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WATERLOO, Iowa, Sep 22, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A graffiti artist in Waterloo, Iowa, is using 12-ounce cans of spray paint to produce a nearly half-scale replica of the ceiling of Rome's Sistine Chapel.
Paco Rosic and his family have spent their life savings in an effort to fulfill his lifelong obsession to re-create Michelangelo's fresco of the birth of man and early Christian history, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Rosic's family took a second mortgage on their home to purchase a dilapidated building and turn its flat ceiling into one that gently curves.
Lying on industrial scaffolding 12 feet above the floor, Rosic, 27, has spent the past four months producing a smaller, more vibrantly colored work with far fewer details than the Michelangelo's original.
He says he has used more than 2,000 cans of spray paint so far at a cost of about $9,000.
"My friends thought I was crazy. So did my family," says Paco, a Bosnian immigrant. "But this has been something I've wanted to do since I was a child."
To repay loans for the fresco, Rosic's family plans to use the building to house a cafe and jazz club.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
