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Recently, Lead Senior Living Advisor, Rebecca Slough, sat down with Alto Tavares resident Marti Stinson to hear her remarkable life story and how art has been a constant companion since childhood.As a little girl, Marti often found comfort and escape in drawing, sketching behind the couch to soothe the challenges of her family life. By the age of eight, she had begun adding color to her creations, mostly paper dolls, which soon blossomed into landscapes and other scenes.
Art walked faithfully beside her through her youth, but when Marti married and became a full-time mother to four daughters, her passion had to be set aside. For the next fifteen years, she dedicated herself wholeheartedly to raising her family.
In 1973, Marti and her daughters moved from Louisiana to Florida. She built a long and successful career—first in credit collections for ten years, and then with a law firm for the next twenty-five. Yet throughout that time, art remained absent from her life.
It wasn’t until retirement that Marti’s creative spark reignited. Inspired by one of her daughters enrolling in art school, she felt it was time to reunite with her “old friend.” From there, her creativity flourished. Marti began painting again, experimenting with resin to craft knick-knacks, wreaths, and floral arrangements. She turned an old table’s legs into candlesticks, tried her hand at “pour painting,” and even began making jewelry. When she moved to Alto in May 2025, the community helped turn an area of her apartment into an art studio.
When asked by Rebecca what art means to her, Marti simply shared, “I find art therapeutic.” On her source of inspiration, she added, “The season of Spring. Because it is life renewing itself.”
Today, Marti has transformed much of her apartment into a crafting workshop, living proof that moving into a senior living community doesn’t mean letting go of your passions. In fact, it can be quite the opposite—by easing the demands of daily chores, community living opens up more time to pursue what truly brings joy and purpose.
To learn more about Alto Tavares, click here.
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