Artist's Aluminum-Wrapped House Draws Fire

A Tarpon Springs man’s ambitious outdoor art project might be a masterpiece to him, but neighbors aren’t exactly thrilled with the shiny display.

It seems Polish painter Piotr Janowski, 53, kicked off his first outdoor art project after moving to Florida in December. Janowski and a friend spent four days completely wrapping his rental home with aluminum foil and also did the same to a few palm trees on the Ashland Avenue property, Bay News 9 reported.

While Janowski has managed to create quite a display, it hasn’t been well-received by those who live around him. Someone called his landlord to complain. Tarpon Springs Code Enforcement also received a heads up, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Code enforcement hasn’t been able to determine if Janowski is technically violating city laws as of yet, so the display remains.

“This is art,” Janowski told the Times. “In their thick, bureaucratic books, I’m sure they have nothing against this.”

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Police Sgt. Ed Miller was quoted by the Palm Beach Post as saying an arborist was even called in to inspect the trees, but found the foil posed no danger to them.

Janowski, a graduate of the School of Art Institute of Chicago, told ABC the project has “introduced something uncommon and unexpected into the neighborhood environment, and hopefully offered a new perspective on what had been commonplace.”

Neighbor Peter Dalacos isn’t so sure.

“To me, he’s defacing the property,” he told NBC.

As for his critics, Janowski doesn’t seem to mind.

“Bad or good opinion is always good for an artist,” he told Bay News 9.

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