Meet April McMurtry | Moon Calendar Artist, Mother, Lunar Facilitator

We had the good fortune of connecting with April McMurtry and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi April, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
“Traveler, there is no road; you make your own path as you walk.” – Translated from the poem “Caminante, no hay camino” by Antonio Machado

A challenging part of being a creative entrepreneur is that we are not following exactly in someone else’s footsteps. We may learn from the routes that others have walked, but our experience will be totally different.

Whenever I think that choices are already predetermined, the lines of this poem remind me that each of our life paths are made by walking and that my choices are made by taking action. Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to be trailblazers which means creating the path as we go. Sometimes I think that answers are “out there” as if I just find the road to follow then everything will work out. This has never been the case on my journey so far! I challenge myself to keep taking steps towards my dreams even when the path seems unknown.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In my art and life I am drawn to all things that keep me connected to the cycles in nature and reminders that everything is an unfolding work in progress. The earth-body-works by the Puerto Rican artist Ana Mendieta made a deep impression on my understanding of place, belonging, identity, and embodiment when I was in my early 20’s. It was then that I began to understand myself as an expression and extension of nature and the earth.

I believe making art is a spiritual act because the journey of bringing something unmanifest into form transforms the artist from the inside out. I remember when I read the no-nonsense book for artists: “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.” It was like I was struck by lightening. I understood in a split second how, when we are receptive, the mystery of life manifests in our body and takes shape in each artistic creation.

He writes: “The artist and mother are vehicles, not originators. She aligns herself with the mysterious forces that power the universe and that seek, through her, to bring forth new life. She knows it came out of her, but not from her, through her but not of her.”

To take credit for something that is co-created in this way feels odd, which is why I used to hesitate to put my signature on paintings. It would be like saying I made my children … okay, I know physically they were in my womb being fed by my body through an umbilical cord … but having gone through the whole thing, I have to say there was something totally mystical going on. One of my first paintings after childbirth was an attempt to visualize fertility cycles, moon cycles, and life’s evolution from sea to land and sky. I was transformed by being able to put different ideas all together in one place, on the canvas.

My most recent collection of artwork for the 2024 Lunar Wall Calendar is an homage to the Pomegranate and the lunar harvest cycle. I wanted to illustrate how the moon is a seed and the phases are different stages of growth and decay. Painting this series was a way to help illuminate the connection with all the inner and outer cycles in a beautiful symbolic form. There is so much encoded in the image that goes beyond words!

One of my biggest challenges has been believing in myself. I remember the first time I introduced myself to a shop owner as a “Local Artist,” I was sure that she was going to ask for my credentials – but she didn’t blink an eye and agreed to carry my calendars in her shop no questions asked. That was the first time I realized that everyone else saw me as an artists except for myself. I’m so grateful that I’ve come a long way since then and get to share this work with a much wider audience.

This vision of my work is to provide tools and teachings that help us attune to lunar time and repair our connection with inner and outer cycles to live in more harmony with life’s cyclical nature. Everything begins to shift when you attune to the moon!

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 live in the Bay Area in California and there are so many beautiful places to visit! I would start with all of the botanical gardens: The Ruth Bancroft Garden, The Berkeley Botanical Garden, and the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park to name a few. After yoga at Indigo Yoga and Pilates, I would take them to Doña in Oakland for the Cauliflower tostadas and walk down to the Chapel of the Chimes built by Julia Morgan. It is such an other-worldly space with so many unusual architectural details.

After that we could head over to the Chocolate Dragon on College Ave for some chocolate and then spend hours in the East Bay Booksellers bookshop and then maybe more cacao at Casa de Chocolates. Dinner at Sideboard in Lafayette or Dumpling Hours in Walnut Creek followed by a sound bath at Goddess Gatherings. There are so many open spaces in this densely populated urban area that we could spend the rest of our time surrounded by trees in Roberts Redwood Park and even camp on Mt. Diablo (aka Tuyshtak in the Ohlone language of Chochenyo). And of course I would make sure to see the moon rise and set in as many locations as possible: Sibley Volcanic Regional Park, Grizzly Peak, and a ridge in Briones Regional Park with a view out to the horizons.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shout out to teachers and organizations that help run and fund art programs for youth! My earliest memories are of the smell of the art classroom: chalk pastels, German beeswax crayons, watercolor cakes, and pencil shavings of Prismacolor pencils. I was lucky to attend an elementary school that gave our classes lots of freedom to explore different mediums, and this made a big impression on me for becoming an experimental mixed media artist.

I also want to appreciate Beam Paints for creating gorgeous handmade watercolors inspired by indigenous paint traditions. They are located in M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island/Mnidoo Mnising and have such a beautiful selection of high quality natural pigments.

Website: https://themoonismycalendar.com/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/themoonismycalendar/ and https://www.instagram.com/aprilspiral/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themoonismycalendar

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@themoonismycalendar