It's because of Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway. Well, his house. His house in Key West, Florida.

A hundred years ago (I always say that when I don't want to say really how many years ago it was....it was the 1970s) I visited Hemingways House in Key West, Florida. It was fascinating. But what stayed in my memory was that he had another home. One in Cuba. From that moment, I wanted to visit Hemingway's home in Cuba.

Fast forward to late 2011. A local art association was sponsoring a tour to Cuba! I had to go! I mean, we couldn't really afford it, but it was one of those 'gotta do it' decisions. I love to travel and so does my husband. So we went to Cuba in January 2012.

It was a fabulous and fascinating trip! We loved it. (I covered the trip here on my blog and then created a book of my photos of Cuba here.) The very last day of our trip, I visited Hemingway's house in Cuba. So cool. Very cool.

So that's how I came to create this piece, Dreaming Cuba Tobacco Fields, because as I working on this, with the browns and bits of red and pink, it reminded me of our visit to a tobacco farm...in Cuba.