Valerie was born into a family of artists. Her grandmother, Minerva Lynch, was a painter who attended art school at Hood College in Maryland in 1917. Her work is part of the collection at the Butler Museum of American Art while owning an art gallery in Ohio.

Valerie’s mother, Jean Dearing, was a painter who attended Rhode Island School of Design and studied fashion and jewelry making.

Valerie studied at the School of American Craftsmen at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, and the University of Michigan School of Art. For over 40 years, she taught at several university art departments, public and private elementary/middle school art departments in Maryland, schools in Mexico, India, the Omega Institute of Holistic Studies in New York, and several retreat centers in Central America.