San Francisco, the commanding beauty, rolling topography, mood, shadows, light, dramatic West Coast architecture, along with the solitary nature of my childhood, inspired painting.  An only child, growing up and residing within San Francisco, the surrounding urban world enveloped a sense of wonder and purpose.​
Traversing neighborhoods by bus, the arresting luminosity bathing the city, aroused all senses, imparted an urgent need to describe: abstract cubist squares, chalky  stucco pastel surfaces, jagged topiary, definitive blue shadowy portals to nowhere, entry ways, doorways, steps, alleys, became pervasive subjects of early work.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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Master works by Edward Hopper, Wayne Theibaud, and Richard Diebenkorn frequently exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, inspired the first "urban adobe" landscapes, forming a focused early viewpoint. A confidence of aloneness, solitary mood, and isolation in the paintings remain a common theme throughout three decades of earlier work.

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European garden design, mysterious verdant landscapes, lush vistas dominate the next phase phase of dream-like subject matter. Imagined earthly abysses, and nocturnal chasms, haunting forests, urban crevices, and pathways observed while driving the streets of San Francisco dominate the years 1987 through 1994.​​​

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A 1995 retrospective of Jan Vermeer's paintings in Washington DC inspired imagery of dissolving light fragmentation. Freeway orchard patterns, singular trees, shrub edges, fruit groves, clouds, and oddly sculpted hedges merge into sky, describe the vibration of luminescence coalescing from one form into another. These paintings are a direct result of seeing Vermeer’s brushwork firsthand. Green tree edges melt into fog, mist, and sky, represent a meditation on light itself, the effects of sight, and pay homage to the master surrealist, Rene Magritte.

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Subject matter spanning from large nocturnal verdant orbs, earthly chasms, celestial clouds, hay bales, and miniature dreamscapes on wood, brass, gold leaf, linen, burlap, and canvas conjure worlds of potential secrets lurking beyond the surface, unusual qualities beneath the known, to seduce viewers into an inquisitive world of light, dark, the unrevealed. Rather than a quick visit, the paintings encourage the viewer to dwell, to linger in the mysteries within the ordinary.