It's no longer a functioning truck, but is it art?

CARRBORO -- Vivian Olkin has turned an old pickup truck in her front yard into a flower pot. She has painted it and is calling it art.

But the town -- after receiving complaints from some of Olkin's northern Carrboro neighbors -- has told her it is scrap metal, she said. She has to remove it by Friday, she said.

Olkin, who turns 56 today, says the 1989 Isuzu is just part of her garden.

"To me, it's whimsical, it's funky," said Olkin, who used to run The Inside Scoop ice cream shop in Chapel Hill. "I think it's turning something from its intended use and giving it another life. And it's not going into the trash."

She pointed to a metal sculpture on her front porch by local sculptor Mike Roig, who collects parts from farm equipment, such as tools and tractors.

The truck used to be fire-engine red, but it faded. Now, Olkin has painted over it with blues, greens, reds, yellows and purples. She packed soil into the truck's flatbed, where she is growing a fig tree, hydrangeas and liriopes.

She bought the pickup for $250 off the classifieds Web site Craigslist.org from a guy in Mebane this past spring.

Olkin got the idea from a nursery in Austin, Texas. A painted, pickup truck sat in front and held a couple of plants.

But last month, Olkin said, the town fire marshal came knocking, saying the "abandoned vehicle" had to be moved.

She argued that the truck wasn't abandoned.

Then the town manager said the truck was "scrap metal" and had to go, she said.

Neither the town manager nor the fire marshal could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Olkin said town officials told her they would be lenient with the moving date. She plans on appealing the decision.

"I've put a lot of work into it," she said. "It's me.

"If this were on Weaver Street, nobody would question it. If this were on Main Street, no one would question it," Olkin said. "I look at this out here, and it just looks great to me.

"I love it."