Welcome to Whimzeyland: Safety Harbor artist turns home into art environment

SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — For a couple in Safety Harbor, home is where the art is.

Welcome to Whimzeyland, the creation of artist and longtime Safety Harbor residents Todd and Kiaralinda.

When they bought their house back in the 80s, it was very traditional until one day, Kiaralinda decided she wanted to paint the front door purple. Todd wasn’t so sure the neighbors would like that, but they did it anyway and their creation grew.

Now the property is full of painted tiles, sculptures, CDs, and glass-bottle trees. However, the most unique piece you’ll find is the more than 800 bowling balls.

"They were at a flea market many, many, many years ago, and a guy had a great big pile of bowling balls with a sign that said, everyone can take two free bowling balls and Todd and Kiaralinda, their philosophy in life, which is a philosophy of our collective now, is to just say yes, because it's way more fun than saying no. So, they each got their two bowling balls, and they decided that that would be a cool way to do all of their landscape edging,” said Autumn Pearson, the director of Safety Harbor Art and Music Center.

Autumn says eventually the community continued to donate bowling balls, and the property used to be known as the “Bowling Ball” house.

Todd and Kiraralinda are also the founders of the Safety Harbor Art and Music Center.

“The Safety Harbor Art and Music Center is a nonprofit. We're going on our ninth year. We really support art in the community and bring all people together to celebrate in creative connection,” said Pearson.

She continued, “We offer 40 national concerts a year, so the musicians that are coming to perform in our intimate listening room environment are national touring artists. Then we also have a huge education program.”

You can learn more about The Safety Harbor Art and Music Center here.