‘Lint Lady’ Shows That Home Is Where the Art Is

Slater Barron calls herself the “Lint Lady,” even on her license plate.

“The greatest thrill in my life was to get a dryer,” quipped Barron, who has gained some notoriety with her new art form made from lint salvaged from the machine’s lint screen.

“There are people in this world who will never take it seriously,” concedes Barron, who was just named featured artist for the 1988 Orange County Fair, opening July 7.

Barron has received good reviews for her portraits, abstracts and two- and three-dimensional pieces made from lint, and has exhibited at various museums and galleries. She also put on a solo lint art show at Orange Coast College.

Early on, she had a ready supply of lint from her own dryer, considering that she has four children. Her horizons have expanded, however. “I have a wonderful group of lint collectors who bring it to me at parties, mail it or drop it off at my home.”

These days, it’s not unusual, she said, to go to a party and have someone say, “Oh, I brought you this plastic bag of dry lint.”

She said the best way to save the multicolored lint is to lay it flat between two sheets of paper. “Lint comes in wonderful colors now that everyone is wearing (colorful) sweats,” she noted.

For the Orange County Fair she will exhibit a number of miniature art pieces and a Valentine’s Day dinner featuring two life-size lovers. The dinner scene will cover an area 6 feet by 5 feet.

She also has a life-size setting of a ladies’ luncheon with a table and six chairs. The entire table is covered with food made from colored lint. The works are held together by thread, glue or acrylics.

“I took (lint art) seriously from the start,” said Barron, a Long Beach resident who has a master’s degree in fine arts from Cal State Long Beach and teaches interior design at UC Irvine Extension and Brooks College in Long Beach.

It’s starting to catch on, she said. “I’ve already done a number of commissioned pieces of portraits and sculptures.”

Barron has just completed a portrait of her mother and father, who both are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. “The many hours it took me was very good,” she said. “It gave me time to think of how much love I was given by them.”

Although lint may be soft and fragile, Barron said her work is not. “I do things that . . . show the harsh realities of life,” such as the suffering her parents have endured, she said.

But many of her other sculptures of animals, humans and dinner place settings show the softness of her work.

“Life is not all tragedy,” she said.

The “Whiskerino” in San Juan Capistrano started in 1937. And just like the swallows, it returns each year.

This year, a dozen hardy souls competed, which meant they couldn’t shave for three months.

Five female judges surveyed the men lined up on stage at the San Juan Saloon and picked four winners.

Dennis Klonowski was named Hairiest Man; Jerry Slowinski Best Groomed, Gary Lauer Best Existing Beard, and Jay Neitzke the Grubbiest.

Immediately after the contest, Neitzke shaved.

For some, this may not be a pleasant item. It’s about cockroaches, dead ones.

“It’s just a lot of fun,” said Tom Anderson of Huntington Beach, customer service manager for Western Exterminator Co. in Irvine, which is sponsoring a contest to find the longest roach in California. Anderson said some of the creatures reach 2 1/2 inches in length.

The regional winner will get $500 and compete for the nationwide prize of $1,000 and a trip to the Smithsonian Institution.

Entries can be left at any Western office, he said, preferably in a jar to avoid a recurrence of last year’s messiness.

“Some people mailed in their entries, and the Post Office canceling machine smeared some of the promising entries,” warned Anderson, who said the deadline is May 20. Technical assistance in the judging will be from a roach expert from UC Riverside.

The winner will be the longest dead cockroach, measured from the head to the end of the body. Feelers don’t count, he said.