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In the tidy, colorful living room of her house on St. Paul Street in Bellingham, Katy Frank carefully lays out a couple dozen images she’s cut from magazines. Desert landscapes. A zebra. Trees in the throes of autumn. A hand leaving a bloody print on frosted glass.

She steps back and studies, searching for the pieces missing from her half-finished collage. As she works, she explains the mindset behind her choices as an artist.

“A lot of young women look to the fashion world as the authority on beauty,” says Frank, 32. “But you don’t have to change who you are to be beautiful.”

High fashion presents a skewed reality to young women, says Frank, who describes her art as challenging what she views as a vanilla, mono-ethnic fashion world.

“One time at a show I saw a 6-year-old girl looking at my art,” she says. “That’s what it’s all about for me.”

It may be her passion, but art is not Frank’s day job.

Frank works for Academic Custodial Services at Western Washington University, serving on the floor crew from 5 to 8 a.m. and then working with the crew in the libraries and delivering clean uniforms, supply orders and laundry until 1:30 p.m., when she heads home. November brings with it her seven-year anniversary at Western.

“If you told me I was going to be a custodian when I was 15, you could have knocked me over with a feather,” Frank says. “But I’m grateful, because the people here are amazing, and I’ve made so many great friends.”

Western is replete with talent, and it’s not necessarily where it’s expected to be, she says.

“I’m amazed at how talented not only the students and faculty are, but also the staff,” she says. “There are a lot of amazing craftsmen and artisans here. It’s always neat to see people as fully dimensional, well-rounded. People get disrespected sometimes if you just see them as a function.”

At Western, Frank’s function is to clean, and she does it well. She helped out with the university’s switch to chemical-free cleaning, both on the ground and behind the scenes as she worked to rid the ACS inventory of harsh cleaning chemicals. With that process complete, she's moved on to other work keeping Western clean, supplied and in order.

At home, Frank is a fine artist, selling her collages and drawings to customers worldwide, including in Calgary, Toronto, New York City, Norway and Sweden. Her 100-plus admirers on are from all over, too: Germany, Romania, Israel, Italy, Greece, Australia, Jordan, Spain, UK, China, Chile, Hong Kong, Argentina, Netherlands, Singapore, France, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, California, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Minnesota and Florida.

“It’s exciting to know that you’re connecting to someone all the way over there, connecting to something bigger than your own little neighborhood or niche,” she says.

And that’s exactly why she does it – to connect, to share art. Not to make money.

“I’m a huge believer in democracy in art, and I think everyone should be exposed to art, to modern art, to beauty,” she says. “It’s not only for people who can afford the museum fees in a big city.”

site, Frank sells each piece of her art for the cost it takes to print. She even lowers her prices, eating the loss, for those who can’t afford the nominal costs.

By overvaluing itself, the modern art world has created a situation in which only the rich can afford fine art, Frank says.

“They thrive on exclusivity, but it’s to their detriment,” she says. “They complain that there’s no clientele, but they’re not making if affordable or accessible. I know what it’s like to be a student and to admire art and want to hang it on my wall but to have to buy groceries or books instead.”

“I’m not a marketing or business person; that’s not what excites me or where I want to put my energy. I want to put it in art.”

The daughter of a diplomat, Frank was raised partly overseas and mostly in northern Virginia, in a suburb of Washington, D.C.

After becoming passionate about art around 18, Frank went to college briefly before dropping out.

“I’m really passionate about learning, but not always in the academic curriculum,” she says. “I figured if I didn’t want (my art) to look like everyone else’s, I probably shouldn’t be studying what everyone else is studying.”

She studies on her own. Always has. If she’s into something, she buys and reads as many books as she can on the subject. Lately, she’s been enthralled with graffiti art.

She also is an accomplished writer, having written one novel and now working on a second. "," her book of poems, is available for purchase online.

In Bellingham, Frank and her husband, whom she met at Western, have carved out a comfortable living. Frank has had her work in numerous shows and galleries (she was in Allied Arts' "Femme Fatale" show last year, and she was even contacted recently by the 8 limbs gallery in Los Angeles for a show there) and the couple enjoy the pace of life.

“There are lots of ways of doing art and living as an artist, and this is a pretty good way,” Frank says. “It’s not New York City, but it’s a good place to live.”

New York would offer notoriety, perhaps, but would also force a hectic lifestyle, she says.

“Here, I can push myself as much as I want to, and if I don’t, I can just chill,” she says. “Here, I’ve met a lot of super-cool people, so many great friends. You can make pretty pictures, but if there’s no one to show it to, there’s no point.”