayof painting on the cementtiles rst with primer, thenwith acrylics. Ormbrek topsthe tiles off with a layerof spar varnish, a productusually used on boats, thencarefully screws the tilesonto the exterior slats of hishome.

Just lately I told him,that whole ag has to belled up by now, Smartsaid. And he said I know,

my kids yell at me becausethere are tiles all over thehouse, but I like to changethem around. Hes addictedto it.

Ormbrek says it was hiswifes Native Americanfamily who taught himhow to love collaborativeart that celebrates heritage.Since the 1970s, a replica ofa Tlingit-Haida entrywayhe and his wifes familymade together has archedover his front door.

In that same spirit, several

other family members andfriends of all ages havecontributed to the collageon Ormbreks Americanag. One of those tiles isfaded because the son of

a friend forgot the paint-primer step, but it st illearned a spot on the ag.

His isnt up there becauseits the best painti ng. Itsup there because he was a

12-year-old who wanted tobe part of this, Ormbreksaid.

And, this year, Ormbreksays hes extending theinvitation to participate in

the ag to a wider cir cleof people. Hes not big onemail, so anyone who wantsto take part can send him aletter: 2615 N.W. 73rd St.,Seattle, WA 98117.


Siding with the stars and stripes at a home for the brave

Rich Ormbrek turned the outside of his Seattle, Washington,home into a collaborative Americana art project after 9/11.(Bettina Hansen/Seattle Times/MCT)


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Home Hunter July 28, 2013

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