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'Dragzilla' and Other Artistic Curiosities

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Among those who hope to see their careers go into the toilet: muralist Billy Miller, who created scenery for the hit Broadway show Rent.

"The Porta-Potties will be all over New York," says his representative. "It's actually a great way to reach a captive audience."

Meowing Masterpieces: If your cat is always brushing up on you, now you can brush up on your cat — with kitty body painting.

In New Zealand, the body-piercing and tattooing culture has given way to a new breed of furry, four-legged works of art.

In Why Paint Cats? (Ten Speed Press), Burton Silver traces the new rage back thousands of years to various Eastern cultures. Now, art pioneers in California are using electrostatic paint brushes and nontoxic hair dyes to render their felines in Nouveau Classicism and Avant Funk.

Cat painting raises many ethical questions. Silver maintains that camouflage artistry can render a feline less vulnerable to canine attack while bold, avian-scaring designs save countless birds and protect crops.

Then there's the issue of painting a creature that spends most of its life licking itself.

But if you really want to be left with a bad taste in your mouth, one Beverly Hills matron paid $5,000 to have a tuxedo painted on her tabby, telling friends that she replaced her ex-husband with this hep cat.

The Picasso of Pumpkins: Charging $200 for a carved pumpkin? Are you out of your gourd? Hugh McMahon makes a living sculpting fruit and vegetables. His work has been shown at the White House, not to mention galleries all over the world, and his clients include Regis Philbin and Naomi Campbell.

In the disco era, McMahon became renowned, carving elaborate fruit centerpieces for New York's Studio 54 nightclub. International acclaim came with his deft pumpkin head renditions of Bob Hope, Bette Midler, Donald Trump, and Prince Charles.

"In my art, you can't be too sentimental," says the 48-year-old New Yorker, lamenting that some of his best work spoils if not eaten within five days.

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