Valerie Fowler grew up in Houston. She earned a B.A. in Art from UT Austin in 1985. She made Austin her home and has been actively involved in art making and art exhibition ever since. Nature is her chosen subject. Her complex and intricate oil paintings and drawings describe a natural world of extreme beauty and vigor while also conveying nature's sensitive vulnerability. Her past work includes painting murals for Whole Foods Market in Austin, Chicago and Ann Arbor; illustration and layout work for The Texas Observer, illustrations for CD jackets for local musicians, including a fully illustrated, 64 page book that accompanies the CD for "Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase", a musical project, written, recorded and produced by her husband Brian Beattie. In 2016, Fowler held Nature and Other Stories at Austin's Dougherty Arts Center, a solo exhibit and mid career retrospective, with artworks spanning 2 decades. In 2018 she was chosen by the Texas Book Festival as their Festival Artist and she contracted with Pomegranate Communications; licensing her artwork images for a 2020 calendar, puzzle and art cards. She maintains an art studio adjacent to her South Austin home where she paints, draws or gardens daily.