Nan Yeomans Memorial - July 27/04

by Valerie Westgate
I feel honored to speak about Nan at this time. Over the past three years I came to know Nan through the making of a film that would chronicle her life as an artist and as an active member of this community. I quickly came to admire this small and unassuming woman as she opened her life accomplishments to me in a detailed and organized fashion. While I was trying to get Nan to reveal hardships and vulnerable moments, she revealed to me a steadfast and practical outlook on life. She often cited humourous aspects to the more difficult periods in her life, which revealed a perspective on life that saw life as a gift of the moment.

Although Nan was an only child and never married, she immersed herself in community groups and activities and made many, many friendships along the way. And for someone who appeared to be very shy, and was very private, she certainly was very well known in Kingston and has made a memorable impact on many people.

Because Nan was meticulous about recording and documenting her own life, there were many stories that came about during interviews for the film. I couldn't include all of these in the film nor could I bring them out today but I will try to bring out some of the moments of Nan's life. And she certainly would have wanted me to do this in a chronological order.

During the filming, we took Nan back to Petworth to see where she grew up and the old one room schoolhouse that she attended. She was happy to go back and recall the good memories with her long time school friend Evelyn, watching the boys diving in the river, looking after the chickens and cows on her Great Aunt's farm and learning to draw both at home and at school.

When Nan came to Kingston on her own, she spent three summers with the School of Fine Arts at Queen's and was taught by well know artists Andre Bieler, Carl Schaeffer, Henri Mason and Grant McDonald. She described these summers as the happiest times of her life. For a young woman who had never really left the farm, sightseeing and sketching with professional artists and newfound friends, was thrilling for her.

As in life, she helped make this world a finer place, and so will her work continue to do so.

In order to support herself and her art she persued a career in accounting that spanned 35 years. During this time she also joined numerous clubs which gave her a sense of belonging in the community. As well as joining Artist Associations, she became involved in the Kingston Historical Society, the Kingston Field Naturalists and the Kingston Mineral and Lapidary club. During one excursion with the Kingston Mineral club, she recalled how they had booked a bus to go to a Toronto museum and made the bus request under the name "the Rock Club". Well, the bus company sent the most dilapidated bus on the lot thinking they were a Rock and Roll band and they had to manually hold the school bus doors closed the entire way to Toronto and back. Although it was a rough trip Nan recalled it with humour.

Nan always found time to produce artworks, but it wasn't until 1972, when she retired from a full time accounting career that she was able to spend more time on her passion, creating art. Over the years, she mounted several exhibitions and donated many pieces to charities. She said to me that she hoped she had done her part in the community by volunteering her time and artwork. And in fact many people I interviewed said she worked tirelessly to help and support individual artists and community charitable organizations. Nan, you did your part and much more.

Nan's pet turtle Tommy was a huge part of her life. He was purchased from Woolworths in 1969 and is now over 35 years old. Nan celebrated several of Tommy's birthdays publicly and chronicled special events in a diary. Events such as…when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a regular show on TV, she decided to see that Tommy should meet his cartoon kin. When she held him up in front of the TV, he looked with interest then heard Kowabunga and then recoiled his head back into his shell. Tommy apparently didn't feel connected to these mutant relatives.

In that light, it is not a question of "...the last time we saw her..."

I knew that art was a big factor in Nan's life when I first went to her apartment and she showed me how her bedroom was taken over by her vast collections of artwork and to accommodate it, she was sleeping on a cot in the living room. And then when she purchased her latest car, she insisted to the dealer that the car had to fit "ART". After turning down a few cars, the dealer asked her, "Just how big is ART, anyway". Art was very big for Nan. She regularly hoisted boxes and boxes of her original prints to shows and exhibits. In fact, she was just at this years Women's Art Festival and was still working on many pieces, so she hadn't slowed down the process of producing and selling her art.

Fifty or a hundred years from now, someone not yet born, may glance up from their desk to a special place on the wall where hangs a delightful little print of a turtle or a comet or a sailboat or an autumn leaf... and he or she will smile. In doing so, they will have known Nan.

I think that in many ways making the film gave Nan a chance to reflect on her entire life and describe the moments that gave her joy and fulfillment. It also reflected how proud she was of her accomplishments and friendships. And although Nan is well known locally, the film was recently purchased by BRAVO television and will air for a national audience on Sunday Sept. 26th at 7:30pm. It is unfortunate that Nan isn't here to enjoy this accomplishment but in some ways this fits with her humble and shy nature. Personally, I feel privileged and honored to have come to know this remarkable and loveable woman so well within the last three years of her life. Thank you Nan.

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Created on ... August 29, 2004