Su Daitch loves telling the story of how she became an artist.

Illness had forced her from the workplace, and she'd been feeling sort of blue. Then she had an epiphany.

Becky Stein/Special (ENLARGE)

Artist Su Daitch (center) is selling the collection of paintings she's created to pay the cancer treatment bills of her husband, Gordon.

Becky Stein/Special (ENLARGE)

Su's Daitch's husband Gordon (right) has been diasgnosed with bladder cancer. Su has decided to sell her entire collection of 800+ works to pay his medical bills.

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"I want to paint," she told her husband, Gordon.

"Which room?" he asked.

Six years and some 1,300 paintings later, Su has found a niche in the metro Atlanta arts scene. Her colorful abstracts and whimsical stylized pieces hang in shops and restaurants around town, and her painting workshops have attracted a dedicated fan base. She credits Gordon, who learned to make canvases and handles the business side of her art, for much of her success.

"He's been as much of a part of it as me," she said.

Now Su is looking to her art to help her husband of 17 years. He's been diagnosed with bladder cancer and is scheduled for surgery on April 22. The couple lacks health insurance and is preparing for a mountain of medical bills. Their main asset, besides their house, is Su's art.

"We're selling all of my paintings," she said. "There's a lot we never took out of the house. I kind of feel bad about it."

Their Cobb County home has become both gallery and warehouse, and Su has been reluctant to part with many of her pieces, especially her early work. But she's telling friends and potential clients, on her Web site (artsbysu.com) and in e-mails, that they're having a "fire sale."

Word's getting around — one patron sent a check with plans to pick out a painting later — and friends have talked about organizing some sort of fund-raising event.

"We've had many offers of assistance," Gordon said. "We've got hundreds of paintings here. If we sold them, we'd be fine."

They both knew living without health insurance was a risk.

"I always knew the day would come, I just didn't think it would be today," Su, 58, said. "I guess it's time to pay the piper."

She worked for years as an office manager, until a neurological condition that caused memory loss meant she had to leave corporate life. Gordon, 57, an accountant by trade, lost his job in 2006 and decided to make his wife's burgeoning art career his new profession.

"We were gambling," he said. "It's like a game I'm playing to try to get her art moving enough to where once I've gone through all my savings, we can live on it."

He estimates Su's art currently brings in about $20,000 a year, but has unending faith in his wife's talent and earning ability.

On Saturdays, Su teaches workshops at Simpatico, an eclectic restaurant on the Marietta Square that's only open for dinner. Some of her art hangs in adjoining Willie Rae's, a more casual spot. Ben Lyman, who owns both restaurants, loves the energy Su and her pieces bring.

"She's awesome," he said.

This Saturday's art students included Lyman's daughter, Rachel, and mother, Pat Medlin.

"When you're with Su, you feel like you can do anything," Rachel, 13, said. As the group, including Karen Eaves, Peggy Murray, Lisa Myers and Zaneta Oliver, broke for lunch, Su set aside a couple of paintings someone purchased from her Web site and planned to come pick up. While the sale was welcome, parting with her paintings was going to be hard.

"You get so attached to them," she said. "I love both of them."

But she loves her husband more. A cheerful, effervescent character, Su becomes serious when talking about Gordon's illness.

"My poor, sweet husband," she said. "He's not scared at all. I'm scared to death. I wish it was me and not him.

"We are happy every single day. I don't know what I would do without him."