Debra Lee Valeri, born in 1960, grew up in Bridgewater, MA. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1982 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. At RISD, she studied with illustrators Chris Van Allsburg, David Porter, Lester Abrams, and David McCauley; painters Tom Sgouros and Trent Burleson; and color field theorist Sy Sillman.
Her early career as an illustrator began with both freelance and staff positions at advertising agencies and manufacturers. In 1988 she acquired her MA Teacher’s Certification from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. In the next five years that followed she taught art at an area high school while teaching illustration each summer at Rhode Island School of Design Summer Sessions.
Debra, along with her husband and two children, moved to Westport, MA in 1999 where she soon discovered the rich local landscape that would become her passion and source of artistic inspiration. Adapting to the lifestyle changes and time constraints that go along with raising a young family, her creative endeavors expanded into various forms of digital media, such as digital photography, photomontage, and digital painting.
In 2007, she built a new studio in Westport where she now focuses on painting oil landscapes full time.