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YOAKUM – Debbie Rollins’ philosophy of life and how she feels about painting mirror each other. On Sunday a reception to display some of her works will take place at the Yoakum Heritage Museum.

Rollins, 43, suffers from nephritis that renders one of her kidneys non-functional. Yet she keeps her life and her art in perspective.

“Don’t dwell on what is wrong. Pick the pieces up and make them work for you,” she said. In dealing with her ailment and in her art, Rollins does just that.

She paints on things others have discarded such as saw blades, old barn wood, windmill blades, glass, pots and pans, almost anything that strikes her fancy. Most of her hanging paintings are painted on wood, not canvas.

“I like to recycle. There are so many things that are old that go to waste. People throw them away. I have pots and pans from the Depression. They’d never throw a skillet away; they’d plug it and use it again. I got that attitude that I’ll never throw anything away,” she said.

Rollins, who grew up in Carthage, has been in South Texas about a year. She taught herself to paint about 10 years ago.

“I learn from a lot of books. The librarian and I are on a first-name basis,” she said, adding she’s learned from a lot of artists but steers away from abstract and expressionism. “I like for you to be able to see what I want you to see.”

Rollins works on two or three projects at once and often starts her day at 2:30 a.m. in the pre-dawn quiet.

Job-related stress and her life as a single mom led Rollins to taking up the paintbrush.

“I drove a big catering truck in downtown Houston,” she said. “Needless to say I was on pins and needles all the time. And raising kids in Houston will make anyone gray early.”

Some of her most unique canvasses are emu eggs on handmade barbed-wire stands, which are on display at the museum. She once even painted a live pig.

“I was selling my art at a livestock show and one of the winners came up and asked me to paint her pig before the auction,” she said.

“I painted flowers and vines and things like that with one hand and scratched the sow behind the ears with the other. It was a different experience.”

The exhibit in Yoakum is also different for Rollins. It’s her first show. A reception in her honor is being held Sunday.

“My kids are coming all the way from Carthage,” said the mother of three and grandmother of two.

“My father, who is my biggest fan, is coming from Marble Falls. I am so very, very excited.”