Nurturing the muse

Retirement opens doors to creative expression

BY VICKI CABOT

Sybil Yastrow loves to solve problems.

And as a former superintendent of schools in Illinois, she has confronted her share of knotty academic ones.

Now, though, hers come in tangles of orange or gold or magenta, in materials from wool to silk to Tencel, in patterns from undulated to advancing twill.

She is an avid weaver, reveling in the variety of color and design and the choices and challenges it presents.

"I always wanted to weave," says Yastrow, who took up the art six years ago and spends countless hours working at her Desert Mountain home or in the lab at Yavapai Community College in Prescott where she takes classes twice a week.

"I love it. You learn and learn."

Like many inching toward retirement, or already there, Yastrow found that her later years freed her to engage in activities she had always itched to try.

"I love textiles, the creativity, the logic," she says. She had knitted and done needlepoint, first as a stay-at-home mom and community volunteer and then as a busy working professional, but had never had the opportunity to indulge in what has become her passion.

One large loom takes up much of an upstairs bedroom, where shelves overflow with spools of yarn in a riot of colors. In the master bedroom, there's another loom, less imposing in size, but with a computer hookup that transfers Yastrow's intricate designs from laptop to warp and woof.

She finds inspiration from a variety of sources, often using architectural landmarks, such as New York's Chrysler Building, as the basis for the patterns woven into her stoles, scarves and table runners.

Her first piece was a tallit for a grandson's bar mitzvah; she has gone on to design and weave countless others for family members.

Walking through her light-filled home with glimpses of the spectacular desert landscape beyond, eyes light on the careful juxtaposition of beautiful glasswork (another passion) set on textured handwoven runners. Yastrow relishes her hours at computer and loom, often 60 or more to design and complete a piece, and also her hours with husband, Shelby, their three married children and grandchildren. Their daughter Sara, her husband, Robert Silver, and the couple's two sons live in the Valley.

"Now," she says of the life she has woven together in her post-retirement years, "I do what I want to do."

Ask Shelby Yastrow for advice as retirement looms, and he'll tell you: "Make sure you get something to do."

The high-powered attorney, who retired as general counsel of McDonald's Corp. in 1998, got a jump on the so-called golden years, publishing two best-selling novels while still traveling the world for the fast-food giant.

The first, "Undue Influence," was patterned after a real-life wills and estates case Yastrow handled when in private practice in Waukegan, Ill. The second, "Under Oath," draws on a medical malpractice case for its drama.

Yastrow penned the opening chapters of "Undue Influence" in longhand on hotel stationery on one of his frequent overseas business trips for the hamburger chain. He completed the book over eight years and countless miles. The second book he wrote in three months.

"I love to read, I love to write," says Yastrow, also a dedicated golfer who has published several articles in golf periodicals. He plays four or five times a week, he says, but still finds time to indulge his penchant for the written word.

An avid letter writer, Yastrow also composes poetry, often humorous odes to family and friends to mark special birthdays, anniversaries or other events. He also has written four eulogies.

"I always could say what I wanted to say right off the bat," says Yastrow, in his folksy and engaging manner. He says that early in his law career, which spanned practicing in a major Chicago law firm, founding and practicing in a smaller, full-service firm and then overseeing legal issues for McDonald's, he had a knack for distilling complicated issues to their essence and expressing them in easy-to-understand language.

He uses his skills often in his many civic and communal activities and serving on a number of corporate boards.

"You gotta use your head," he says.

The computer, he says, is a wondrous resource, particularly in the retirement years.

He also enjoys fishing with his grandchildren and hiking with his wife at another Yastrow abode in Payson.

Another essential to successful retirement?

"If you are married, you better love your wife."

 
Enter Jan Binder's home and a blaze of color dazzles.

Bright leather upholstery and stark white walls set off her collection of beautiful handcrafted objects. Eyes glance at two artful glass plates mounted on the wall, at a tiny aquamarine box on the coffee table, at whimsical glass figures atop a nearby shelving unit.

The former advertising, marketing and public relations director says that art was always a key element in her work.

"I've done art my whole life," she says, noting the opportunities for creative involvement in her former career.

She also had dabbled in watercolors, ceramics and jewelry design, but when exposed to the art of fused glass, she knew she had found her medium.

Binder tells of a lifelong fascination with glass. She recalls being drawn as a child to her grandmother's collection of fine crystal and her glass paperweights and other beautiful objects.

"Glass is fluid, it's light, it's graceful," says Binder of its appeal.

She enrolled in her first fused-glass class in 2003, after a trip to Mexico inspired her, and became a full-time artist in 2006.

Binder works from a tiny, self-contained studio in the garage of the tidy central Phoenix home she shares with her second husband, Steve, a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch. Binder has one son from her previous marriage, two stepsons and a grandson.

She credits her husband with supporting her transition from the 9-to-5 workaday world to life as a full-time artist.

"First, he gracefully gave up the garage," she says with a smile. And then he gave her his blessing to follow her dream.

Today, she spends more than 60 hours a week at her craft. Three kilns, ranging from a tiny 10" x 10", her first purchase, to a mammoth 30" x 60" to accommodate the oversize glass pieces she designs, fit compactly into her workspace.

See-through jars holding glass powder in a variety of hues, ranging from pale blues to soft greens to more vibrant ochres or oranges, line the walls. The powders are first poured into molds and fired at high heat; then each piece is individually handcrafted using a variety of techniques and fired an additional two or three times.

Binder explains that she is often guided by her artistic vision but sometimes by the glass itself. Its fascination, she says, is its endless possibilities.

"I like the variety," says Binder, whose work is carried at a number of local galleries and can be seen on her Web site, jbinderdesigns.com. "You don't have to pigeonhole yourself."

She points out a striking piece in blues and greens, a play on square pegs in round holes.

Now, she says, she doesn't have to worry about fitting in.

"I (can) finally stop trying to fit my 'round peg self' into the square hole of the 9-to-5 world," she says of her life transition.

Talk to W. Mark Sendrow about Delacroix or Pissaro or Matisse and his eyes light up.

A whole new world has opened up for the staid attorney and history scholar that has not only piqued his intellectual curiosity but also inspired a new volunteer endeavor.

Sendrow is a docent at the Phoenix Art Museum and is reveling in his newfound pursuit and volunteer outlet.

Sendrow, who still practices part-time with a small Phoenix firm, spent the bulk of his legal career in the public sector. He was with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office for almost 10 years before moving to the Valley in 1978 with his wife, Susan, who is also an attorney, and their two sons. Here, he worked as an Arizona assistant attorney general for 20 years before being named director of the Arizona Corporation Commission's Securities division in 1999. He held that position for three years before retiring in 2003.

"I was ready to do something else," he says.

Along the way, Sendrow earned a master's degree in history at Arizona State University and matriculated in its doctoral program, completing all of his course work except for a dissertation.

"I got the job at the corporation commission and couldn't do both," he says.

The decision to enroll in the docent program sprang from a chance notice in the museum newsletter. He enrolled in the intensive 18-month course in the fall of 2004.

He had never taken an art history course, but had visited museums growing up in suburban New Jersey. A year abroad in college had deepened his interest in art; and the docent program, with its stringent requirements for research and writing, meshed with his proclivity for serious scholarly pursuit and a newfound appreciation for the arts.

He says that learning about each new exhibition expands his knowledge and his fascination.

An Impressionist aficionado, he has come to appreciate a range of genres from Italian Baroque to more contemporary work.

And he loves sharing his enthusiasm with others, leading museum tours for adults and children.

Sendrow says that his new interest satisfies his desire to teach and to expand his own breadth of knowledge.

"I learn something new, something I never knew," he says. "It's exciting."

Back