By JULIA STEINER
Staff Writer

One man's trash is another man's treasure - make that another woman's treasure, in the case of St. Augustine artist Michelle Robideaux.

The former Nease High School art teacher combs her neighboorhood's back alleys for old, discarded chairs, doors and bed frames, and turns them into works of art.

"The trash bins of America are things to be explored," Robideaux said. "I get inspiration from everything. It's all out there."

Robideaux, who taught at Nease the past 10 years, works with rich, vibrant colors and a lot of texture ("At Nease, they called me the surface queen," she joked).

Oftentimes, images will come to her as she works. "I can see those things everywhere I see objects. When I first put on primer, I see something in the first layer."

"All of us have drawers where we throw things," she added. "We ask ourselves, 'Why haven't I thrown this away?' The answer is sentimental value."

The dragonfly in her acrylic-on-wood painting "Best Friends" came out of such a drawer. The other character, which she thinks if a lamb representing Christ, was part of a bookmark in a book on the Apocalypse.

"I took him randomly because the bookmark happened to be lying around," she said.

While Robideaux mixes a lot of Christianity with her artwork, she does not like to be called a Christian artist.

"It's too limiting," she said. "Our whole life is devotion."

The artist started showing her paintings back in the 1980s. Her work can be seen at One King Street Gallery and Gallery 39.

Robideaux particularly likes to paint screens. To her, they represent a unique medium, both sculptural and architectural.

"When I started (15 years ago), no one was doing them. I can't even tell you where the idea was coming from," she said. A panel of one of her screens is hanging in La Parisienne downtown.

Her latest obsession is bottlecaps off the highways. Robideaux turns them into magnets.

"I just like playing. I'm addicted to it. People are so concerned I'm stuck back here in this room, but I can't imagine not to be doing what I'm doing."

About two years ago, the artist and teacher explained, she became involved in a new project: "The Broken Pot Society" happened more organically, three or four of us getting together making mosaic pots every other Monday night." The meetings later changed to once a month, with an average of 12 different people each time.

The Broken Pot Society is "taking bits and pieces of your past and putting them into focus," according to Robideaux. "We read children stories out loud, sitting on the floor, eating snacks."

At a recent meeting of Broken Pot, Robideaux taught the group how to make paper incorporating rose petals and old notecards. She says she developed her own methods, using a lot of shortcuts. "They are totally unorthodox," she points out. "I wanted to make it friendly."

Robideaux said Broken Pot is not for artists, however. She compares it to quilting.

"I see a similiar need women have to gather together and do something creative," she says. "It's very helpful to the spirit, I think."

"More important than technique is support - people who believe in you. When you come to Broken Pot, you get that feedback," she said.