Drawing made sense of the world for me from the time I was a young child in San Francisco until I was a graduate student at UC Berkeley. Then I saw a high contrast photograph of an etched black line against a white background, and that did it for me. I started working with photography, although it was a fairly disparaged medium in the art department at Cal in the late 1960's.

I had grown up with Life Magazine and loved the documentary nature of the photograph. But I also wanted to explore the spatial aspects of picture making that I had learned in my painting and drawing classes. I began to print on clear film instead of paper, and suddenly a world opened up behind the image. By adding paint, collage or pastels, I could build layers from the ground up behind the film plane. I still wanted a to keep working with my hands, to have a physicality in the process.

I won the SECA award from SFMOMA in 1982 with a series from the West Berkeley redevelopment area, and later a Phelan award. Architecture and portraits were my subjects. I got my first gallery then, Susan Spiritus in Newport Beach. Around the same time I began to show at the SFMOMA Artists gallery in San Francisco, having numerous exhibits over the years.

In 1985 I became associated with the K Kimpton Gallery (then Ivory Kimpton), and concurrently with the Michael Shapiro Gallery , both in SF.

I taught art and photography for many years at CCA, SF Art Institute, and Berkeley City College. I ventured into commercial work around 2005 and have done architectural photography since that time. I maintain my studio practice in West Oakland.