Ever Create a Work of Art on a Safety Pin? Bed Pan? Saw Blade? Tin Can?

Kathleen Miller feels she is giving a colorful new life to old treasures when she paints on wood toilet seat covers, hospital bed pans, safety pins, mail boxes, old refrigerators and out-of-date license plates.

Of course, she also makes a living from it.

“There are some artists who snub me because I’m painting these things,” said the 48-year-old Laguna Beach resident, adding, “I’m just different from a traditional artist, but I am an artist.”

Many of her chosen “canvasses” are found in old mining towns, deserted lumber yards and in the Arizona desert. They include a bathtub, any number of antique doors, old bottles, driftwood, rusty tin cans, logging saw blades and old wooden ironing boards.

Miller readily acknowledges that her artwork may not be for everyone.

“Old-fashioned people appreciate and buy my things,” she said. “It takes a special type of person to see the beauty in my work, and it means a great deal to me when they can.

“When I first started painting as a youngster, I started decorating things around home, on just about anything I could get my hands on.

“I couldn’t afford canvas or frames,” she explained.

That early adventure into art turned into a career after she raised a family and was looking for a way to make a living. “I don’t get rich at this,” Miller said, “but I survive, and I’m happy at what I’m doing.”

Some of her art objects sell for as little as $4, but she said a large round logging saw blade painted with a woodsy scene sold for $1,000. “Most of my work is affordable,” she said.

The hottest items these days are old license plates painted with a scene that depicts the state, Miller said. Old California plates, for instance, usually are painted with some sort of ocean scene.

“I like to paint, and I like to sell what I paint,” said Miller, who travels by motor home or truck to festivals, community fairs and art shows to display and sell her unusual work. Her most recent stint was at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach.

As the daughter of an Oregon lumberjack who also dabbled in oil and water color paintings, Miller has a soft spot for two-handled logging saws, porcelain coffee pots, Log Cabin syrup cans and circular mill saws.

Although her father painted on canvas, Miller said she found happiness painting on a variety of surfaces, even though her artistic work didn’t exactly draw rave reviews from everyone.

“I get along with most people, but there are a few artists out there who think I’m absolutely crazy and wasting my talent painting on junk,” Miller said. “But I know I’m giving life to things from another time.”

That may be why she calls her business “Different Strokes for Different Folks.”

Teacher Mark S. VerSteeg and three fifth-graders from John Eader Elementary School in Huntington Beach recently got an education of another sort.

They were winners on a Sunday morning television quiz show called “Slime Time.” The idea behind it, VerSteeg said, “is for the teacher to get slimed” with cream pies and whipped cream.

“But our team won,” said VerSteeg of San Clemente, “so we slimed the other teacher.”

The team, which included students Buzzy Marcovici, Audrey Kim and Joanna Viserta-Galinis, won $1,000, some roller skates, a mini jukebox, an encyclopedia set and a $1,300 shelving unit for the school.

“It was fun,” said the unslimed VerSteeg. “And it helps if the teacher is a good sport.”

Acknowledgments--Di-Mel Associates, a Fountain Valley designer and maker of binders, was awarded six first-place Golden Ring awards, including best of show, by SCROLL (Sales Consultants and Representatives of Loose Leaf) during the national professional group’s annual meeting in Chicago. Owner Mel Weight of Fountain Valley said 50 companies nationwide competed for the awards.