Tamara LaValla is an eternal artist, and once-upon-a-time chocolate maker, who came of age in a parochial Italian village in the belly of central New York. To the chagrin of her family, Tamara played all the sports, pierced her tongue, and eventually traded snowstorms for scholarship.

During high school, Tamara was selected to attend the wildly immersive NYS Summer School of the Arts, where her work secured space in a permanent Albright-Knox collection. Four years later, LaValla earned her BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University and gained inclusion into the Society of Illustrators esteemed 37th Annual of American Illustration and exhibition in NYC.

Upon graduation, Tamara moved to the Carolinas putting her degree to work as an award-winning Senior Artist for The Herald newspaper. In 2003, LaValla co-founded a multidisciplinary design firm which evolved into the present-day Social Design House. The following year, Tamara launched “Up,” a gallery, store and custom frame shop that featured work from local, regional, and international artists for nearly a decade.

In the late-2000s, Tamara proudly served as an Artists U facilitator for the SC Arts Commission, traveling the state to help fellow artists build balanced, sustainable careers. In addition to leading creative retreats around the world, Tamara has been an Instructor in the Department of Design at Winthrop University for the last two-plus decades.

Beyond her dedication to the classroom, and a smoldering studio practice, Tamara can routinely be found putting the wander — and wonder — back in her lust...