Nancy Stewart has worn many different hats over the years.
From bus driver to foster mom to doll maker to TV host, you couldn’t pin down an area that Stewart was supposed to be in, unless you looked at her creative side.
The 74-year-old has always been a creative force. Be it starting painting at three years old or leading a bus full of children in song, Stewart has approached life with one saying - “encourage, entertain and empower children.”
The latest creative outlet that Stewart has embarked on is writing and illustrating children’s books. They all have their roots in a semi-true story or idea that a friend floated to her.
“I had a friend who was a stepmom and one time she said to me, ‘you know, they never write nice stories about stepmoms,’ and (the idea) rolled around in my head for a long time. I thought, they really should be some stories of stepmoms coming into homes and being positive relationships,” shared Stewart.
From there, Stewart received letters from men who were stepfathers who wanted to see a book that related how stepfathers could be part of a positive relationship as well.
“It’s a little boy, he’s the ‘man of the house,’ so this other man is now coming in and is going to show him how to do things.”
For the book Rodney Rooster Has a Secret, Stewart wrote a story based on a lone chicken that ended up in her yard. When it was young, they were unable to tell if the bird was male or female and so it was a mystery to everyone.
“Everybody was afraid she was a rooster, so nobody wanted her. I let her sleep at night in my greenhouse to keep her safe, because we had raccoons. She grew a big, beautiful plume that flopped over, like a movie star.”
The mystery was solved one random day when Stewart’s husband came across proof of the secret of whether Rodney was a rooster or not.
“John, my husband, came into the greenhouse and to his surprise, there were all the eggs.”
Stewart has several more books in the making, as she constantly has ideas churning in her head. So far, she has self-published six books and has another already on the go. Each book takes her about a month to put together. The illustrations take the longest.
“I do all the drawing and that can take a while. Then I have to transfer the picture after I’ve drawn it (to colour it). I’ve found the best way for me to transfer the picture for painting is to use newspaper; the dark pages work the best.”
She does all her illustrations in mixed media - acrylics, pen, pencil crayons and watercolours. The process takes much longer than the writing of her stories and the illustrations are quite large in comparison to the final project.
Stewart’s also makes mixed media cards that are available, along with her books, at The Bloomery Floral & Gifts in Campbell River. Her books can also be found online, through Amazon. Her books are also being translated into French and are being sold through a distributor to schools.
While her books all have messages of inclusivity of different families, animals and people, Stewart’s message is clear.
“I think kids are amazing. They’re far more aware of what’s going on than people give them credit for.”
