Portrait by Matt Rose
Valerie Berlage crafts jewelry and functional items for the home, but it’s her joyful wooden boxes and mirrors — both meant for wall display — that engage viewers from the get-go. Their asymmetry implies playfulness: angles convey movement, vibrant colors lend a Seuss-ian feel. The look and energy reveal Berlage’s imagination, but some pieces are made with several hundred bits of wood and can take a month-and-a-half to complete — showing the formidable woodworking chops that took her years to master.
Her business, Lauraine Lillie Studios, combines the first names of her late grandmothers, who were both artists. It suggests just how deeply she considers herself a product of tradition.
Berlage’s path to becoming a full-time artist included earning a BFA from UNCA, getting a teaching license for K-12 art, and working for a local artisan for several years, which, she says, “reawakened my love of wood.” She then attended Haywood Community College’s professional crafts program, also with a concentration in wood. From her current position, creating in her own studio, “it was all worth it,” she says.
But the conversation always travels back to family: “I spent lots of time with my grandparents growing up. My grandfather’s a woodworker and makes clocks and other folk art, and my grandmothers Lauraine and Lillie taught me embroidery and quilting.” Berlage’s maternal lineage is from Swain and Madison counties, and these mountain locales’ traditional techniques partner amiably with her own modern, not-too-serious sensibilities. As a child, she loved to color, and Lauraine always urged her to “use all the crayons in the box.”
“I’ve never met a color I didn’t like,” Berlage declares.
Her work looks deceptively simple, but its conceptualization and execution are complex. She calls the process “organic,” like putting together a puzzle, collage, or quilt. “The joinery work is what makes the most important aspects of these pieces — their surfaces — successful,” Berlage explains. After every piece is cut, fit, and sanded, they’re primed and sanded again. “All of my surfaces, including each of the tiny ‘quilt’ pieces, then gets four to ten layers of paint, depending on the pattern,” she reveals. After more sanding and applying wipe-on polyurethane, she refines the look with steel wool and a coat of paste wax.
“It’s an exciting journey from start to finish,” she says. “My grandmothers and mother worked hard — they used their gifts to better our lives and make beautiful things. I figure I was given this gift to use it. My art isn’t optional. It’s a must.”
Valerie Berlage opens her Lauraine Lillie Studios for the Come to Leicester Studio Tour happening Saturday, August 18 and Sunday, August 19 (10am-6pm both days). For more information, see cometoleicester.org or laurainelilliestudios.com.