Not surprisingly, this progressive attitude has attracted a certain demographic. Patrick Amiot, an artist from Montreal, stumbled across Sebastopol 14 years ago while on a road trip with his wife and two daughters. They pulled into town in a motor home to cool off in the community pool — and ended up staying for good.

“Sebastopol is not your typical small town,” Mr. Amiot said. “For me, it’s like an extension of Berkeley.”

A decade ago, Mr. Amiot placed his first sculpture, a 14-foot-tall fisherman made of recycled metal and painted vivid colors by his wife, Brigitte Laurent, in front of his house on Florence Avenue. He awaited an outraged response from his neighbors. It never came; instead, he got compliments. Today, around 200 of Mr. Amiot and Ms. Laurent’s whimsical, cartoonish collaborations are scattered around town; Florence Avenue has become a virtual outdoor gallery of their work — some 20 sculptures that incorporate repurposed commercial material are on view in neighboring yards, including a Batman figure whose torso is made out of an old oil drum, and a mermaid with scales that were once applesauce can lids.

“I didn’t expect to make a living in such a small town,” Mr. Amiot said. “I feel it’s not so much about me and my work, it’s more about this town that has been able to embrace me.” He sat in paint-splattered jeans in his living room, itself a makeshift gallery, with furniture fashioned out of an old bathtub and refrigerator and a giant metal cowboy looming in one corner.