Just like the river

It's been a long time coming... but I believe my change has come

I have had Queen of Soul's bone crushing, soul soothing, heart wrenching voice in my head for over two months.
It's been twisting and turning in my body, making it's way through every stubborn cell that says
 ... It's too late.
Aretha Franklin's truth spills out when she steps to the microphone. There is no magic trick, no illusion, no sparkly distractions.
It's her. Her Truth. Her Microphone. Her Voice.
And she manages to tear me open with one perfect lyrical line and put me back together again the next.

See a change is coming. A change is here. I literally woke up in the middle of a conversation with my best friend and husband. We were having a serious discussion about what needs to change.
And I heard thunder rolling and lightning striking inside of my bones.
And I knew I'd never be the same.
See I know all the affirmations.
I sing and share and admire them.
They are nothing without action.

A change is coming. A change is here. Ohhhhh yes it is.

Aretha is teaching me something else. She's teaching me to take it low and slow. The the draw of her voice... like honey. No rush. It's not too late. You are where you need to be. Keep moving. Don't stop. There is no looking back because there is nothing there.
A change is coming. A change is here.

Here's some visuals of my life lately.

Shameless in Sedona....

I have been humbled. 

Humbled by the beauty, the majesty of Sedona.

A week later she echos in the halls of my heart, in the vast caverns of my soul...courses through my river-run veins. I came home, to myself...to an awareness that I never thought possible.

It was a vision quest. And oh the Visions I did see....

Total Alignment with Connie Hozvika...IS forever transforming me, my art, my connections with the earth/family/friends. 

It is healing wounds so deep...not even I was aware.

Sedona took the pain and buried it in her red rock heart....and there it grows into something nourishing...beautiful again...cyclic as The Creator intended.

7 Sisters of The Red Rock 

I witnessed you

Rise

Fall

Cry

Laugh

Run

Walk

Fear

Fail

Shame

Let Go

Embrace

Accept

Transform

Inspire

AWAKEN

and I am humbled to my core.

Thank you Sedona.

Thank you Connie.

Thank you 7 Sisters

Aho.

Teacher Connie.... Fearless Goddess... you're so beautiful...

She... is... Sedona....

S H A M E L E S S

SOUL FOOD ~ What nourishes your {creative} SOUL?

It's here sound the trumpets and eat some .... CRUMPETS!! What? Annoucing

An amazing new art community inspired by juicy 

Art & Nummy Noshings! 

Soul Food is an online community filled to the brim with delectable artful delights....oh and food too squee!

{.35.}

amaz-za-Z I N G artist/foodies to tempt 

ALL the senses!

What more can you ask for.... art+food= H E A V E N!

I have been asked to teach in this new adventure and I am so very honored !

CLICK HERE AND JOIN US !!!!

CLICK ABOVE TO SEE ARTIST PROFILES!

CLICK HERE TO JOIN US !!!!

 { Oh hello you }

Been awhile and summer is here and there is so many exciting things that are coming...that have gone...that are still marinating in all their glorious juices!

21 Secrets is going so well you can still sign up for all the fun!

I have had some AMAZING feedback from you all that are CRAVING an {ACCEPT}ional life! I am so grateful for all my students that are incredibly LION HEARTED and have taken steps to {ACCEPT} themselves in AS IS condition! Bravisimo lion hearts.. you are so beautiful!

I have been asked to teach in another online workshop and I am incredibly EXCITED about this !! More details to come (insert me doing the cabbage patch kid and 80's Robot...oh yea)!

I have been approached to do a couple artist interviews as well and I am looking forward to delving in deep and getting to some core heart centered questions.. YUM!

Stay tuned creative hearts!

Personally it's been a blessed but rough couple months... my Rhain has graduation high school.. my Sunny turned 20 and I find myself on the verge of buying our first home and it just being me and my adorable, amazing husband. YIKES!  It's a scary, exciting feeling to think that I am only {37} and I still have so much ahead of me..that I can finally focus on .. {ME}.. (insert me with a blank stare). 

This absolutely terrifies me people. I am working on it ;)!

I have a newfound (lost and then found again) love affair with {POLAROIDS}... oh you have no idea what this does for my soul! 

With the help of

The Impossible Project

I am able to take these little photographs..these little snippets of my life and put them down in my journal. 

In the digi-insta-age this really quenches my thirst for old school film! 

Needless to say...

{{I am in heaven}}

Like I mentioned earlier we are house hunting.. and after years of wishing/plotting/planning/saving we are at the fun part.  

{The hunt} 

It's been WAY harder than I thought it would be. Houses come on the market and they get gobbled up so quickly your head spins. We've taken a break to go with a different Real Estate Agent (she's badass I love her) and get refinanced with a different lender and will be starting the hunt again come July.. 

{OH WISH ME LUCK CUPCAKES}

Meanwhile I am trying to not let that deter me from doing my work...

I hope you are embracing the Summer months and taking time for

 relaxation, poolside, lakeside, oceanside time!

Here some things I've been up to and some obsessions that I simply MUST share.. 'till next time!

{OBSESSION}

Tattoo's

Unicorns

GATSBY

Leggings

A Beautiful Mess IPHONE photo app

{MUSIC}

The Shins- Chutes too Narrow Album

{THIS SUMMER I SHALL}

Decide on my next Tattoo

Dye my hair RED again

Wear more dresses with more leggings

See Counting Crows with my Sister

House Hunt until I drop

Spend time in the water

Drink Margaritas

MORE: painting/blogging/polaroiding

{Some pictures from my life}

21 SECRETS IS CALORIE FREE! 21 SECRETS WITH MISS. KITTY!

21 Secrets it's so fun
don't you walk you've got to run
you must check in everyday
to see what Kitty has to say

21 Secrets
21 FUN!
21 Secrets
Mixed Media Fun

21 Secrets it's a gas
come to paint and have a laugh
Don't let life get in the way
You must create everyday
21 Secrets 
ITS CALORIE FREE
21 Secrets with MISS KITTY((( thats meeeeeeee )))

21 Secrets it's so fun
21 Secrets FOR EVERYONE!

APRIL 1st
go here to sign up!

http://handoverheartstudios.blogspot.com/2013/01/21-secrets-on-sale-for-everyone.html

SONG: Jeff Berg of Naughty Ruby
LYRICS: Kitty and Jeff
VOCALS: Jeff (and a bit O' Kitty)

GIVING AWAY A 21 SECRETS SLOT !!!

!! 21 SECRETS GIVEAWAY!!

I GET TO HOST A GIVEAWAY AND GIVE A LUCKY GAL/GUY A FREE MEMBERSHIP TO 21 SECRETS 2013!!

So what do you have to do to enter?

Just go to my facebook fan page HandOverHeartStudios and like my page (if you haven't already) 
In the spirit of my class in 21 secrets which is teaching the art of accepting where you are in your art process and ultimately in your LIFE,  post what you are choosing to ACCEPT about your wonderful life. 
It could be acceptance of your body,height,weight, accepting your childhood, your past...It could be accepting where you are in your art practice or lack of!
ANYTHING that you want to share that you are working on ACCEPTING and LOVING in AS IS CONDITION in your life.. right now! 

Share share share... !! 

Post your thoughts on my Facebook HandOverHeart Studios page (this blog post will be posted there too & you should post on that feed)

I will be picking a winner winner chicken dinner on March 15th!

Can't wait to see who enters, and what you are choosing to lovingly accept in your life :)

SEE YOU ON FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

HANDOVERHEART STUDIOS

And she said.. "Ditto".

Taking a break in the studio from the 3 paintings I am currently trying to finish.
I have creative attention deficit disorder.  Thank The Stars for Mixed Media !
I started a clay doll.

This is Ditto. I made her.

She wasn't turning out so good.
I added paper clay.
I took away.
I molded.
I sculpted.
I thought about trashing her.
Couldn't do it.
Tried to do limbs.
Couldn't do that either.

Then I surrendered and remembered that she was just a paper clay doll... FOR ME.
Oh. Breathing room. Deep breath, that's nice.

I tore off her limbs.
I made her base thick & sturdy.
And then, before I knew what was happening in between dipping fingers into the water, grabbing a clump of paper clay and molding...

she  sprouted W I N G S.

Glorious funky, clumpy, lumpy, bumpy haphazard, imperfect, small wings.
I immediately fell in love with her.
And of course, what naturally came next...

I gave her a Lion H E A R T.

I've captured her, in the moment of growing her wings.
And as I painted her tonight, first giving her a coat of Gesso, I poured out love for her, in her imperfect state, and I told her not to compare herself to others, for she's one of a kind, never to be duplicated.
I told her to see, look, feel, fly with her Lion Heart.

And she said, "Ditto".

How are you taking care of your lumpy, bumpy, imperfect parts today? This minute? This Hour? This Day? This Week? This Year?

Come on Lion Heart, it's time for some {ACCEPT}tional self care....!

TRUST F A L L .....

I am in love.

Orginal Art work by Kitty Oppegard: FOR SALE @ ETSY SHOPPE 

I have fallen deeply, beautifully, sacredly in love.
Know what with?
My Heart and all its inglorious glory.
My heart that never fails me, in keeping blood pumping through this {ACCEPT}tional body (in AS IS condition) and in Matters of the Heart... mmmm myyyy speciality.

This Fall/Equinox/Mabon I am incredibly in love with the colors,sights, smells, sounds of this amazing season. It yields a sense of connectedness within me. I can feel it weaving around my heart urging me to look inwards, reflect and review. It whispers to FALL into love with what you are, what you have, what you've failed at, what you've accomplished. It echos the childhood laughter in me, the reckless abandon in me, the Lion Heart that pulses true.

TRUST FALL.

Trust fall right into my life, right into my heart, right into the core of what makes me... ME.
And as I fall there are the seeds of my existence.
God, earth, wind, fire, air, paint in my hair.... aching in my bones and in my chest...and it's all alright.. it's all the stuff, the juicy stuff of this life. It's all ugly, sad and beautiful and STARK raving mad!
I'm falling right into it. I am falling right into L O V E with my life.

I invite you to your own trust fall, right into your sacred heart, right into your LION HEART.

DID IT RESONATE? WONT YOU GIVE ME A FACEBOOK LIKE :)

Embrace the Messy

Life is messy. Much like any art form. There is a period in the process of completion that there is an inevitable veriable. Mess.

I used to get caught up in this. Cleaning as I go. I mean this literally and figuratively.
I have learned in my latter 30s that the mess... IS... life. It's the process. You've heard this expression right? "It's about the process.. not the end result".

It's not about the completion. At the completion of life is death. My truth in death there is a rebirth in a sense back to your original form, your soul.
However at the completion of any form of Art.. there is a sense of gratification, a sense of accomplishment, a sense of wonder.. "how did I get through that"..."how did I weed through that mess and come up with this masterpiece".
It is my truth that at the end of life.. it is the same celebration.

Wow. How exciting that we are here in human form to work on our dream.. on our masterpiece..and our art is our life.. how we live our life!
I find great comfort in this, as I've really been working on celebrating even the small things.
Like getting outta bed in the morning and not cursing that I have to go to work .. ( you feel me?)
Like choosing BODY ACCEPTANCE instead of telling myself that I will do that, wear that, say that, experience that, eat that..when I am "skinny again".
Like choosing to put myself out there with my thoughts, art, love, light with NO angle. No sense of "what will I get outta this".. "whats in this for me".
Just being big, beautiful, glittery, me...Kitty, Kristy, Kristina, Mom, Wife=Babe, Sister, Friend.

I am filled suddenly typing this with a sense of gratitude and solace. What an amazingly blessed feeling that has washed over me. I am grateful and I believe absolutely hands down blessed beyond my wildest dreams, for what I have in this very moment. Now. and Now. and again.....Now.
HAPPY TEARS FOR THIS LION HEART!

I invite you to mull this over. Put in your favorite inspiring song and just think on your life. REALLY look at the messy parts. Ew. It's ugly isn't it? It's beautiful...isn't it?
Now look where you are right now. Literally right now..sitting where you are.  You are so beautiful... look at you with all your bumps and scars and bruises. Look at you with that smile spreading, those tears welling.
Oh my heart !!!   It's over flowing with how stunning you are.
Take this truth if it serves you and put it into the weakest part of your heart and let it bloom.

You are loved. You ARE love. Go live your messy life Lion Hearts <3


Gift for You:

The Eternal Optimist from WriteAboutMaps on 8tracks Radio.

LION HEARTS I LOVE YOU!

♡CLASSES I'm Taking: AROUSE

 ♡CLASSES I'm Teaching:  ALTERED BOOKS

With Gratitude ...

Thank you so much to Hali for the opportunity to share my heart with everyone... Women, you inspire me, you are the pure definition of beauty. Thank you, thank you for holding on, pushing through, overcoming, creating.. in doing this, my amazing sisters, you lift us all out of the dark and into the light..where we belong. Steadfast with your Lion Hearts... onward and upwards. With gratitude, I am a grateful child of this Universe. 

ARTIST HEALER SPOTLIGHT SERIES- KITTY OPPEGARD /HANDOVERHEART STUDIOS

♡CLASSES I'm Taking: AROUSE

 ♡CLASSES I'm Teaching:  ALTERED BOOKS

Metaphorically speaking...

taken in Cambria California <3 it was a great day

Butterflies are a perfect set up for metaphors.
My favorite butterfly reference is a line from one of my very favorite bands Counting Crows;

"the butterfly in reverse here is me"...

I feel like that often times. Huge leaps forward and then, something sets me back.
A lot of the time it's just me getting in my own way.
Me. Just in reverse.
I want to take this moment to do a shout out to the reverse in me.
Sometimes you have to go in reverse to reposition yourself to go forward.
So with that in mind I will accept, not judge & remember the process.
This marriage to my Art Side, blooming and teeming with possibility will..eventually have to go in reverse.
Acknowledgment is the first step right?

Fly my butterflies.
Reverse as needed.