Sistine Chapel ceiling re-emerging -- in Waterloo, Iowa

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Bosnia-born graffiti artist long drawn to Michelangelo

Lying on industrial scaffolding, his legs dangling 13 feet above the ground, graffiti artist Paco Rosic reaches for a can of Leather Brown paint. With a quick, rattling shake, he squeezes the nozzle and adds subtle highlights to the hand of God reaching for Adam.

Paco is using 12-ounce cans of spray paint to fulfill his lifelong obsession: To re-create one of the world's greatest artistic works -- Michelangelo's fresco on the Sistine Chapel ceiling -- in his own street style.

Paco and his family have spent their life savings, and his parents have taken a second mortgage on their home, to buy a dilapidated building in this sleepy Midwestern downtown, about two hours northeast of Des Moines.

They paid $67,000 in January for the two-story, 1870s brick building that once housed an antiques store. The shop's ceiling wasn't curved, so the family hired workers to tear it down and create a plaster one that, at its highest point, is gently arched 14 feet above the ground. Paco ended up with 2,511 square feet of blank space. (The family says it is spending several hundred thousand dollars to turn the rest of the building into a jazz club. A cafe, opening in November, is being built beneath the ceiling.)

Paco has spent the last four months reproducing a nearly half-scale replica of the fresco illustrating the birth of man and early Christian history, including nine scenes from the Book of Genesis and seven Old Testament prophets. When he started, he carried a sketch of the Sistine Chapel ceiling onto the scaffolding. Now, it sits at home; he's memorized the painting.
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Religious groups around the world have e-mailed Paco, asking about his inspiration. Art instructors have pestered him for private tours. And thousands of people have flocked to his Web site, www.paco-rosic.com, where he has posted snapshots of the work in progress. [....snip] San Francisco Chronicle