Meet Dee

People always ask, “How long have you been an artist?”  I never quite know what to say, so I answer, “My whole life.”  Haven’t we all been spending our whole lives becoming an artist at whatever it is we do?  I’ve loved pushing pencils and crayons since the day I first remember holding them.  It’s great to love what you do and do what you love.

I’ve owned a computer since the day the “home computer” was available. It consisted of a keyboard and a box.  The keyboard, a tv and a cassette player all plugged into that small box.  The so called “‘programs” were on the cassette. It was all so exciting, so new and full of potential.  That has never ended for me.  My love for playing with computers has become almost as strong as my love for art.

For the last nine years I’ve been working in a local art center gallery and became it’s director about three years ago.  Over this course of time in working with artists, I became very aware of their computer needs.   So in 2007, I married all my passions and started teaching artists how to deal with computers and the Internet to help with art marketing.

One of the biggest road blocks for artists is not understanding how to work with digital images of their artwork.  Until that is mastered, it’s difficult to move forward with a solid and safe art web presence on the Internet.

I teach workshops for artists, do one-on-one consulting and tutoring when necessary.  I also teach classes at a local college campus.  If you live in southern Michigan, you can check out my class website to see my teaching schedule, but I will also add those to my list here on the Speaking page.

Since physics restricts me to being in only one place at any given time, my goal this year is to develop online materials and classes to help reach as many artists as possible.

In the past, DeeOverly.com has just been my artist website.  But now it’s my home base for all my passions from which to grow outward.  I’m looking forward to a fun and exciting 2013.

Below is a quick overview of my life history.  You can read things specific to my art career on The Artist page.

Born: In the 1950s, Napoleon, Ohio

Raised: On a farm outside of Grand Rapids, Ohio

College: Bowling Green State University, 1970

U.S. Army & Ohio Army National Guard, 1974-1980

College: University of Toledo, 1978-1980
Owens Community College, 1982-1985

Children: Two, daughter and son

Irrigation Designer: 1984-1994, Toledo, Ohio

Built Neon Signs:  1991-1998

Moved to Michigan in 2001, where I began my pursuit in the arts again

If you have any questions, ideas, comments, etc., please feel free to contact me.  Plus there are lots of places on this website where you can leave comments as you read things.