Pictured: Dr. Nik on a Baltimore Orioles-themed bike that was later stolen.

For the last decade or more, Sarasota’s streets have enjoyed a rather novel and bizarre addition to its public art landscape, a very “Florida” touch from area puppeteer and all-around creative force, Dr. Nik. With an immense and ever-growing collection of ostentatiously decorated and brightly painted bicycles parked across the city, he gave these streets a certain Sarasota character all their own. 

But after 10 years, Dr. Nik is finally paring back. And for one simple reason: unrelenting vandalism.

“I’m just tired of despicable deplorables trashing them,” he says.

At one point, Sarasota enjoyed as many as 44 of these “transportational two-wheeled sculptures,” as the Doctor has dubbed them, positioned around the Sarasota area in parks and outside restaurants and theaters—pretty much anywhere that people might congregate and find some joy in them. And he liked to move them around, keeping the audience guessing where they’d be found next. “It was fun,” he says. “It made people laugh and be happy, and that’s my goal in life.”

To that end, every bike Dr. Nik makes contains, amongst a variety of other decoration, a peace sign, a dove and a flamingo, for a message of peace with some Florida flavor.

And much of the community responded enthusiastically, hopping on for selfies and even flagging Dr. Nik down around town to find out where their favorite bike had been relocated. Some began to donate old bikes to the cause, leaving them outside Dr. Nik’s workshop as an offering to his creative impulses.

Not everyone has responded so civilly or respectfully, however, and it’s gotten to the point that Dr. Nik can’t go around town without seeing two or three of his sculptures violently torn apart each week. They steal the flamingoes. They steal the doves. They steal the seats. “And if they’re really pissed off,” he says, “they take a knife and stab the tires.”

Now, in addition to time spent repairing his sculptures, the endeavor begins costing serious money, and Dr. Nik estimates he’s “easily” sunk a few thousand into the project.

 “It used to be, ‘Oh well, I’ll take it home and fix it,” he says, “but it’s taking up too much of my time.” And for a natural creator who likes to divide that time between puppeteering, building, painting, writing and storytelling, he has plenty of other projects to devote his days to.

Still, Dr. Nik refuses to be bitter or angry about the continued vandalism. It’s not his way. “My whole existence on this planet is to be positive,” he says. “No anger. No hate. I move on. It’s been a good ride.”

For the immediate future, Dr. Nik plans to maintain around 11 of the transportational two-wheeled sculptures in Sarasota, including the most popular—Ring A Bell For Peace, positioned in Five Points Park. Much of the rest are available for sale at Artful Giraffe, where they’re already finding permanent homes with people who will appreciate them instead of abuse them. A select few he plans to take with him on a cross-country trip this August, leaving one in each major city as a means of spreading a message of peace across the nation.

“What could go wrong with that?” he says.

Pictured: Dr. Nik on a Baltimore Orioles-themed bike that was later stolen.