When I started painting in 1998, I owned a business called The Apple Barn where I sold, among other things, fresh fruits and vegetables. I always loved displaying them and some of my first paintings were figures with food. Around 2010, the Apple Barn was sold, and we started living almost full time in Mexico. While my youngest daughter attended school and my husband taught college business classes, I started taking online courses about health and diet and writing a blog about the things I was learning. At the same time, I began painting foods in unique arrangements.