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Tamara Broker is unpretentious, upbeat and down to earth. And she makes art out of what many people toss in the garbage.

She laughs as she describes it.

Her Cape Coral home cum studio showcases her work — fish made out of palm fronds and wooden masks, which are displayed on the walls of the living room, kitchen and bedrooms.

Broker’s husband, Gilberto, picks up palm pods that other people place on the curb for the trash man and brings them home to Broker.

“My art wasn’t always like this,” she says of the colorful renditions of tropical fish. “It used to be dark, angry and sad. If you look at the evolution of my art, you can pretty much see the story of my life in it.”

Things change in 30 years.

Her father, a minister from Idaho, and her mother, a German-speaking Russian from the Volga region, were very strong influences in young Tamara’s life. Her father encouraged her to follow his steps and explore her musicality. She did, and in the process, she learned to play the piano, clarinet and guitar.

“My mother used to tell me that you can do anything you dream of. She really wanted me to pursue art, just like my father did. They were wonderful people and wonderful parents,” says Broker, 51. After graduating high school in Washington state she moved to Chicago and attended the Art Institute of Chicago, where she graduated with a bachelor’s in fine arts in 1983.

After six months of traveling through Kenya and Uganda, breathing the hot African air and even dodging some bullets, Broker settled into a desk job at the Fashion Institute of Design in San Diego. It was just a job but it gave her the space and time to work on her art.

She moved to Florida with her husband and son in 2003. As she searched for new places to take her work, the palm pod idea hit her. While looking at a dead palm frond she realized that its core reminded her of the skinny bodies of many tropical fish she had seen while visiting the Sea of Cortez. An avid scuba diver and fish lover, she immediately went to work on her new project, trying to transform a beat up palm pod into a beautiful piece of art. After getting rid of the dead leaves, she buffed the pod surface, painted it in different colors and cut thin metal sheets in the shape of fins to make her fish look even more realistic. A few hours and some paint later, the branches looked less like agricultural debris and more like the perfect gift for someone whose house already has everything.

The fish come in many sizes and colors. No two pieces are alike. Broker paints the pods and the metal with indoor/outdoor paint so that once dried, the fish can be displayed wherever the buyer desires, including the lanai or their front door.

Broker has exhibited and sold her art at a multitude of art festivals, such as the Island Festival in Islamorada and the Key West Seafood Festival, but these days, with her son to home-school and so many other responsibilities, she mainly sells her art though her Web site (www.elpescadoloco.com). El Pescado Loco, Spanish for “the crazy fish,” is the perfect name for Broker’s home based company, she says.

The work ranges in price from $45 to $75 for a fish and from $75 to $150 for a mermaid.

“I try to make affordable art,” she says, “so everyone can enjoy it.”