About Zuckervati

I suppose if you’ve been reading my site for any length of time, you’re probably curious to know who I am, and why I think people will read my blog. Online, I’m known as Zuckervati, mostly because it’s easy to google. That’s why this site sometimes says zuckervati.com, and sometimes says dhmckee.com.

Easy to google. That’s a sentence which didn’t exist pre-2000.

I paint, write, photograph, blog, do graphic design, marketing, and watch a lot of television. I often sit in coffee shops and read or write. I live in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

I use D. H. McKee as my name when I write and paint. This is because it’s almost impossible to search for David McKee on the Internet and find me. SEO, folks.

Pretty much since I’ve been on the Web, I’ve used the pseudonym, Zuckervati. It’s German, and it roughly translates to “Sugar Daddy.” It was an inside joke (I’m actually quite cheap thrifty). Also, I’m not German, but Kitchener, the town I live in, has a strong German heritage. It has the biggest Oktoberfest outside of Bavaria.

In all honesty, a pseudonym isn’t so useful when you’re trying to gain notoriety, unless you go all in with the brand recognition, like Sting, Prince, and … I dunno, Spider-man. So, I eventually switched back to using my real name. Except that there were already multiple writers, artists, painters, galleries, and multinational engineering corporations that already used that name. Also, hockey players and American politicians. Not to mention the historical landmarks and streets.

So, D. H. McKee. It sounds fairly literary and artistic, once you let it sink in. Like D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, A. Y. Jackson, A. J. Casson, and so on. Sounds a little mysterious, too. What could the initials stand for? Who is this person who doesn’t want us to know their full name.

I was born in London, Ontario, Canada. I lived in Toronto for a while during university, and again afterwards. I’m now living in Kitchener-Waterloo, a place between the two.

I was inspired early on in both art and writing, getting special motivation in high school, and later in university as I dodged my classes in math and science. I spent a lot of time working on art and writing at the University of Western Ontario, also studying journalism, anthropology, and pop-culture. I made a short film, and it got short-listed for a film festival, so there’s that.

I came away with a degree in English Literature and Film from UWO, but there didn’t seem to be any jobs in that area, so I took up my other love, computers. There were plenty of jobs for a computer guy, so I became one with the high-tech industry, finally settling down somewhere in middle management.

In my spare time, I still paint and write. I participate in local exhibitions, and I curate shows when I get the chance.

You can see my art blog at http://www.zuckerloft.com. If you see a painting you like, let me know, and it might be available.