EAST COBB - Other people may consider it junk, but when Kathy Walton of east Cobb sees old file cabinets, lawn mower parts, rusty tricycles and other trash left on driveways for garbage collectors, it's potential art in her eyes.

Walton, 57, creates what she calls "recycled steel sculptures" out of the trash her husband and business partner, Gary Walton, find in driveways, yard sales, behind shopping centers and other places.

"They may be other peoples' junk, but they are my treasures," said Kathy Walton, who formerly worked in retail management and as a florist.

The couple's one-story home has been transformed into something resembling a mini scrap yard over the past seven years, since she became a full-time artist. The backyard contains tons of metal parts organized into sections of old bicycles, bed frames, fence posts and even metal rails from a bowling alley ball return.

The front lawn can be described as an improvised outdoor art gallery that features colorful butterflies made from filing cabinets, a poodle created from an exercise bicycle and brass bed knobs, a large rooster comprised of rakes and railroad parts, and a lizard whose body was once a motorcycle muffler.

Kathy Walton said her art is in part inspired by the critters she became familiar with growing up on her father's pig farm in central Illinois. She and her husband met as children in Bushnell, Ill. She has two grown stepchildren with him.

Kathy Walton estimates that she makes about 500 pieces of artwork per year, including ceramics, at her home studio. Some of her sculptures and ceramics will be for sale at the upcoming First Friday Art Walk in Marietta Square from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday. More than 30 merchants will host other juried artists of varying styles in their shops. Kathy Walton's art will also be sold at the annual Love the Lake Festival in downtown Acworth on Sunday and Monday. Pieces range between $20 and $300.

Even with all the clutter surrounding the house, Kathy Walton said her neighbors have embraced her art career and have even contributed to it.

"I work real hard in trying to camouflage all of this stuff," she said. "I don't want my neighbors to see all of the junk. They enjoy the art, but they don't need to see all the piles of things. But it is funny all the debris that comes my way."

In fact, much of the recycled materials come from people in the neighborhood who've taken an interest in Kathy Walton's work, her husband said.

"We will come home sometimes and there will be a pile of junk on the driveway, where somebody has come by and dropped off - we call them junk fairies," said Gary Walton, 57.

At age 40, Kathy Walton said she and her husband quit their jobs, cut their hair and gave up smoking, all in one weekend, and opened their own construction company. It was while on the job that Kathy Walton said she learned to handle power tools. A metal sculpting class she took after receiving some welding equipment led her to change careers.

"I found my medium," she said. "It was just amazing to find out that I liked the tools and to jump into making it work with the art."

For more information visit www.kathywaltonart.weebly.com.