Meet Nikki Ganz Stahl | Author & Illustrator – Pops On Wheels””

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nikki Ganz Stahl and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nikki, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
Living a creative life is about the journey. It’s what makes the story worth telling. So I try not to live in terms of end goals. Growing up, my Dad had a plaque in his office that read, “Live life one day at a time, and make it a masterpiece.” He always made the most out of every day and he made me feel like he had all the time in the world for me. He read every paper, coached every team and put his family at the center of his world never missing a chance to tell us how he loved us “All the way!” He taught me that the journey defines a life, not the end and not any one moment. Living a creative life, the journey is also what informs the story. It’s what gives you perspective and experience. It defines your voice. There will be days that feel like big moments and days that feel ordinary, and I appreciate them all.

Five years ago, my Dad had a stroke. It caused many changes including a change in his mobility to a wheelchair. So as he had done for me all of my years before, I was there to make the most of every day we had. To some this would be a pivot away from the “career,” but for me it has deepened and defined my storytelling. It gave me a better understanding of life’s fragility as well as the significance of the message on Dad’s plaque.

When I was younger, I created with the intention of the end goal, and I was never satisfied. I now create with the hope that the story, informed by my experience and my journey finds whomever needs it at that resonating moment of their journey. Even if that is an audience of one. Because when we were at day one in ICU we had no idea what life ahead looked like, but it had so much beauty. I wrote and illustrated my new children’s book, “Pops On Wheels,” as a celebration of the life we lived after the stroke. And I hope it goes out into the world and does a bit of good, giving light to those looking into that vast dark unknown of day one. To inspire, to give hope, to communicate and share in the human experience, that’s what I think living a creative life is all about. Following that path through all its twists and turns is what makes it interesting, because sometimes you end up new places or doing things you couldn’t have imagined only years before.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Right now I am most excited to share my new children’s book, “Pops On Wheels” with the world. With it I am adding Author and Illustrator to my list of hell yes I cans! I love the challenge of taking on something completely new and when I started writing this book, illustrating was way outside my comfort zone. Luckily, I was proficient in the Adobe platforms, which was a great jumping off point. It has been awarded “Finalist” in the International Book Awards for Children’s Hardcover Non-Fiction and is Story Monsters Approved in the categories “Making A Difference, First Time Author, and Health + Wellness.” We are about to launch our series “Pops In The Shop” which features all of the amazing Independent Book Stores that carry our book, “Pops On Wheels.”

I wanted “Pops On Wheels,” to feel true to my family, especially the character Pops. Normally I’d want more creative distance, but this project specifically honors my Dad. It’s a disability positive book about life after a change in mobility. It celebrates my father’s joy for life’s everyday moments and my nephew’s expansive, curious, gentle heart. My nephew only knew my Dad after the stroke, and their relationship was so genuine and beautiful and full of love. I wanted families reading the book to feel the authenticity of our experience.

I imagined the style of illustration with a David Hockney vibe (whose work I greatly admire and saw for the first time at the Getty). I pictured vibrant colors with the sharpness of more modern block coloring and wanted the book to feel bold. Watercolor just wasn’t my style. The more specific the vision grew, the more it became clear that this was a project I needed to work through myself. When you are the one who can see the project, you have to be the one to complete it. Like how Elizabeth Gilbert describes muses in her Ted Talk. I also believe strongly in being the person who finishes what she sets out to do. So I started taking YouTube drawing classes and practiced day and night for months. My husband will be the first to tell you, he would peek over at me in the dark and my face was always blue lit with that iPad glow. At first he was skeptically supportive saying, “It’s definitely a person! But it’s all about the expressions…” So back I went to the literal drawing board! I just kept going. I learned and got better and one day he said, “Yes! That’s your dad! Oh my god you did it!” Finishing this project felt amazing. It was completely outside of what I knew as my world of possible.

When you are passionate about a project, you finish it, no matter what. You learn so much just by being the person who shows up and sees things all the way through. In addition to writing and illustrating children’s books (plural because I loved it so much, I’m already working on book two), I also produce, write and direct which means I do about a million other jobs too depending on the client. Jackson and I work mostly in the television and commercial worlds and we develop originals. But it’s finishing the passion projects that taught me to write screenplays, to edit, to shoot, to format for publishing, to work on set, to run a set, and to be the kind of artist who has an idea outside her comfortable medium so she learns a new one.

We lost my Dad shortly after the sample of “Pops On Wheels” arrived. So I was incredibly grateful to have followed that instinct to draw him. Now my son who only experienced Dad in life for a few weeks can be with him every night that we read “Pops On Wheels” and my nephew can hopefully hold onto his memories through it and teach his soon to be baby brother about Pops. I wrote it hoping it would help other families, which it has, but it ended up helping us through our own grief as well. Many families have reached out to me who are at the beginning of a change in mobility or are facing neurodegenerative conditions that will soon lead to a wheelchair, expressing how this has helped them communicate with their kids and grandkids about processing this change. Through this project, I have had the opportunity to share this love and our perspective as we lived this experience, and spark a positive and healing human connection with others at parallel moments of their journeys. As an artist, it is the most fulfilling realization of my art.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love a picnic at the LACMA jazz nights. And the classics are always great, Sunset Tower is my favorite because it feels so Old Hollywood. You have to throw in a Malibu day. We usually grab lunch at Reel Inn and then walk on the beach or hop over to the pier to see the surfers and walk through the gardens at Adamson House. Roadside Taco is my new favorite spot to get a bunch of friends together. They have the best tacos and margaritas, it’s very easy with a bigger group. Really, one of the best things about LA is being able to pop out of town for the day. We love to do a day or two in Ojai or Santa Barbara.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My husband, Jackson, is my greatest champion. He is my partner in all things work and life and always pushes the bounds of my perspective. He is an incredible cinematographer and taught me everything I know about operating camera. When we are shooting together, I learn so much through how he approaches the image and how he sees the world. As an artist, it’s important to step out of your medium and your comfort. It’s vital to evolving. This experience made me a better storyteller and a better director. I have a lot of wild creative ideas, and he is always the first one to jump in with me. When my Dad needed help and a friend through his hardest moment, Jackson was there for him every day too. Instead of running when it got hard, he went all in and did so much to help my whole family get back to life. Ours is the kind of love to build a life on, because we move forward together.

My Dad was my first number one and my greatest inspiration. I like to say, he filled our worlds with a whole lot of Dad magic. The spontaneous wild man on any dance floor, one night after dinner in LA he wanted to keep going. So my best friend and I took him to Pour Vous. It was a quiet Wednesday with a great DJ. Dads fingers started tapping and there was no
holding back his feet of fire. He said, Girls! Come on! Let’s dance! Nobody was dancing, but he didn’t care… and neither
did we. There he was spinning the two of us around with his giant smile and eye twinkle that showed how he loved every
minute of this life. He was the most present person I have ever known. In our final chapter, we had the gift of more time and I knew I wasn’t going to waste a minute. It was always going to feel limited. It would never feel like enough. So I paused to be as present with Dad when he needed me as I could. In this final chapter he taught me one last and perhaps greatest lesson, one he had been trying to teach my whole life, to be so present you never miss the joy right in front of you.

And then there are my Ganz Girls, Mom and Jackie. The two most giving, thoughtful, kind and loving humans. Their goodness expands the world. I’m just so grateful.

Website: www.popsonwheels.com

Instagram: @popsonwheels

Other: NIK + JAX Productions: www.NIKandJAX.com, NIK + JAX Publishing: www.NIKandJAXbooks.com 

Image Credits
Jackson Stahl Courtney + Erin DeJauregui Sean Lowes