George Dee Smith was born on January 3, 1944 in Cody, Wyoming. He attended Cody Public Schools and graduated with honors in 1968. After receiving his architectural degree from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana in 1967, Dee then practiced architecture in Cody, Wyoming for six years. His projects included the wing to the Whitney Art Gallery at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in 1969 and then in 1973 the West Park Hospital. After frustrating years of being unable to control the quality of his projects he then decided to paint full time. In his senior year of college he had begun to paint to supplement his education costs. Dee is very concentrated in his pursuit of his career in art along with his wife, Jan. Artists who have influenced his career include his studying under Adolph Sporer and Edward T. Grigware. Dee describes their life as just simple mountain folks. He was one of the earliest members of the Cody Country Art League in 1960.

Comments by Dee Smith:

“I am a poor copier, I am a painter.”

“When I die, I will have just become a good painter.”