I want to know your story, especially the sensory details that don't usually make it onto a brief: the wooden spoon worn smooth on one side in your grandmother’s kitchen; the crunch of the gravel sound on the road you’ve driven a thousand times; the color of the water on the lake where you grew up.

I first came to Napa for my work at Arts Council Napa Valley, which is how I came to know the community where I live, and how it came to know me. I'd trained as a painter and illustrator, but for years my work lived in the graphic design and arts advocacy world rather than my own studio. Painting is where my focus is now, specifically: commissions and plein air painting. I return to this work with everything the years in between gave me, a deep knowledge of Napa Valley, the Bay Area beyond, its people, and a clear sense of the work I most want to make.

I've spent more hours than I can count sitting with a sketchbook in the landscape, getting to know the plants, the seasons, and the lay of the land. My practice is rooted in Northern California, but my real subject is the landscape itself: the rugged beauty of the Pacific coast, the saturated color of small-town Mexico, the cool light of Quebec, a hillside I'll find tomorrow. Over the years, I've painted on walls inside and outside homes, businesses and schools; installed mosaics on train cars and pizza ovens; and worked with DACA recipients, students, beekeepers, winemakers, and community elders, listening closely and finding the images inside their stories. What I've learned is that the most compelling work comes from paying close attention to a particular place, a particular person, a particular story.

That's what I bring to every commission: attention and curiosity. I'm listening for the images at the heart of your story, and for the history held in each place.

I work in oil and watercolor, with a particular love for landscape, botanical subjects, and narrative portraiture. My commissions range from intimate paintings for personal milestones to collaborations with mission-driven organizations, especially regenerative farms, conservation groups, and the people who care for historic and natural spaces.

If you have a story you want made visible, I'd love to hear it. You don't need to have it all figured out yet.