Paintings of Old Glory are ‘thank you card’ to those who served

When Scott LoBaido shakes your hand, he offers his covered with red, white and blue paint.

“It’s dry,” he says in a New York accent as he cracks a smile.

Then after a firm, brief shake, he picks up a roller and goes back to work, which on Monday was painting a huge U.S. flag on the side of American Legion Post 8.

LoBaido, who turned 50 “at 11:30 a.m.” Monday — noting his attention to detail — has been driving cross country in a custom, red-white-and-blue 2008 Chevy Suburban, dubbed “Betsy,” painting the Stars and Stripes on veterans post buildings.

His goal is to paint one in all 50 states to expand on the patriotism of legendary flag maker Betsy Ross, who sewed 13 stars on the flag she presented to Gen. George Washington for the Continental Army in 1776.

To beat the heat of summer, LoBaido has been painting flags on veterans posts in the south during cooler spring weather. He started Feb. 23 during a blizzard in Fayetteville, N.C., then went on to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona and California. He came to Las Vegas from Antioch, Calif., to begin work Sunday at Post 8, near downtown.

For LoBaido, a grateful civilian who never served in the military, his work is a labor of love for the nation’s veterans.

“I just enjoy my freedom. It’s my way of thanking the men and women who made it possible,” he said. “This is my thank-you card.”

A self-proclaimed “artist” since the second grade, when he focused on surreal scenes and horror-show figures, he’s been doing “the flag thing” for 25 years.

“For some reason in the early 1990s, there was this backlash of negativity for the flag,” LoBaido said. “I thought, ‘Wait a minute. I’m going to try and rejuvenate that patriotic love. It will be good for the public to see the flag, not on a pole but one created that’s big and bold.’”

After all, he said, “The flag is a work of art. It represents humanity. People all over the world come here. Our nation is a melting pot.”

And when LoBaido says “big and bold,” he means something on the order of the 3.5-acre “world’s largest version of Old Glory” that he painted on a factory rooftop in Houston.

He said the popularity of his flag painting was beginning to pick up in 2000, but the surge of patriotism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon “opened up the door.”

LoBaido’s tour and supplies are sponsored by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, The Home Depot Foundation, Behr Paint and CitiQuiet Windows. “I don’t make a dime,” he said. Instead, his reward is getting to drive everywhere “soaking in the beauty of America.” He expects to finish his Las Vegas work by Wednesday.

When he’s done with this year’s tour, he will auction off Betsy with the money going to Tunnel to Towers that builds special homes for amputee veterans. For more information go to www.scottlobaido.com.