Artistree celebrates local in two hemispheres

The older you get the more you learn to never say never. Life takes twists and turns and often delivers the unexpected.

This week I thought I would be writing about a local cooperative of artists in College Park. But I then found the story was actually something a good bit broader, one of inspiration and appreciation, of loss and gain, of life’s challenges and the perseverance of the human spirit.

You come across people in life who are just easy to talk to, genuine, feels like you’ve known them a while. That’s Lynne Martin. In a time of technologies that allow us to keep our distance from one another, talking to someone like Lynne is a reminder of why it’s good to use them sparingly.

Lynne Martin is an artist, a mother and wife. She makes pottery. She is part owner of Artistree Gifts in College Park, an artist cooperative that began as Cottage Industries, sharing space with Infusion Tea on Edgewater Avenue. Earlier this year, Artistree Gifts began a new phase of operation in a building of its own, with a new take on what focusing on local is and can be.

“We will be forever grateful to them,” she says of the time they were a part of Infusion Tea. But late last year, at a time when Artistree was considering ways to expand, Infusion Tea needed more space. It was also a time when Lynne’s husband, Michael, unexpectedly passed away.

I came to focus on the colorful art and the wonderful jewelry offered in Artistree Gifts, but as Lynne began to tear up sharing Artistree’s emerging story, I knew I’d missed what this story was really about.

Michael Martin was a religious man who wanted to do good for others. He had a special fondness for Honduras, a country he’d visited over the last 10 years, but until January of 2011, Lynne had not. “I went down with him and I fell in love with it,” she says. Of the people they visited there, she said, “An idea had been formulating in his (Michael’s) brain that we would help them to create sustainability for some of those families. We had been working with artists here, but there’s so much (art) there.” In his efforts to aid the villages he traveled to, Michael had begun Missions +, of which Lynne says, “I woke up one morning and realized that I couldn’t let it die.”

She speaks of a little girl named Dania who “was sort of the impetus for the whole thing.” Dania was a 12-year-old with a hole in her heart. Given her situation in Honduras, the condition was a death sentence. But Lynne talks of Missions + moving mountains to get her to the United States for a life-saving surgery. The girl now makes bracelets and other jewelry under the name Dania’s Hope, which will be sold at Artistree Gifts.

While local artists at Artistree Gifts receive an agreed-upon percentage of their sales, the new Honduran pieces are purchased from local artists there at wholesale prices, then sold here at retail. All profits from Artistree Gifts, however, are put back into Missions +.

Lynne’s daughter Danielle and her husband, Andy Stinespring, agreed this year to come on as the new directors of Artistree Gifts and Missions +. Danielle will focus on operations in College Park, and Andy will take on responsibility for coordinating all efforts in Honduras. Lynne speaks of being “happy to take a backseat” and feeling her daughter and son-in-law are meant to take the reins now. She will surely be part of future trips back to Honduras, including one this fall already set to include Artistree customers who wish to help.

“It’s been like crazy since we got started. But it’s been good, real good,” she says of their opening in March, which coincided with her daughter’s wedding and the family doing a half marathon. Lynne talks of her daughter, “She’s fabulous. She’s so creative and talented. She brings a younger edge to the place than I could do, or my sister (also an artist).”

Artistree Gifts includes 40 to 50 local artists works, with a wide range of pieces, from paintings and mixed media to children’s items to their best seller, jewelry. The new shop is a colorful, warm space, with abundant natural light flooding the room from the large front window. The back is a bit of a “man cave,” or at least the portion with the large leather couch Lynne added for any husbands who get tired of shopping. They’re now starting to do children’s birthday parties that will include jewelry making and other art projects. The pieces from Honduras will include purses and totes, men’s wallets, leather sandals for men and women and Lenca Pottery, a Honduran variety in mostly black and ivory in the shapes of vases, bowls, starfish and more.

Aristree’s name was Danielle’s idea. “We kind of see it as like the branches of a tree … a lot of different styles, a lot of different focuses, but we’re all still part of the same tree,” Lynne explained.

I can’t help but also think of that imagery as a family tree, and feeling quite certain Michael would be proud.

Artistree Gifts is located at 2628 Edgewater Drive in the College Park community of Orlando. Visit www.artistreegifts.com or call 407-999-5251.

Clyde Moore operates local sites ILUVWinterPark.com, ILUVParkAve.com and LUVMyRate.com, and aims to help local businesses promote themselves for free and help save them money, having some fun along the way. Email him at [email protected] or write to ILuv Winter Park on Facebook or Twitter.