I was born and raised in Southern California, where my family has lived for four generations. My artistic sensibility was forged by the rapidly expanding subdivisions and disappearing orange groves and strawberry fields I experienced in my early life, as well as by summers spent exploring the high country of the Sierra Nevada and other parts of the West.

House on Mexican coast

I worked for major firms in Los Angeles, but the corporate route did not suit me. Besides, I had entrepreneurial directions I wanted to pursue. In Oregon and later San Diego, I became a sole practitioner, designing small projects, as well as buying land and building houses.

View from the Beach

I also started to design furniture. I created my own furniture line, selling through designer showrooms from coast to coast, and exhibiting at the International Furniture Fair in New York. I also became involved with the Americas Foundation to build elementary schools in Tijuana, Mexico, where I worked alongside the inspired designer James Hubbell.

Ergonomic chair design

All the while, I painted on the side, until 1998 when I realized my lifelong dream to become a full time painter. I moved to Eugene, Oregon, built a painting studio and began exhibiting my work for the first time at a local gallery in 2000. Since that time, I have been gratified by the public's response to my work, and I continue to evolve as a painter as my base of collectors widens.