Karen Ouzts shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Karen, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The first 90 minutes of my day are for the next 90 years. I work on what is important to not only my present but what mark I will leave. Over the last year – maybe a little longer, I eat breakfast while listening to something that will help me spiritually or mentally. Then I spend about a half hour in prayer- it’s nothing fancy, I just talk to God like I would talk to anyone else because I want to make sure whatever the day holds, I’m held first. I used to wake up, look at my phone and react to whatever was waiting on me, an email, a text, my bank account and my day depended on how those things made me feel. Usually, I had responded to everyone and everything else before I had even gotten out of bed. It was living in a constant state of reaction – and it was draining. Now, I search out peace ahead of prosperity. It’s a much better feeling and it affects all things throughout my day.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I really wish I were answering this question in early 2026 – but until then I’m staying in super secret mode about my brand. What I can say is it’s evolved. Here’s what’s new – A lot of people, including you all, know me from Heritage Art Center – but that era has passed. Heritage was important, I’m grateful for it – it shaped me in ways that I never could have imagined. Now, I’m shifting the focus from Heritage to legacy. Heritage Art Center began with a vison to honor my Dad’s dream. It looked great on paper. I won awards, I met a ton of really wonderful people and I learned so much about myself, but a lot of what I did would leave me feeling empty and exhausted. It also felt like no matter what I did- no matter what idea, or how I would pivot, something just never connected and I couldn’t get it “off the ground” so to speak. Then about six months ago, I kinda had a spiritual breakthrough of sorts. In it, I realized, that while it was beautiful to honor my Dad’s vision- I wasn’t honoring my ” Father’s “vision for ME. I realized that I wasn’t growing any of my personal gifts or talents. I also realized that the building in itself, was a miracle and a divine gift to ME. It was a gift – and all the time I spent trying to earn it, save it, manage it, was in conflict of it – you don’t earn gifts. You honor them. So, the building isn’t going anywhere it is mine until God moves differently. However, the brand, the brand is going everywhere – but you’ll have to wait until 2026 to know what’s in The Gallery. Just know, it will be faithfully curated and eternally inspired.
For now though, it’s still available for people wanting to host their own art shows, film, or host milestone celebrations, weddings, and events.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
This is such a great follow up to the last question. The part of me that has served it’s purpose…….and must now be released …….is all of it, everything. My focus is in simply being, resting in and enjoying the life that I have been given – one that I once thought of forfeiting.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yes. Not surface level give up, either. Before I started Heritage Art Center, I was a teacher. I really wanted to help kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds through art. I guess I wanted to save my younger self…… During that time though, I developed two chronic pain disorders and hypoglycemia. It took over four years to get a correct diagnosis on them all. One of the disorders is trigeminal neuralgia. It’s called the suicide disease – it’s called that for a reason, over half of the people with it commit suicide. It feels like someone takes a taser and holds it to my face and they don’t let go. Then that pain would cause migraines. Yet, I was trying to teach. I no longer resent or blame anyone, but it wasn’t a great situation. My class load was about 188 students a DAY at a Title One High School (which means 99% of students were below poverty level). – so what it was, was a pressure cooker environment and it was killing me. I wanted out so bad, but there were a few students I couldn’t bare to leave. It got to the point that the only thought that would comfort me was the thought of no loner being here – I can’t even say it – but you know what I mean. I guess that’s why when I was given the opportunity for Heritage, I went at it so hard. Which relates to what I was saying earlier. I never got that it was a gift. I was just running as far as I could from everything that I had experienced. I didn’t get it until one day, I had ran so far that I could look back and have enough perspective to see it for what it was. Now, I’m letting go of trying to hold on – and as I think I said earlier, just be held.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
Gosh, as we’ve discussed, a lot… but I think hustle mentality. I just said in the last question “maybe I was trying to save my younger self”. Now I don’t know exactly what I needed saving from. I had this moment the night before the fourth of July this year. It was very late, and my husband was grilling hamburgers for the next day. I don’t remember why we were under the carport grilling instead of the back yard – but it reminded me of when we first married. I was barely 20, we lived in a little trailer near the school I was going to. I worked part time for a cell phone company and I usually got home way after him. Often, he’d be outside, grilling and I would sit in a cheap, plastic, white chair – you know the ones, and just hang out with him. Then, the next morning – it would be off to school because I wanted “more” , but in that moment of watching him grill this year, I couldn’t say what was so great about “more” and what was “better” because I already had everything that I needed back when I began to chase MORE. I was happier then. and I tell you what I gained from chasing more and better – the realization that more and better are not in some distant future but instead make the MOST of the BEST that you already have. The best is your family, your health, your peace, your relationship with God and your own dreams, gifts, talents, all of which fell far distant from me in my pursuit of more and better.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What light inside you have you been dimming?
I think it comes down to my own talents. I’ve spent a lifetime developing the talents and dreams of everyone else. As I said, I was a teacher, and the model of Heritage Art Center was to give artists a platform to develop their own work, own shows and own dreams – as a tribute to my late father who never saw his dreams come true. All of that is beautiful, but I don’t see my talents in any of it – I mean maybe, I’m defiantly an Entrepeneur , but I’m talking about the gifts that are divinely mine. I am an artist, I am a creator, I am a writer. Only in honoring those gifts and talents can I begin to fulfil my true purposes and inspire others to build their own dreams – in their own way, by their own hands, it’s not for me to create it for them anymore.
