The Vintage Years: Finding Your Inner Artist Writer, Musician, Visual Artist After Sixty

by Francine Toder

"The Vintage Years: Finding Your Inner Artist (Writer, Musician, Visual Artist) After Sixty," takes a positive look at the post 55 phase of life, according to author Francine Toder, Ph.D. Her research into the factors that increase brain, body and psychological fitness, shows that our lives can be supercharged through the fine arts.
Recent discoveries in neuroscience confirm that the brain even beyond age sixty, if it’s fed a diet of complexity, newness and problem solving, can continuously develop throughout life. Whether writing short stories, learning to play music, or painting landscapes, the brain and psyche benefit. Ironically, lifestyle and natural changes in brain and hormonal functioning beyond age sixty actually facilitate mastery of the fine arts in ways that elude younger people.
Dr. Toder’s newest book delves into the latest brain science findings in everyday terms while also opening a window into the lives of more than twenty late-blooming artists who first took up the violin, memoir writing, or other artistic pursuits after they turned sixty. While some were motivated by curiosity, others desired to realize a previously unmet dream. Their stories inspire and validate Toder’s findings.
"The Vintage Years" eBook includes in-depth interviews, research findings, end-notes, artist’s photos and samples of interviewed writers’ work. It also includes a "Call to Action" section that provides a way to think about the reader’s journey by cueing their memory and preferred everyday behaviors through a series of questions to serve as a guide and help create some strategies that lead to action.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published June 24, 2013

About the author

Francine Toder, Ph.D. is faculty emerita of California State University, Sacramento and is a clinical psychologist retired from private practice. She is also the author of five books, the newest will be released in August, 2025. Her extensive writing on diverse topics has appeared in magazines, professional journals, newspapers, blog sites such as Huffington Post, Next Avenue, Psychology Today, and chapters in edited books. She resides with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area where she practices the cello and plays in a string ensemble.

Reviews

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my good reads wins, and I'm sure glad I got it. it's for my age group, and makes me want to go out and buy a cello, take an oil painting class, or write a play. Not really, but I have really enjoyed reading about all the senior citizens who have done these things. I will aget back in touch with old friends I have not seen for 20 years, take a class, make a new friend or two, and get out there more. I highly recommend this book. We may be over 60, but we still have a lot of life in us!

[Kilian Metcalf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine young cello teacher in 2004 decided to test her curiosity about the ability of older people to learn music. After a year's search the teacher found her subject. In a documentary filmed to record the result of her experiment, Matty's hands betrayed the evidence of her age. However, the rest of her body relaxed and swayed to the timeless and endless place that is music. The teacher and student both learned that old brains can do some things as well as twenty-year-old brains.

As an older learner I had my own questions about my own ability to learn. My piano teacher gave me this book to silence those demons and free me to participate freely in the learning process. I learned to let go of self-questions and rejoice in the learning process. Then progress began.

The book continues with example after example of people who took up music, or painting, or sculpture or writing, all in their 60s or older. Instead of the stagnation we expect in later years, many exhibit an ability to learn and grow, especially in the arts.

Whether you have always wanted to paint or make music, sculpt or write, this book encourages you to take it up.

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this book, which is useful to change ideas held by people who underestimate the potential of older adults (but who are unlikely to read this book), focuses on stories of well-off people who live in beautiful places in the country with room for a studio or music room or grand piano. It is only towards the end of the book that there is a story of an older woman who couldn't pursue art until she was lucky enough to get a subsidised apartment where she could write (which is clearly a cheaper activity and requires less space than art or music). In a final chapter, there is a recognition that many older people can't afford to retire and can't afford to pursue their interests - but no real solutions are put forward. A bit disappointing.