True Happiness to Her Is a Paint Brush That’s Busy

Judy Trasport, 47, is painting with a happiness brush these days.

That’s because her early-day Fullerton home has been redone in a “riot of colors,” as she puts it, a hot tub has been installed on the back porch just steps away from her in-house studio, her husband of 25 years works across the room, she’s healthy and she’s starting to make money from her watercolor paintings.

Trasport is clearly a role model to other women who went to college, married, raised children and finally got to use skills learned in school.

Trasport got her training in the Cleveland Institute of Art, as did her husband, Tony Trasport, 48.

“I’m never going to fade,” she said. “I’m a survivor, and I’ve finally established my true career,” after raising her two children, working in her husband’s fast-food restaurant and operating her own catering service.

Even though her fortunes have improved, “we keep our life simple,” she said. “We’re not even very materialistic anymore.”

Trasport, a look-alike of Angela Lansbury, recently hit on a fund-raising scheme that gives her a chance to make some money.

She sells her services to organizations, such as school or hospital support groups, to paint watercolors of prominent buildings or even entire towns. The organization then sells limited edition prints from her original painting to collectors, as well as posters to the general public.

“The sponsors pay for my painting through the sale of the limited prints, and then they make money by selling the posters,” she explained.

Her scheme began in 1980 after winning a public-vote artist contest in Fullerton with what she calls “my primitive art.”

“It’s a style I’ve had since my youth, and I’ve never changed and never will,” she said.

She has already made watercolor paintings of Fullerton High School, John F. Kennedy Hospital in Hawthorne, Adat Ari El synagogue in North Hollywood, the entire town of Ligonier, Pa., and Rowland High School in Los Angeles County.

Works in progress include Brea-Olinda High School, the City of Orange and the steel mill town of Aliquippa, Pa., birthplace of Henry Mancini and Chicago Bears football coach Mike Ditka.

Despite a busy schedule, she finds time to tend a rose garden at Fullerton High School for the Future Farmers of America.

“One of these days, I’m going to make a portrait of those flowers . . . and maybe the historic barn there too,” she said.

Joel Rettew of Newport Beach is a pretty competitive guy who just won the seventh annual Robert Guggenheim Backgammon Tournament in Newport Beach. He collected $200.

His final victory in a close match was over Dan Guggenheim, son of the tournament founder.

“I’m looking forward to playing in next year’s tournament,” Rettew said.

That’s if he’s invited.

Can you believe “smokers-only” police cars?

That was the way Anaheim Police Capt. Randall W. Gaston deftly solved the problem of nonsmokers checking out patrol cars that smelled of cigarette smoke.

He designated 13 of the department’s 70 police vehicles as “smoking” patrol cars. The other cars have a “No Smoking” sign in them.

Like restaurants, officers checking out a patrol car are asked by the dispatcher, “smoking or nonsmoking?”

Gaston said it seemed right to have designated smoking cars since business office space in the police buildings is separated into smoking and nonsmoking areas.

“Patrol officers spend eight hours a day in their car,” said Gaston, captain of the patrol division and a nonsmoker, “and the smell of smoke lingers. It’s especially noticeable to people who don’t smoke.”

Only 21 of the department’s 149 officers smoke.

Acknowledgments--Richard J. Montgomery, 12, of Westminster is a die-hard baseball fan who will be in his glory Tuesday night at Anaheim Stadium when the New York Yankees play the California Angels. For winning a Junior Achievement essay contest, Richard will serve as the official batboy.