Tiffany Asadourian: Creating a more positive, beautiful place to call home

The following article is the first of three pieces highlighting the honorees at the Northport Journal’s upcoming Sunset Gala. Joining Tiffany as “glimmers” are Theresa and John Braun, and Nora Nolan. 

Tiffany Asadourian has spent the last nine years using her creativity and generous nature to add beauty to the Northport-East Northport community, not just in the physical sense (although her school bulletin boards, mosaic artwork and vibrant paintings will catch your eye), but by contributing to a greater culture of giving that has become her trademark, and perhaps the most defining element of her place in the community. 

Tiffany’s soft, quiet and gentle demeanor warms all those who come in contact with her, leaving an afterglow on every project, organization and event she takes part in. 

As the stay-at-home mom of three boys, Leo (age 14), Max (age 12) and Teddy (age 10), volunteerism came naturally to Tiffany as a way to get involved. Her participation in numerous activities has continued as her boys have grown, Tiffany explained, and has given her a feeling of accomplishment. It has also exposed her to hundreds of community members over the years, many of whom have become friends. She’s regularly referred to as the “yes” girl by those closest to her – she’s always the first to sign up, donate, design or organize. 

“I love that I’ve met so many kind women here that also believe in giving back and want to support other women, and other people, and just try to make the world a little better,” she said. 

Tiffany prefers to live behind the scenes and isn’t one to show off or even mention her accomplishments out loud. She holds onto and is inspired by a piece of advice from her late father and uses her many talents with intention: to create a more positive, colorful and uplifting place to call home. 

An immediate connection
Born into a creative household in northern California, Tiffany loved the arts and dance from a young age. 

Her mother was an opera singer who started her own music program, as well as the owner of a promotional products company. Her father, a computer programmer, did graphic design work for the family business, and painted in his spare time. 

Tiffany moved to New York 21 years ago, prompted by a national exchange program that brought her to Hunter College for a semester, to study art education and fine arts. She was searching for an affordable room to rent in the NYC area when she came across an ad on Craigslist, promising an “artist’s loft with a spiral staircase” to be shared with three male roommates in Brooklyn. “It looked really cool. It was too expensive, but I answered the ad anyway,” Tiffany recalled. One roommate, the ad’s author, was home when she arrived for a tour –  Arbi, a young producer at Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. 

“We were walking around, he was funny and I thought he was cute,” she said of Arbi, who would, in less than a year, become her fiancé. His Middle Eastern drum caught Tiffany’s attention during the apartment tour. She was in a Middle Eastern dance troupe back home, one of many art- and dance-related hobbies that Tiffany had in her youth, and was immediately delighted by the connection.

Tiffany ended up finding an apartment across the street from Arbi’s, in Bushwick, which cost $100 less in monthly rent. The two began dating right away; when her time in New York was nearing an end, Arbi asked Tiffany to stay for her final semester – and she agreed. Soon after becoming a couple, Arbi went to California to meet Tiffany’s family in her hometown. “Everybody loved him. He’s very social and easy to talk to… he’s chill and funny. It was really good,” she said. 

Nine months after meeting at that apartment tour, he proposed. 

The couple got married in Malibu, California, a good meeting spot for Arbi’s Armenian family in Los Angeles and Tiffany’s family in Humboldt County. 

The most magical town
In their early years of marriage, Tiffany and Arbi lived in an apartment they purchased in Manhattan. They began selling real estate as a team after expanding Arbi’s family business, RB Homes Realty. They would later move to Franklin Square to start a family, and lived there for seven years. Seeking a good school district and larger property for their sons to grow, they searched for homes further east on Long Island. 

When their contract on a Dix Hills home fell through at the last minute, they found what would become their dream spot in Northport. “We just happened to find this house. We had never been to Main Street, we didn’t know anything about the town, but we put an offer on the house and it was accepted,” she said. 

“It just happened to be in the most magical town.” 

“That’s my stuff” 
Tiffany’s first years in Northport involved all things related to her young boys, including serving at Northport Nursery School, a cooperative preschool, and becoming vice president of the Dickinson Avenue Elementary School PTA. She was chairperson for PARP (Participation in Reading Program) and Reflections (an arts competition) for several years. She quickly became known for her decorating skills, including her signature bulletin boards, as well as her ability to throw together an event or party, while paying attention to every single detail. 

“It’s the behind-the-scenes stuff – that’s my stuff,” Tiffany said. 

As her children grew older and a bit more independent, Tiffany expanded her reach to organizations outside of the schools. She is on the board of the YDA (Youth Directions and Alternatives) in Northport, where she offers art-based workshops, organizes raffles to raise funds for the organization, and more. She’s also a member of 100 Women of Huntington, a nonprofit created in 2023, on a team of Northport-East Northport residents who, every quarter, donate $100 each to an organization within the township. 

Tiffany is an active member of the Northport Chamber of Commerce and can be found at just about any local event, from meetings to networking parties to parades. She has contributed her time and talents to Chalk the Walk, Northport Arts Coalition’s Art in the Park and the Art Walk, Northport’s NIOT in the Park, and Northport Pridefest, and consistently shows up as a spectator and participant in support of multiple other community efforts and events. 

Recently, Arbi brought his real estate business to Northport, with a current homebase for RB Homes Realty on Scudder Avenue in Northport Village. It’s in that building that Tiffany runs Art Pop, her small business specializing in mosaics and offering art classes and birthday parties to children and adults. Tiffany and Arbi have, in the past few months, hosted community events within the RB Homes space, including an exhibit and sale of works by local artist Ward Hooper and a dog adoption event held in collaboration with Bark Animal Rescue and Rehab for K9s. 

Tiffany is also a member of the Huntington Arts Council and has submitted pieces to different artists’ calls. She has, to date, been chosen to show several paintings at the council’s receptions, including one of a hummingbird, and a self-portrait.

Don’t waste your talent
Tiffany’s involvement in the Northport-East Northport community, from the schools to nonprofit organizations to local events, has always been driven by her love of art. It’s a passion she undoubtedly learned from her father, Larry, who was a talented painter himself.

“His saying that always sticks with me is ‘Don’t waste your talent,’” she said. Her father didn’t paint much at all, until he was older, which he regretted, Tiffany said. Larry watched his daughter volunteer her time as a new mother, but always wanted her to paint. “When he passed away, I started trying to do more, even though it’s still hard to make myself go into the studio and do it,” she said. “But you have to because life is short and unexpected things happen to people.”

Her father is always in the back of her mind, Tiffany said, reminding her to paint and use her talents. She describes Larry as being similar to herself – somewhat shy and introverted, but kind, passionate and creative. “He was awesome,” she said. Larry died of a stroke in 2020, one month into the Covid-19 shutdowns. He took his last breaths from a California hospital with Tiffany watching from New York on FaceTime. “I wasn’t going to let him be alone, so I just talked to him the whole time,” she said. Though traumatic, Tiffany is grateful she had that moment to be there for her father.

Before Larry’s death, Tiffany was already involved in the community, especially the schools, but now, in her father’s honor, she is trying to do more with her art. It’s why she began submitting her pieces to the Huntington Arts Council and the reason she continues to bring people together through her work.

Opportunities for others
In the near future, in addition to the work she’s already doing around Northport and East Northport, Tiffany hopes to create opportunities for other artists. She would like to have art shows at RB Homes Realty to highlight local works, has plans to create a mosaic bench that will sit in front of Norwood Avenue Elementary School, and wants to contribute to even more efforts that beautify the community, both visually and environmentally. 

With each vibrant mosaic, colorful painting and community event she brings to life, Tiffany ensures her father’s wish lives on – that her talents create joy, spread kindness and make the world around her a better, more beautiful place.