About me.

I am lifelong artist and career photographer, Lauren Berley. Ever-curious, I have enjoyed an inspired life of traveling, sampling, experiencing, learning, making, growing & expanding along both a creative and spiritual path. Collecting experiences and visual memories, I have built my life on documenting and sharing the magnificence of our visual world.

Destiny.

I grew up touring extraordinary homes and ranches in Aspen, Colorado where my father was a realtor. The bold use of natural materials typical in resplendent Colorado architecture is foundational to my textural and material sensibilities. My mother was a set designer in the film & television industry. Some of my fondest memories are of wandering in awe, aimlessly, around abundantly overflowing prop houses while she took care of business.

Sensibility.

As a young and highly driven editorial photographer, I had unlimited exposure to the finest of creative design in Los Angeles and New York City. I traveled to London, Paris, Vienna, Tuscany and Milan, always experiencing these travels with creative locals. I’d made it a practice to seek guidance from a mentor, forming relationships with the seasoned creatives I truly admired. It was those relationships that directly transitioned me into becoming a colleague. The same mentor/colleague pattern was particularly powerful in Denver, where I became a professional contemporary oil painter alongside a shift in my photography. The marketplace was completely different from print publication. Denver was an arts-forward city with generous allotments for public spaces and unlimited opportunity to exhibit and sell. Hence, my direction shifted into interiors, installations and spacially-driven work. The breathing space in this transition has been sheer liberation.

Discovery.

In 2020, at the onset of the Covid crisis, fate introduced me to Northwest Arkansas, where I set down roots and became a farmer. While the world was overwrought with uncertainty and fear, I used this time of isolation to dive into the space between my walls, leaning into soothing tones and primitive textures. Soon the political/world health climate grew unbearably heated, and my home became a tuning fork for neutrality, tranquility and wholeness.

“As within, so without, as above,

so below, as the universe, so the soul.”

-Hermetic Philosophy

Lifted restrictions gave way to a creative and spiritual community that has embraced and supported me wholeheartedly. Here I have learned even more about the mysteries of our Earth, its textures and gifts. And that intentionally creating our optimal environment directly impacts our wellness through the central nervous system. In that spirit, I work with my clients to create spaces that fully align with their unique sense of safety and vitality, cohesion and harmony.

Birdley Design Studio.

I’m Lauren Berley. Artist. Consultant. Farmer.

On my farm I have two horses, a donkey, three dogs and a flock of around 50 birds comprised of ducks, geese and chickens. I take in rescued waterfowl and have rehabilitated quite a few. I lose my mind when there are babies, over-photographing and often over-posting. When a dear friend called me Lauren Birdley in a text one day, it became my studio name. Plain and simple. And perfect.

“Some of my fondest memories are of wandering, in awe, aimlessly through overflowing prop houses at movie studios.”

-Lauren Berley, Principal