Dori DeCamillis

Today the beautiful and talented Kendra Thornton shares a few of her favorite things about her home city of Chicago, and I give my take on good stuff in Birmingham. Kendra is a former communications director at Orbitz , a travel advocate, TV spokesperson, PR businesswoman, and mom of 3.  photo by Jais Stanfield Why I Love Birmingham by Dori I moved to Alabama almost 20 years ago after spending 3 years traveling all over the country fulltime. Of all the places in the lower 48, I chose to settle in Birmingham because of a long list of practical and poetic reasons. I’ve not regretted it for a day. Besides its amiable climate, lush and mountainous terrain, easy to navigate layout and amazingly friendly people, there are a host of excellent things to do. Dining It surprises people to know that Birmingham is home to a few of the very best restaurants in the country. Chefs Frank Stitt, owner of Highlands Bar and Grill , Bottega , and Chez FonFon , and Chris ...

My paintings are featured on The Wall Breakers , an uncommonly refreshing art site. It features a wide variety of interesting work and the commentary is to the point, unpretentious, and insightful. It stands out by showing current and relevant work while keeping an uplifting tone. I never see post I don't like. James Scully wrote some good comments on my work.

I had a fantastic weekend at Camp McDowell at the Alabama Folk School for OLD TIME MUSIC & CRAFTS WEEK October 31 - November 3, 2013 The four day workshop included music and art classes by world-class instructors. Only a few of the classes and their teachers represented here.  Above: Doug Baulos teaches a book binding and decorative papers class. I was amazed at how many highly professional projects they completed. These are the woods through which you walk to class. Pretty much paradise. You can hear banjos and fiddles echoing through the woods from the various classes. Eric Thompson of Berkeley, CA taught beginning Mandolin. See his bio below. Suzy Thompson of Berkeley taught intermediate fiddle.  Part of bio from Eric and Susie's website : These virtuoso roots musicians specialize in the down-home sounds of the American South. Their musical palette includes Appalachian story-songs and bluegrass breakdowns, classi...

My work was recently featured on Zealous.co, a British art website. Zealous

Today is Miss Dori's Junk Drawing Day at Red Dot. My kid class gets to sketch old stuff I find when I clean out drawers and closets. (They don't relate to the stuff on an emotional level, so they tend to pay attention more and draw better.) Kamilla, Bay, Mia, Rivers, and Katie drew the subjects below and came up with the drawings that follow. Katie Bay Rivers Mia Kamilla

Then How When Nature Calls Thee       SOLD I just posted these new paintings from 2013 on the website (reddotgallery.com) All are painted this year, and they all measure 16" x 20" In Profound Abysm I Throw All    Like the Ocean Be Thy Jewel in Hand But Here's the Joy

"Italwas"   48" x 60"  2009 I painted this image of a Creek Indian Village as a commission for a collector. He lived on a hill above a bend in a creek where a Creek Village reportedly existed long ago, and he wanted a historically accurate representation of what the village might have looked like from his house. His home is near Talladega, Alabama.  I did months of research. With the help of the now late Miriam Fowler who worked at the Birmingham Museum of Art, I pulled together the image with references to the customs, culture, and village layout. I also used as a reference "Bartram's Travels" written by William Bartram, a detailed description of encounters with Native Americans in 1791. It is one of the very few bits of info about the lives of the Creeks back then. (As noted in Wikipedia, the original title to Bartram's book is:  Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive...