PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2022

French Explorers Series

his passion for fashion design, then Europe. While in London he developed a reputation as a portrait artist of surpassing talent. It wasn’t until a car accident laid him up that “I picked up some clay. I thought, ‘I love this.’” Though not schooled in sculpture, it came naturally to him, and he discovered something else he hadn’t known about himself. “I’mambidextrous with 3-dimensional art,” said Stewart. “I can’t write or paint with my left hand but I can with sculpture.”

“ I THROW MYSELF INTO RESEARCH. I TRY TO GO TO THE SOURCE. I TRY TO REALLY UNDERSTAND THE ROOTS OF WHAT I’M DOING.”

Lonnie Stewart

He also learned that he didn’t have to stray far from home for clients to find him. Indeed, the commissions keep coming. Stewart is finishing up a statue of Teddy Roosevelt from the latter’s Rough Rider days, at the request of entrepreneur and philanthropist Kim Blickenstaff, compelled by the 26th president’s connection to the Village of Peoria Heights. He’ll be into the casting and mold-making later this spring and expects to be completely finished by this fall. Stewart approaches every assignment the same way. “I throw myself into research. I try to go to the source. I try to really understand the roots of what I’mdoing.” For Roosevelt that meant traveling to his summer home in Oyster Bay, New York, in an attempt to get to the essence of who Roosevelt was. No detail is too insignificant. Stewart will fuss over the tilt of a hat. He’ll work endlessly to get the eyes just right. He’ll pour over photos until he has a sense not only of the bone structure but what makes that person tick. He works when the muse strikes him. “I’ll wake up at 2 in themorning andwork until 1 in the afternoon,” said Stewart. Initially, he denies that he has a favorite piece – “I don’t know, every one

of them is a different journey” – but then confesses that famed journalist and poet Carl Sandburg was a “labor of love.” Maybe it was the shared Galesburg connection. Maybe it was Sandburg’s affection for animals – specifically his goats – not unlike Stewart’s own interest in wildlife. Then he remembers his piece on Reuben Soderstrom, a Streator resident who was one of the foremost labor leaders of the 20th century, a man called upon by American presidents, and the grandfather of Peor ia dermatologist Dr. Carl Soderstrom, Jr. He and Sandberg may have been poles apart politically, but they came from similar backgrounds, and they were both “in Chicago fighting for the same cause … for the underdog, abolishing child labor laws.” For Stewart, that personal connection matters. It helps fuel the innovation. And then he moves on. “When I’m finished, I’m finished … When I close a door, I never look back. I never dwell on the past. I try not to anticipate the future, either. I think if you live in the present, you’re happy.” Lonnie Stewart is busy. He’s happy. And he’s not retiring.

Mike Bailey is editor in chief of Peoria Magazine

‘Otter’, bronze

36 APRIL 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE