A rat at the wheel of a hot rod, a tea-sipping Mad Hatter, a sea captain and Batman – this list may sound like the roster of an elaborate costume party, but these are actually some of the roughly two dozen sculptures displayed on the yards of Florence Avenue in Sebastopol.
The sculptures are the work of local artist, and Florence Avenue resident, Patrick Amiot and his wife Brigitte Laurent, who moved to Sebastopol in the late 1990s from Quebec.
“In my desire to make large pieces, space became an issue; my back yard can only hold so much,” Amiot said, explaining his art’s migration to his neighbors’ front yards. “I put a piece in my front yard in 2001. After 9/11, I created a New York firefighter sculpture. My neighbor, a firefighter, offered to display it in his front yard.
“At that time, two crazy people displaying art can be a coincidence,” he said. “When another one signed on, it’s no longer a coincidence; three made it a neighborhood. It’s been a phenomenon of people being skeptical and moving to acceptance.”
Florence Avenue is a serene three-block stretch just west of Main Street in Sebastopol. Quiet and peaceful, it could be a neighborhood transplanted from just about any small town in America. However, that is where the similarities end. Bursting from the landscape are Amiot’s sculptures, ranging from the modestly-sized “Rat Rod” to the towering Zucchini Brothers – three jugglers standing on each other’s shoulders – a block away. Nearly every other lawn boasts a sculpture. Some are subtly mingled with the surroundings while others boldly stand out as the focal point of the property.
“The art has really changed the spirit of Florence Avenue, from a regular small-town neighborhood to ‘that street with all the art,’” Amiot said. “The number of pieces on the street varies, because people drive down and want to buy one. I try not to sell the ones in the neighborhood anymore, because people get attached to them.”
Quite befitting to the environmentally conscious community that he lives in, Amiot’s sculptures are made entirely from reclaimed items, or to put it more succinctly – junk. Tin can lids have been transformed into the scales of a mermaid. Clocks become eyeballs. Chain links and springs serve as pasta on the plate of a hurried waitress. Coffee cans made up the heads of a team of firefighters. Former oil drums are used as bodies. An old wall-heater doubles as a tractor. The imaginative list is seemingly endless, as where most people see trash, Amiot sees possibilities. His vision is as unique as it is inventive, and with the assistance of Laurent, who paints the massive sculptures, he has turned Florence Avenue into a massive gallery in constant flux.
Perhaps the centerpiece of the street is Amiot and Laurent’s home. The yard is a testament to the artists’ prolific nature, and the scenery is constantly changing. Because of the continual shifting of artwork, no two trips to Florence Avenue are ever the same. This is just as well, because a street such as Florence Avenue begs for multiple visits, with each pass more astounding the previous. It is the type of display that whole families can enjoy, either driving through or setting out on foot from downtown. 
“I’m amazed when someone tells me, ‘You know, I didn’t like your stuff at first, but now I want to buy something,” Amiot said. “I’m helping people discover art. People drive by and slow down; always with a smile.”
Every community produces its share of garbage, but it takes a particular genius to transform that refuse into artwork. On Florence Avenue in Sebastopol, that genius is always on display.
Story by Robbin Cadogan, photos by Ed Aiona
