She took painting under the direction of Bradley Walker Tomlin, sculpture with Gleb W. Derujinsky and textile studies with Lucie G. Jowers.

That same year, during her freshman studies, some of her work was selected for inclusion with seventeen other students in an exhibit held at the Montrose Gallery in New York City.

[12] The following year, the new couple were part of a group of 12 artists selected to travel to Ketchikan, Alaska, to create paintings to familiarize Americans about the various territories and states in the country.

[13] In 1938, Appel had a solo show of oil paintings at the Walker Gallery in Manhattan featuring her works done in Alaska[18] and won the Woodstock Art Association's annual prize.

[2] Appel won a commission from the WPA to paint the mural for the post office in Middleport, New York in 1941.

[23] Her painting, "Rural Highway", featured a man and woman doing chores, on a lonely farm isolated on their homestead with nothing surrounding them but the sky and the distant horizon, cut through by an empty vanishing road.

Her project was unanimously accepted by the War Memorial Committee and it was to be installed for a commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day on December 7, 1947.

[12] For two years after his death, Appel continued living in Woodstock and helped plan a memorial exhibit for his works.

In 1975, Harms designed costumes for the pilot The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence[32] and in 1977 she worked on Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas as one of the puppet creators.

[35] That same year, she served on the design team for the series 5 episode of The Muppet Show hosted by Loretta Swit.