• My name is Kristy; my mom often called me KrisAnne; my family and schoolmates from about 6th grade until I went off to college called me Kris. At some point, one of my brothers nicknamed me Moose – no one but his friends ever called me that … but, I have claimed it by naming my Forester, Moose, – it goes through snow like a moose! Names are important. How they’re spelled matters. Our name, and how it is spelled, is a societal identity of our person. I am not Christi, I am Kristy. (When meeting another “Kristy,” we have an instant connection!)

• Family shapes who we are. I grew up in rural Iowa. My parents instilled the importance of work ethics and relationships in both my brothers and me. I am married and with my husband, passed those same ideals onto our three children. One of them has married and with her husband, is carrying on the tradition of raising their three toddlers with these core values. With this new generation, I get to add to my identifier list, the role of Grandma. It is true, there is nothing like being Grandma to three SugarCubes who are full of life and wonder!

• Another identifier is what we do. I studied graphic art at Iowa State University, obtained a degree and eventually secured work as a graphic artist; sometimes for a company and always as a freelancer – for about 40 years. Yet, I struggled to call myself an ARTIST until about a year ago. It was after I started sharing my heart-directed work publicly, even offering prints of it for sale and listening to comments from patrons and viewers who spoke as though I was an artist, that I began to take myself as an artist seriously. It was not only their comments, but the process I have gone through the last three years to define my work – the whys and hows of my artmaking, that my identity as an artist began to be real to my inner-self. I enjoy most things artsy with paper, but my focus is on using watercolor paints and ink pens.

• The most relevant identifier of me is my relationship with Jesus Christ. Through this connection I have learned life-changing truths about the Beauty, Compassion, and Purpose of God; what I notice and how I respond to the world about me are influenced by this relationship. Being forgiven, I forgive; when I forgive, I can see from another’s perspective. Being loved, I love; when I love, it is reciprocated, one way or another. When I seek the goodness in situations or people, I find it – eventually. And all this makes room for explosive Joy to fill and spill out of my heart … into my artmaking.

Simple, everyday life and things are my inspirations. Allowing others to experience sparks of happiness from my own is my way of sharing the Goodness of God. “If you see something that sparks joy, check your heart – it could be God is revealing something of His heart for you.” is something I wrote and put up in my pop-up venues to encourage folks to dig into the whys of what captivates them and discover …

• It was sweet of you to read to the end of this self talk. Your opinions and thoughts on what I have shared may not align with mine, but … your time is appreciated and I pray you’ll find it not wasted.

Kristy Niemeyer
Check me out, follow me, contact me:
http://www.heart2heart2heart.com
Instagram: NuthatchAtelier
Facebook: kristy.f.niemeyer
mydoodleheart@gmail.com