This curvy bookshelf and its contents are a perfect example of the colorful, often fun, interior of the Central Tucson home of Gail T. Roberts and Stephen Rubin.

More Photos (6):

Other articles by Gillian Drummond:

What a custom builder lives in Women in construction High-end, top-dollar luxury A backyard reboot 'I find Habitat most rewarding' Redone empty nest mirrors occupant Devising a master plan Dreams realized Little troupers spread cheer Natural look is taking off

General
GROUNDS CONTROL
LANDCAPE FOREMAN & LABORERS Services
Post Office Health Care
Godwin Corp
Physician Assistant Education
Rio Salado College
Online Instructors Trades/Construction
Mechanical Systems, Inc.
Plumbing Suprintendent Finance and Accounting
Sierra Southwest Cooperative Services
Accounts Payable/Payroll Manager Retail
TOTAL WINE & MORE
WINE TEAM MEMBERS, CASHIER & STOCK MEMEBERS

It's not everyone who would choose to live with paintings of fast food, a piano-shaped coffee table, and pink papier-mâché pigs.

But in the home of Gail T. Roberts — artist, mother, active community member and challenger for the award of bubbliest person alive — it just seems to fit.

Roberts' love for fun, color and whimsy oozes from the red brick of her 1950s home in Central Tucson. It's there before you even set foot in the door, with her vivid mosaic tile work adorning the mailbox, and some brightly covered fencing that marks a side entrance to her yard.

Roberts, 56, has painted, sculpted and turned her hand to ceramics throughout her career. Her work is on display in Tucson restaurants, including the two Chopped restaurants, the Brandi Fenton Memorial Park near East River Road and North Dodge Boulevard, and private homes throughout the city. Yet, while she makes her living out of art, it's husband Stephen Rubin, 58, a Pima County Juvenile Court judge, who takes charge of much of the interior design in their home.

"I make decisions for a living," is Rubin's explanation. Roberts embraces her husband's "fantastic design sense," adding: "I just sort of agree with him."

The L-shaped house — in Roberts' words, "huge and ambling" — is centered on an airy, white-walled living space that used to be two rooms. It combines vivid pieces of art (by Roberts and others), modern pieces of furniture from Copenhagen, and some touches that just make you laugh.

A low table in the shape of a grand piano — its glass top revealing only the puppetlike legs and feet of its player — came from an art gallery in California. On display in the corner is a pink papier-mâché pig, from an exhibition Roberts did for the Invisible Theatre. And on the wall hangs one of Roberts' first paintings, a cartoonlike representation of her and Rubin on a beach vacation that she turned into postcards for friends and family.

Rubin and Roberts don't always follow fashion. Their look is their own, and they've made remodeling decisions others might deem risky or questionable.

After they moved in in 1987, for example, they pulled out a set of expensive plantation shutters from the large living room window that overlooks the backyard and pool. They were beautiful, says Rubin, but darkened the room.

They have retained the original 1950s tile in two of their three bathrooms. One is cutesy blue and pink (Roberts hates it, Rubin loves it), the other black and white. But in the latter, Roberts has redone the countertop herself, replacing brown tile with jagged hand-cut pieces of black tile. And over the raised bathtub — also original to the house — hangs, or rather flies, another pink pig.

The kitchen is all-white laminate cabinets and gray countertop, with a touch of granite and butcher block on the island. It's a look that's hip in Europe and making its way here, yet this one is nearly 20 years old.

Outside, Roberts' quirky, colorful tile and ceramic work is hung on the patio walls. ("Camp quarters" reads a handmade ceramic sign at the entrance to their guest house.)

Roberts and Rubin have been lovers of the desert since they visited Tucson in 1975 on a post-college road trip. "We said, 'Let's have an adventure,' " says Roberts. Tucson was their first and last stop.

Their home spans 3,300 square feet, which includes the guest house and an addition that Roberts has turned into her work studio and an informal artists' cooperative. Here, she and longtime collaborator Lori Ryder are joined by other female artists, volunteers and passers-by — all of them eager to learn, to help, or just to hang. And can you blame them?