Dori DeCamillis

This Saturday I am hosting my first Without a Net Workshop at Red Dot Gallery. I am pleased to offer this work to others, and if all goes well I hope to offer it in different venues. A short description is below, and a longer one is here . In the same vein, check out my new post on WithoutaNet.Blog .  Here is  a short description:  In the spirit of my artistic explorations in my own paintings, Without a Net workshop will offer participants creative exercises in various artistic media that explore personal mind states and perspectives in a judgment-free setting. With humor and self-acceptance as touchstones, participants will explore their own mind states, both light and shadowy, to engender courage, promote self-honesty, and acknowledge the universality of human frailty. The practices will fuel creative thinking while helping to develop resilience and equanimity. The group setting enhances a collective, unifying experience that facilitates growth and under...

This post is an update of the past weeks. At home and work I've been busy, so here's a short photo recap of my goings on. My mom will appreciate it. The photo from above was taken on a silent retreat at Sacred Heart Monastery in Cullman, Alabama. I had our invasive forest ripped out and laid a whole lot of sod. After 10 years of fighting nasty vines and bushes, we are happy to see our large property. I donated a painting to the Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell. Lovely Maggie Johnston (of Camp McDowell) and Janice Barrett (of Wild South) modeled with me. It's always nice to hang out with other tall girls. Scott and I spent a lazy day on Clear Creek in the Bankhead Forest at Camp McDowell picnicking with friends and fishing I got a new guitar and this is the case. The guitar is even prettier. We hosted Halcyon, the solo show for Mary Compton at Red Dot Gallery. Mary's family came from Baltimore...

Stain glass shadows on meditation chairs and pillows This post is repeated on my other blog withoutanet.com . Photos below article. A couple weekends ago I was invited by a friend to spend four days at Magnolia Grove Monastery , a Buddhist meditation center under the auspices of the famous Vietnamese Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh. My friend comes to the center regularly, and had been wanting to share one of her favorite places with me for a while. Tucked away in the woods and fields of Mississippi, it was a bit like going to another country. The community of monks and nuns (with shaved heads and long brown robes) speak Vietnamese with some broken English. They are gentle and friendly, and make visitors feel peaceful just to look at them.  There is a large, beautiful Meditation Hall and statues of Buddha around the grounds. The rest of the buildings, for eating and sleeping, are fairly Spartan. We slept dormitory style in a small house. Meals consisted of simpl...

A couple of weeks ago I went to Trappist, Kentucky for a four day silent retreat at  Thomas Merton's Gethsemane Abbey. People come from all over the world to visit. www.monks.org On the way, my husband and I visited Daylily World the daylily gardens of David Kirchhoff and Mort Morss. They are among America's preeminent hybridizers, and their gardens and home are out of a storybook. For 43 years they have been coming up with some of the world's most dazzling hybrids.  On the retreat I spent my days taking walks though the gorgeous Abbey grounds, having some luxurious time to myself, and appreciating the atmosphere created by over 150 years of monks at prayer. The grounds had farm fields, surprisingly steep forested "knobs," and lakes. I liked the way the light streamed in to my room one late afternoon. I have time to appreciate this kind of stuff when I'm not cramming my day with activity. The architecture o...

I went on a silent retreat at a monastery this past weekend. I do it every spring and fall. For 48 hours I don’t talk, read, write or hear a word. It is one of the happiest things I do. I go to the Benedictine Sisters Retreat Center at the Sacred Heart Monastery, and it isn’t just for Catholics. People of many different faiths attend the silent weekend—Buddhists, yogis, Jews, and plenty of Protestants. The most asked question I get concerning the silent weekend is, “What do you do?” The answer is, “mostly, nothing.” I take walks around the beautiful grounds, sit in the sunshine or stand in the rain, take a nap, do yoga and meditate, eat the three meals prepared by the sisters, but no matter how many simple activities I come up with, there is still plenty of time for “nothing.” That means lying and looking at the texture on the ceiling, picking a blade of grass and playing with it, closing your eyes and listening to the complete silence in one of the few places you can find it th...