- June 17, 2026
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On Greer Island — better known as Beer Can Island for its history of boaters docking, drinking and leaving cans behind — downed trees lying on the shoreline have become a canvas.
On the northern tip of Longboat Key, the beach that extends west of the Longboat Pass Bridge is strewn with driftwood branches and trunks. Some visitors to the park have left their mark on driftwood with brightly colored paints.
The practice has gotten some pushback, including emails to the mayor, arguments on social media and scratched wood.
Shane Hammond, who recently moved to Sarasota, was on Beer Can Island Tuesday morning filming with his handheld Osmo camera. Hammond said Beer Can Island has become his go-to spot.
“I just moved here about a month ago, and I’m exploring all the beaches,” Hammond said. “All the way from Venice to here. So far, this is my favorite.”
There’s one thing he would change, though.
“I’m a nature guy, and I like to see nature as it was intended without graffiti,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me, but as I’m recording, I wish it wasn’t there.”
The debate around driftwood painting has led to heated discussion online.
A picture of a piece of driftwood painted with a mermaid, a flower and coral posted on the “We Love Longboat Key” Facebook page drew plenty of comments. Some compared the paintings to graffiti seen on the New York subway. Others called the drawings disrespectful or hideous.
Natasha Young, who describes her work as abstract and fluid, usually sticks to a traditional canvas and has not painted anything on the driftwood at Beer Can Island.
But she posted some of the images of the paintings to Facebook and was taken off guard by some of the negative reactions. In a previous job with a tour boat company, Young said those who were dropped off at the island would paint to leave their mark at the beach they vacationed at.
“They love and adore and appreciate the island so much, and I think that you can feel something when you’re there. So they leave a little piece of their vacation or the memory that they have at the island,” Young said. “It’s a really beautiful tradition, and to see the impact that it has on the families doing it, it’s beautiful to watch.”
Young has sold several art pieces to Longboat Key residents and thought the population would be more accepting of public art.
“With Anna Maria and Longboat being such a beautiful place and eclectic, there’s people from all over, different types of people from block to block. You would think with Longboat being one of the arteries at the heart of that, that people in that area would be a little more embracing of that tradition,” Young said. “I feel like if you go to the beach or the island and you feel that it’s beautiful and have that appreciation, I feel like it’s hard to not also appreciate the art there.”
Lynnle Olevnik grew up in the area. She attended Bayshore High School (class of 1988) and has fond memories of Beer Can Island. Now living in Jacksonville, Olevnik was with two childhood friends revisiting a favorite hangout this June. She has mixed opinions on the driftwood paintings. One branch, which had been painted with waving vertical lines of varying shades of brown resembled petrified wood.
“I think that’s beautiful,” Olevnik said. “At first you can’t even tell it’s paint until you really walk up here and observe it. But it looks beautiful because they’re keeping with the natural colors and making it pop a little bit more.”
Brighter colors, though, are a bit more disturbing to the natural beauty of the Beer Can Island peninsula, she said.
“As long as the colors are right, the scheme is right and it stays true to the driftwood, I’m fine with it,” Olevnik said.
On Tuesday, the paintings of the driftwood were there. On Wednesday, the only evidence of the art was a smatter of etchings in the wood. Most of the paint had been scratched off vigorously, leaving only a trace of the pictures that adorned the wood the day before.
Assistant Town Manager Isaac Brownman said the practice of painting on driftwood has been ongoing since before he started with the town in 2017.
“Most of it tends to be quaint, a little bit artistic, but then the next person comes along sees what's been done, somebody else adds to it, then somebody else adds to it,” Brownman said. “And then eventually you have a whole bunch of graffiti and markings and stuff on driftwood, and eventually one or more complaints come in.”
The town’s Public Works Department works with Manatee County, which owns the land, to remove paintings on driftwood.
“It happens periodically and we will let Manatee County know when it is reported to us,” Public Works Director Charlie Mopps said. “They typically respond fairly quickly to grind the paintings off.”
Aimee Johnson, Manatee County’s Beach Parks Manager, said painting on driftwood has been ongoing for decades. County workers will sometimes scratch off the graffiti when they are on the island on routine patrols.
Town Commissioner Sarah Karon, whose district encompasses the northern tip of the Key, including Beer Can Island, said she was not aware of the painting on driftwood, but that she would discourage it.
“Well, I’m sure folks think they’re leaving a nice memory, but to me, I think one of the gifts of having open spaces like Beer Can Island is that the nature is undisturbed by human beings,” Karon said. “Those driftwood pieces are like sculptures in nature, and we don’t need to see them decorated beyond the beauty that they already provide.”
Longboat Key does not have a graffiti or vandalism section in its town code, but Brownman said the police department or code enforcement does have the power to prevent those painting on driftwood, which is in a public space. Section 92.05 of Town Code details prohibited acts in town parks including Beer Can Island. One such restriction is against defacing, damaging or defiling the premises.
