Author: April

Since childhood, April had a dream to become an Artist. Growing up while participating in her family’s arts & crafts business gave her the opportunity to be creative and develop her artistic skills. Traveling the East Coast of the United States for over 10 years doing professional arts & crafts shows in shopping malls, convention centers, and county fairs was just the beginning of her artistic journey. April has since done small works to large murals with her creative and personalized touches for over 35 years. April is the Founder of SmARTivities Showcase Creative Arts Center where she teaches art enrichment classes for all ages and abilities. She developed her own art educational curriculum and programming called SmARTivities (Show Me ART activities) which is student focused and process driven. She aspires to do great things while helping inspire others creativity through the arts! Allow April to be your Creativity Coach to guide you in rediscovering your creative side and positive mindset!
Posted in My Creativity

Nurturing Creativity

Posted on by April

The last time I wanted to write was in back in May of 2023 around Mother’s Day, but I was not in the right mindset to share. I was having doubts about myself and motherhood as I was dealing with conflicts and circumstances. I found it hard to put my thoughts into the proper perspective to be productive and helpful at the time, so I just didn’t write at all. I had to nurture myself. I had to even be a Mother to my own self. That time of year always makes me reflect on my own journey as a mother the past 22 years with my own three children. Of course it made me think of all the nurturing women in my life; my Mom, my Granny, my Grandmother, and my Mother-in-law. Not to mention, my older sister who was like a Mother to me until my teenage years when she became my best friend. However, I could not talk with any of these women because they have either passed on or have not been available. So, I have been mothering myself and nurturing my creativity.

I have been blessed with the direction of strong and kindhearted women that have definitely made an impact in my life and in my life’s work. While mothering myself, I thought about all of these wonderful women and how they have inspired me. I especially thought about my Mom and how inspirational she has been to me in my life even to this day. Her spirit and kindness has been a guiding force for me in my family life and work ethic. I owe a great deal of credit to my Mom for allowing me time, space, and encouragement to find my creative self and do the things that were important to me. My Mom always made time for me and emotionally supported me growing up. She started her own business making her arts and crafts which she sold in fairs and shows for many years. I remember when she started selling and I grew up in her business too. I saw her joy, her experimentation, her inspiration, and even some frustrations… but I was a part of it all. She welcomed me in with open arms and taught me how to use my ideas and make my own items to sell. This gave me the creative outlet I needed for sure. I was born an Artist and have used my creativity since I could hold a crayon. It is in my blood and my Mom is to thank for that. She lives in me and through my hands, my words, my teaching, and my compassion and empathy. I am eternally grateful for my Mom and her nurturing my inner self and creativity.

My Granny Laura (Dad’s mother) was artistic and creative as well. She loved to draw, crochet, puzzle, and bake. I definitely have some of her talented genes because I enjoy the same things as she did. She always found a way to take care of her four boys and the family on limited means. They had a vegetable garden and my grandfather was a hard working task man his entire life in one form or another, but I remember him as a fisherman and tradesman. He used to craft fishing baskets from chicken wire and that’s how he caught his Georgia catfish that he sold and we used to enjoy at the family annual fish fry. My dad also was very creative and had a love of woodworking which he would bring into my mom’s business when they joined forces.

My mother-in-law was a very creative woman who also found ways to keep a family of seven in a household the size of our living room running smoothly. She was a homemaker and housewife who made all their clothing who later became a seamstress making wedding dresses and clothes for the community from home. She was truly an amazing soul and became a heartbeat for the community of ladies around her and provided more than just fashion advice. This is one reason my husband has been so supportive of me and my creative endeavors, because he saw it in his own mother. He knows how important it is to me because he saw the same resilience and determination in her. She is an inspiration to me and I am blessed to have spent time with her and learn from her experiences.

It seems everyone around me in my family tree has had an entrepreneurial spirit and I am not an exception. In fact, my creativity has led me to become a serial entrepreneur with several projects and businesses in my time. My family has always nurtured me in such a way that I knew I could do whatever I set my mind to do. I’m stubborn like that. Perhaps my stubbornness is what propels me and keeps me going because I am determined to be creative and find a solution to everything. Thus the need to nurture myself and be kind to myself so my stubbornness does not cause any harm to anyone else.

We all must nurture ourselves and find our truth. We may expect our family and friends to tell us what that truth is, but we are the only one who truly knows what we love and are passionate about. We have to be honest with ourselves and use the tools that we have been given to follow our own path. It takes time. It takes inner self investigation. It takes shadow work to face our inner struggles. We have to dive deep and most of us don’t want to go there because maybe it’s a little scary, but it doesn’t have to be. All of our experiences in life have brought us to this point where we are now. All the good, the bad, the inspiring, the discouraging, the love, the heartbreak, and all forms of contradictory emotions we may feel are what make us feel the way we do today. Our emotions are only part of who we are, but they are the most important to help guide us to what we are meant to do. Our purpose in life will be shown only when we have done the work and are really able to be receptive to the answers we have been seeking. That’s why we have to nurture ourselves and that in turn helps us be more creative.

Being creative is a natural gift that all humans posses. Most people believe that they must be talented artistically in order to be considered creative, but that is a misconception. Yes, there are people who are talented and use their creativity well in the visual arts… but there are so many more ways to use your creativity. We all have it inside us. All we have to do is learn how to use it. We had it as children and used it as we played. Now as adults we must rediscover our creativity to be able to use it in our daily lives again. When we are young we think that anything is possible and therefore we create our own reality. In many cases this shows us at an early age the endless possibilities that our minds can achieve. As we grow all of the limitations start creeping in little by little… from friends, from family, from school, from work, expectations that we are supposed to meet that limit us on using our own creativity to lead us on our own path towards success and happiness. It happens without us realizing it because time doesn’t stop and days roll into weeks and months and then before we know it years have passed. How many times have you said to yourself, “I wish I could get back to doing (blank)” and you just shrug off ever doing that thing again. You think the opportunity is lost and can’t happen because you have put limitations on yourself. So part of nurturing yourself means you have to allow yourself to uncover those limitations.

The limitations I had placed on myself I really pondered during the last year and I have come to a conclusion. I want to share my process with you. I want to help others rediscover their creativity and understand how to access it on a daily basis. I have done the work myself and I am my own worst critic so believe me that I know what I am talking about. All of my experiences in life have led me to this point to be able to help others in this important way. Being creative is needed in everything we do and in every job we aspire to work in. Critical thinking is creative thinking. Teamwork makes the dream work because the people in the team are thinking of ways to solve problems creatively. So, let’s start lifting those limitations and start nurturing our creativity. I look forward to working with those interested in custom tailored assistance and provide personalized help as a creativity coach! I believe this is my calling and am finally ready to step into this new chapter. New year, new opportunities, new possibilities, new ways of thinking, and new goals. Nurture yourself. Nurture your creativity!

Posted in My Creativity

Courageous Creativity

Posted on by April

So, I have been going through yet another transformation in my life recently. It has been a time of reflection and self analysis. I have been thinking a lot about how I got to this point in my life and where I want to be moving forward. I suppose this happens for everyone at my age of forty-something, but kidding aside, it takes courage to self- reflect.

We are braver than we think. We are courageous more than we know. We do things everyday that make us award winning heroes that either go unnoticed by others, or more importantly, go unnoticed by ourselves.

We wake up in the morning and make a choice to get out of bed. Sometimes we take that for granted. Not everyone can do that because of physical illness, or exhaustion, or depression, or another reason that just leaves them unmotivated. I have had all of those obstacles to get through in my life. What is seemingly easy and just a natural thing to do can be so difficult for some and a real task to achieve. Something as small as that, but becomes a big problem if not done. I’ve been there. More than once. Sometimes it is still a struggle to get myself moving, but it’s different now. Because of my new mindset I feel a shift. I want to get out of bed. I want to get moving and get things done, but sometimes there is still a barrier in achieving my goals. So, what I’ve learned is that there is always going to be something that can keep us down, but there is always a reason to get up. There is always a chance to start again, even though tomorrow is not promised to us, we can always start from where we are… today. There is always going to be bad news, hard times, difficult relationships, relentless struggles, but they don’t have to be as exhausting to us. We don’t have to make the difficulties we have take our energy.

These obstacles are in our path to allow us to make choices. If we just stand at the fork in the road and don’t go right or left and just complain and worry about the direction, then we will never go anywhere and hurt ourselves in the process. We look at the fork in the road as a barrier, as a difficult decision because of the possible outcomes, and we are not sure which path to take because we can’t see the future to know if it will get us to the destination we want. Read that again, slowly. Let it sink in. This is the struggle; but, it doesn’t have to be. When we finally do make a choice and try a path it is in that moment that we are brave. We go on our way not knowing for sure the outcome but we become confident in ourselves to be ready for whatever we may face ahead. This single act is courageous. This way of thinking is what being creative is all about!

Always remember that you are BRAVER than you believe, STRONGER than you seem, SMARTER than you think, and twice as  BEAUTIFUL as you’ve ever imagined.
- Dr. Seuss

Creativity takes courage. It is the one greatest gift we have that not many are actually using and applying in their daily lives. We are our own heroes and are brave enough to get through anything in life. Being creative gives us the tools we need in order to be comfortable being brave and courageous. It is what gives us hope in ourselves to know that we can truly accomplish anything and get through any difficulty that comes our way. When we think creatively we understand we have options. We CAN do it and we WILL do it because our mind can see the WAY to do it. If you talk to a neuroscientist they will tell you about our brains neurologic pathways and how things connect together and spark or they disconnect and reconnect to other pathways. Our brains are constantly connecting the dots so to speak. One idea sparks another and another. This leads to a long line of a thought process. So, when we are creative- we are thinking of more than one possible outcome in our ideas. We are connecting one dot to another dot to another dot and that makes the path flow. That’s the creative juice!!! So, when that gets going and moving along our brains are ignited with a creative fire that makes us move and make things happen. We put that process in motion and that, my friends, is the creative process. Once we know the way, we understand the why, and will do what we think we can do.

You CAN do it! You can be creative. You are capable of being courageous! Just never give up on your dreams and what you wish for. Put yourself there and imagine life as you want it. Only think about the positive outcome and how you can get there. Never give up hope because that’s what ultimately keeps us going. Being creative keeps hope alive. Be creatively courageous and become the hero of your own life!

Posted in My Creativity

Mastering your Creative Skills

Posted on by April

There has been a lot of talk about “Mastering” lately. I have noticed there is so much focus on mastering this or that and people even have the Masterclass to offer to tell you how to master it too. It seems that everyone wants to be the Master of something these days; but, what if you already hold the tools to master the skills you seek? What if you are already the Master of your own ship and can sail wherever you want?

Summer Camp project during Egypt week. Acrylic on canvas with sand accents. (April Khalil)

I believe that we are the Captains of our own ship and what we give we receive and what we expect is what will ultimately happen from day to day in our lives. We can steer the ship any way we choose into smooth sailing or rough waters. From my life experience, if we dread something then we shouldn’t be surprised when the dreadful thing happens, because it usually does. Coming from a spiritual family, my Mom used to always say that, “if you don’t want something bad to happen then don’t say it out loud because you don’t want to give the devil any ideas. He can’t hear what you’re thinking.” I think my Mom was right and I have seen it happen more than once when a spoken fear became a reality. On the flip side, I have seen when spoken dreams also become reality and good wishes come true.

There are forces out in the universe beyond our control, but we have the control of ourselves and what we put out into the universe. No matter what you believe in or worship or practice, we can all agree that there is a superpower over all creation. We as humans have been masterfully created and are the only creation known to have free will to make a conscious choice. We are truly Masters of our own emotions and our own realities. We are the Masters of our todays and tomorrows. For myself, I feel that today is a new day. It’s a new beginning for me. I sense a change and updated mindset for myself to stop living in fear and regret. This awakened sense of purpose for me has brought my life into context. I know that I am the Master Artist of my own life canvas.

I see it, I feel it, I know it. I own it.

Each day- up until this day- has brought me here. Every experience I have had, good and bad, I have gotten through… but I choose to no longer dwell in the past days, the past tense, or past regrets. I have spent so much time trying to “fix” things that I actually had no control over. I have spent so much energy on things that were not a part of my ship’s voyage. I tried so hard to prove myself worthy to people who would never see me the way I wished they would. Spent so much energy on people who I thought were my friends who did not return the favor to me. Spent so much money, time, and energy trying to make up for all of my quirks, my shortcomings, and misunderstandings. So, it’s time to move forward and live today with true intention to master my goals.

My discovered realization doesn’t stop me from wondering why though. Why have I had the experiences that I have had in my life and seen the things I’ve seen, been all the places I’ve been, and had the struggles that I have had why did I have to go through all of that? Why did I have to be basically homeless when I was just a teenager? Why did I have to worry about where my next meal was coming from at such a young age? Why did things have to happen the way the did with my family? Why was I blessed with talents and gifts that I couldn’t even use to help myself or even my children at one point? All I do know for certain is that everyone has hard times and goes through trials and difficulties in their lives at one point or another. Some people struggle from birth while others do not seem to have to struggle at all. Still we have to ask why is that? Do the ones who seemingly not have to suffer know the secret of mastery that everyone else is not aware of? Or perhaps do they suffer secretly and no one sees their pain and troubles? Only God knows for sure. My faith has been the one thing that has kept me going in my life. My belief in something greater and the feeling that I was born for a special purpose and have a mission to accomplish has given me hope and made me keep trying. Keep changing my perspective to see things from other points of view. Putting myself in other people’s shoes so to speak.

I always see both sides to everything and feel it so deeply. It’s hard for me to watch the news because of so much calamity and hardship that makes the headlines. I literally feel the pain of others and sense their struggle. Maybe that is why there are so many people I have met over the years that have come across my path that need help, or advice, or just needed someone to listen to them. People find it easy to tell me their life story and share what is bothering them. Maybe this is why I have endured my own trauma, felt it, got through it, fought it, hid it, analyzed it, hated it, then accepted it so I could be someone to help others. So, over the years I have learned to be a Master of giving advice and having creative ideas to solve problems. All of these experiences I’ve had and people I’ve met and stories I’ve heard and lives I have been a part of have made me who I am today. Made me be the understanding, compassionate, and empathetic human I am now. This has not come lightly. This has come with a responsibility on my part. This has been something that no matter where I was or what job I was doing at the time was necessary and happened over and over. That was one thing that I enjoyed most about working and traveling with my family at a young age. I got to see so many interesting places and meet interesting people. I made artwork and crafts that spoke to people and helped them heal. Only a very few people knew the struggles we were actually going through at the time.

As I’m writing this blog post about my life and my own experiences, it is my hope that I can help someone out there in some way to better understand themselves, their journey, and their own creative side to give them peace. It is my hope that by sharing my own trials that maybe someone can learn a skill to help them better cope with their own difficulties. Because I believe that creativity is the key and learning to master your own creativity means that you can literally do anything you want and be able to get through any circumstance in life. It’s all about perspective and how you look at things. Tapping into your creative side helps you see things from different perspectives. This then makes it possible for you to think of more than one way to do things, more than one way to solve a problem, and understand that not everyone is the same as you are or understands things the same way you do.

To be the master of your own creativity is to know that you can be certain of your own ability to make things happen. Do not confuse this with being arrogant or prideful or putting yourself in place of a higher power. There is still only one master over all things. My own faith tells me that there is a God and I believe that He is the creator of all things, all energy, and all time. So God is everywhere, everything, and timeless. You may attribute your own belief in the superpower of your life. There is no reason to limit creativity to one belief or religion or way of thinking. Creativity is limitless. You have this limitless power within you already to be the creator of your own life. Yes, there are predetermined variables for all of us… but even if we build the ship and are the Captain of that ship, there is still a big ocean out there to navigate, and we are provided a portion of that ocean to make our own way. So even if we weren’t given the best part of the ocean, or the best materials to make our ship with, or had the best crew with us to work on getting where we need to go… we are the Captain and we still can steer the ship any way we choose. There are sunny days, cool nights, and sometimes rainy months or even hurricanes we have to get through, but what is most important is how we get through them. How do we get through? We get through with our creativity. With thinking and planning and reacting on our knowledge and experiences.

We are all born with talents. Everyone is given a skill to help them make their way in life. Every single human being is talented. When I am teaching a class I always hear people comment that they don’t think they’re talented and they always compare themselves with others. That’s not the point. We cannot compare our talent with others. It’s ours. We are all good at something. Just not the same things and not in the same way. Each human being is an individual. Therefore each talent is uniquely different according to the person because it was tailor made for them. My talent is not the same as yours. Your talent is not the same as mine- even if we are similar. It’s still not the same. So when it comes to being creative, people assume that it has to be a talent that makes them creative. In one way it is true that you need to use creativity when you use your talent and having a talent can make you more creative. But they do not define each other. They compliment each other. They inspire each other just like each human being should be doing with each other. Creativity inspires talent to do more, be more, do better, be better. So when everyone is using their own creativity, we are then inspired to use our talents, and that leads to happiness, contentment, fulfillment, and brings peace of mind and heart. Using creativity to solve problems is one of the best ways to get it solved because we see things from another perspective. If we get stuck only thinking one way and doing things one way and trying to only solve problems one way, this leads to complacency and only a part of the problem is solved. So, always seeing things from different views can give you the big picture so you can see the whole ocean in front of you. If you only look through the binoculars you can see the task up close, but you cannot see what is beside you or behind you. So, we have to use our creativity to be able to see all around us to know where we need to go in life. To do anything in school, work, friendships, relationships, hobbies, and world matters as a whole. When we can become the masters of our own creativity, we can master peace.

In conclusion, being creative is a necessity in life and there are many ways to use our creativity. No matter where we are from, what background we have, how much money we have, or what we do as a career… we need to use the creativity and skills we are born with. We know this instinctively as children. We just think we’re playing, but we are actually learning to be creative thinkers. That is why it is so important to teach our children to keep using their creativity as they get older, because as we age our responsibilities take over and we forget to be creative. We forget to use our gifts and talents because maybe it doesn’t pay the bills. Perhaps the school you attended stopped the music program or art classes were not available to you due to budget cuts. Most have forgotten the importance of creativity and how much it impacts our lives. Being creative is more than playing music or drawing or painting or making something with our hands. It’s using our minds to create possibilities and opportunities. Music and Art only assist bringing out the creativity in you and that’s why it doesn’t matter if you think it’s good or sounds good. It’s the process that is most important. The process of being creative and using our minds to realize our potential is the most cherished gift we do not currently treasure enough. We put it on a shelf for later. We bury it in a box along with all of our other fond memories. My advice to you is to dust off that treasure and embrace it because your creativity is just waiting for you to master it! I am here to help you when you’re ready to start steering your ship!