"Alma of San Francisco", acrylic on canvas, Bishop Maxim, 2025

In this radiant vision of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels—the "Great Grand Dame of San Francisco"—the city itself seems to rise at her feet like a jeweled offering. Draped in flowing silver and green, crowned with blossoms and a sunlit hat, Alma extends a golden laurel toward the sky, as if blessing the city she helped shape. Behind her, the twin towers of the Golden Gate Bridge gleam in vermilion, anchoring the mythic to the real. Blending Byzantine luminosity with Californian exuberance, the painting transforms Alma into an allegory of grace, resilience, and civic beauty—a patroness presiding eternally over her beloved San Francisco.