I studied at SMFA (School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) from 2003–6. And, like many peers, at that time, didn't get into the school's official landscape painting class. So, I came up with a landscape-making alternative, using food as subject matter. Having never really enjoyed creating traditional still-lives, the opportunity to turn food into landscape proved stimulating, challenging, and rewarding. Also, ultimately, it led me to develop new bodies of work not modeled on what others, whose work I knew, seemed to be doing, or had done. Snack Happy, a series of 16 oil painted eight inch square canvases became my 06 graduating piece—and precursor to the subsequent 07 Florence Biennale Exhibit, Buon Appetito!