VIDEO: Flamingo bike artist aims to spark creativity in others

An eye-catching bike that’s been popping up around downtown Sarasota was borne out of a stage production and a domestic squabble.

The man behind the flamingo bike — a bright pink bike decked out with 26 plastic flamingos — goes by the name Dr. Nik Gapeto. Dr. Nik (née William Pierson) wears many hats: He’s the caretaker at the Florida Studio Theatre, but he’s also an artist, a musician and a puppeteer.

Dr. Nik also loans and decorates bikes; he has 27 bicycles in total. He moves this particular bike throughout the heart of the city, attaching it to different bike stands or street signs each day. The purpose of all of this, he says, is to invoke thought and inspire creativity.

“I want to stress to people you can be creative,” Dr. Nik said. “People laugh — it makes them happy. I dig that.”

Dr. Nik did not set out to make a flamingo bicycle, but circumstances led him down that path. The bike was originally blue when he sold it to the Florida Studio Theatre for a 2007 production of “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.” For the play, the bike was painted pink and thrown across the stage each night.

After the play had concluded its run, Dr. Nik found the bicycle in a dumpster behind the theater. Handy with tools — his dad taught him how to repair a bike when he was 6, after giving him a junkyard bike for his birthday — Dr. Nik fished it out of the trash and repaired it. He left it pink and attached a tin bucket to the front; he used the bike to transport his tools.

Although it was back in action, the bike was still one step away from achieving its final form. Dr. Nik describes himself as a pack rat, a quality that didn’t sit well with his ex-wife. She repeatedly asked him to clean up their yard, littered with assorted items. One day, as a joke, he took a single plastic flamingo out of the grass and placed it on the back of his bicycle.

“She says, ‘What is that?’” Dr. Nik said. “And I said, ‘I started to clean up the yard.’”

The joke may not have gone over well, but it set the wheels in motion for the flamingo bike. One flamingo became five. Flamingos with spinning wings were added. At one point, 43 flamingos called the bike home, though that number was eventually pared down.

Although he occasionally rides it — and took a nasty spill after one of the flamingos got caught in a spoke — Dr. Nik said the bike is now more of an art object, one that’s been well received by those who’ve seen it. He’s gotten requests from storeowners to place the bike in front of their shops, and he sees passersby using it for photo opportunities.

He thinks it’s popular due to its whimsical nature; it’s hard to look at a bright pink flamingo bike and be mad. Beyond that, though, he wants the bike to motivate others to undertake similar artistic endeavors.

“Hopefully, it’s inspiring,” Dr. Nik said. “That’s why I do it — to inspire creativity.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected]