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Meet April Murphy, a 1977 graduate of North Shore High School who is living her dream. April’s family moved into the GPISD community when she was in the sixth grade, and she attended North Shore Junior High School and North Shore High School from sixth through twelfth grades. While a high school student, April was active in Journalism, as the artist on staff, of course! She also served as the NSHS chapter American Field Service (AFS) President, was on the tennis team, and was a member of the National Honor Society. Not surprisingly, this great student also received the Key Club scholarship, and earned merit awards in her American History and French classes. In fact, April recalls that her junior high school French teacher, Ms. Gayle Mangham, ignited her love for travel and culture by her passionate teaching, and that Ms. Kara McBride, her American History teacher, was an inspiration to her because of her enthusiasm for teaching and American History. After graduating from North Shore High School, April earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Texas Christian University, where she was recognized as the Senior Scholar for the Art Department at her graduation ceremony. Following college, April worked for several years in a graphic design/marketing position, which led to her exploring her interest in painting, picking up a paintbrush to help her relax. Selling her paintings made her realize that a career in Art was her calling, and she took advantage of every opportunity to show her work.

You might have guessed by now that April Murphy is living her dream as an artist, with her own studio at Winter Street, where 95 artists create their works in 77 studios! It is a vibrant and talented community of creative people, and is open to the public every second Saturday in the afternoons when guests can wander through all the studios to get a feel for the artists’ process and see what they are creating. April is very proud to be a successful full-time artist, and to show others that it is possible to follow their dreams and not have to settle for being a “starving artist.” In addition to running her studio, April shows and sells her work at art festivals around Texas, and was most recently recognized as the “Feature Artist” for the 2016 Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park. She also has a few more things up her sleeve, which you can read about by following her on Facebook (AEM Gallery), Instagram (aemgallery), and Twitter (@aemgallery), as well as her website (), of course!