Whatever happened to ... the woman who made art from dryer lint?

Looking for just the right shade of yellow, Robyn Vasile pulled rolls of household dryer lint out of boxes and bags sorted by color. Vasile, an elementary school art teacher since 1980, has been making art from lint for 15 years.

In the past year, the Lint Lady has expanded her operation to the high-ceilinged "Lint Cottage" gallery behind her house.

The converted paint shed includes drawers and an armoire filled with many shades of lint, much of it mailed to her from around the country. The walls display examples of her work, including lint paintings of the hilltop Cavalier Hotel, puppies, sailboats and angels, and still-life depictions of fruit.

Vasile focuses on realistic images, "to make something beautiful, as God does with us."

She's recently branched out into sports motifs, putting the finishing touches on a lint Redskins helmet.

"I try to do something new each year," she said. She's just begun a series of birds perching on the beach along the shore break.

Vasile also has a new lint-friendly companion.

As she sorted samples for a customer, a gray kitten mottled with brown spots hopped up onto the table. "She looks like somebody just pulled her out of the dryer," Vasile said.

Eight-week-old Valintina, or "Miss Lint," is responsible for keeping mice out of the medium.

Vasile's career as the Lint Lady started in 1993. She had gathered some lint to make paper during a brief period teaching middle school art. But she found the lint worked better in layered "paintings."

She sees her work in spiritual terms. She had prayed for a new medium after giving up oils and tempera before her daughters were born. She also sees lint as an analogy to a person who has been cleansed and put through fiery trials.

"Lint is the part that comes out of clothes that God says: 'We want to use that, too,' " Vasile said.

Her message resonates with customers. Her work ranges from $20 for an angel to $3,500 for a painting of Monticello with individual lint bricks.

"She's got an eye for detail," said Derek Clay of Suffolk, who was ordering a custom rendering of his parents' yellow-brick home in Pennsylvania. "I saw her work and was really impressed," he said. "Who would ever think - out of lint?"

Vasile uses lint that comes only from home dryers - not laundromats. She said she prefers the connection with an individual.

Because of progressive hearing loss over the past decade, she'll show her lint art this year with her husband interpreting, she said. She's hoping a cochlear implant will improve her hearing in her right ear.

She'll also continue driving her blue Dodge Ram 1500, on which she advertises her business.

"The Lint Lady," it reads. "Where Household Dryer Lint Becomes Art."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com