Naperville artist holds home show
She's created hundreds of pieces with ink, pastels and illustrator markers.
She's won awards from the Naperville Art League and DuPage Art League. Her work hangs in the lobby of the Chicago Marriott Naperville.
Now Naperville artist Valerie Lorimer will host an Artist Home Show featuring her and two other artists' creations from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at 1552 Killdeer Drive, Naperville.
Alongside Lorimer's art will be the wearable fibers of Cynthia Boudreau, who serves on the faculty of the Fine Line Creative Arts Center in St. Charles, and the ceramics and jewelry of Patricia Melekus, director of exhibits at the Naperville Art League.
"There's a wide variety of holiday gifts in all price ranges," Lorimer said. "Cynthia does a lot of fiber pieces for wearing. She has beautiful scarves. You'll get jewelry, you'll get fiber, you'll get drawings. Prices start at $5 and go from there."
Nature, animals, music, architecture and more inspire Lorimer, and her style often involves small shapes collecting into large images, such as "The Secret Visitor," an ink and illustrator marker piece capturing an elegant fox among leaves, flowers and branches.
"The one word I would always use is whimsical," Lorimer said. "I think that sums it up as far as atmosphere. Some are more illustrative than others. Ideas come from everywhere.
"Stuff germinates in my head for a while and then it needs to come out. I pencil sketch everything in first, then do the ink, then lay the color in last."
Occasionally Lorimer includes meaningful phrases, stretching them across the landscape or the sky or between trees, quoting others, quoting herself.
"When I first started, I used quotes that were already out there, and then I wrote some of my own," she said, noting one passage from 18th-century Anglican cleric and theologian John Wesley, the words stacked upon the ground in Goodness.
Lorimer's generated a lot of goodness since she was 8, when "a family friend gave me my first set of pastels, which I played around with a lot."
In college, she got involved in local galleries. After she became a mother, she entered the world of watercolors. It wasn't until her elder daughter started soccer practice that Lorimer experimented with ink, the medium she uses most today.
"I started playing around with ink exercises, because I would be sitting for 50 minutes waiting for her and I wouldn't have time to go home and come back," Lorimer said. "That's when I truly found my style."
Lorimer is a full-time artist, but she has a full-time graphic design job, too, so she carves creativity into nooks and crannies throughout the day.
"Somebody asked me if I sleep," she said. "I've been known to have it in the car with me, and if I'm stuck in traffic, I work on art. I'm always working on something."
Something she worked on last winter was "Whimsical Coloring for the Soul."
"A bunch of ladies on my Facebook page are what I call religious colorers," Lorimer said. "They get together with friends once a week and have wine and color, so there's this whole culture, and they kept saying, 'Are you going to do a coloring book?'"
She debuted the 24-page collection of all-new designs on Etsy in the spring, and she isn't stopping there, growing her presence on social media and expanding licensing contracts while always encouraging her children to make their own art.
"I think you learn other life skills," Lorimer said. "Any time creativity can be inspired, no matter what form it is, it affects other areas of life. They're not separate things."
To learn more about the Artist Home Show and view or purchase Valerie Lorimer's work, visit valerielorimer.com or contact valerie@valerielorimer.com.
If you go
What: Artist Home Show
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19
Where: 1552 Kildeer Drive, Naperville
Info: valerielorimer.com or valerie@valerielorimer.com