Doreyl Ammons Cain

Doreyl Ammons Cain... Artist & Writer...Born and raised in the Blue
Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Doreyl grew up drawing birds in
the dirt of the mountain roads around her home. Receiving her first art award in third grade, Doreyl won the South Carolina State Art award for teenagers, a purchase prize at Furman University and an art scholarship to the University of South Carolina.

Later, in California, while achieving a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master
of Arts degree in Biological/Medical Illustration, she garnered more awards,
this time in science as well. She received awards in anatomy, physiology and microbiology, and “The Best in the West Illustration Award” three years in a row.

Her dreams became a reality as she worked in about every artistic venue--
storyboarding for films, owning her own design & advertising agency (specializingin logo design) through which she won the Zellerbach Logo DesignAward and other design awards.

During this time she exhibited her works of fine art in group and individual
shows at the Smithsonian Institute, the Pentagon, Air Force Exhibitions in
Washington DC and at traveling art exhibitions in museums and galleries
throughout the country.

Since coming home to North Carolina, she cofounded Catch the Spirit of
Appalachia, Inc., a not-for-profit organization dedicated to honoring the heritage
and creativity of all people (www.spiritofappalachia.org). She and her sister,
Amy Garza, author and storyteller, have facilitated creativity workshops and
performed (storytelling and spontaneous visual art) for millions of children and
adults in schools and colleges. In 2005 she won a place in the Kennedy
Promotions Best of North Carolina Artists & Artisians book series.

Illustrator of many books, Doreyl paints book covers for Ammons
Communications and magazine covers for ‘Fun Things to do in the Mountains.’
Coauthor and illustrator of “Catch the Spirit of Creativity” and author of her own
book called “Greatness in a Nutshell,” Doreyl’s book’s help people explore their
unique creativity and follow their dream. Today she and her husband,Jerry Cain,
have designed a new line of art cards, limited Edition Giclee Art Prints and are
creating a nature preserve called “Nature’s Home” where Doreyl teaches pastel
painting and biological illustration and Jerry raises Koi fish.

As a child I roamed the mountains and coves of the Tuckasegee Valley in the southern Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. The life within every leaf, tiny ant, soaring bird and slow moving turtle intrigued me. I pressed myself as close as possible to the hovering bee and etched it’s dusty wings forever in my memory. Colors, shapes, movement surrounded me and sparked my imagination, coloring my troubled childhood with optimism. Living within the arms of nature, I learned to fly. Since returning to the mountains I’ve worked for twenty years with my sister, Amy Ammons Garza, creating performance art to her mountain stories for countless numbers of children and adults. Other venues remain; painting pastel cover art for the Fun Things to Do in the Mountains regional publication, writing a column called "Living in the Woods," painting cover art for book publication, making limited edition Giclee art prints of my art, painting community based murals and living a sustainable life-style in the western North Carolina mountains. My husband Jerry Cain and I have pioneered our own homestead called Nature’s Home. Many of my short stories and antidotes in this book are based on living in the backwoods and the learning absorbed from nature. Most of the writings are from my Living in the Woods column, first published in Fun Things to Do in the Mountains.
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By Doreyl Ammons Cain

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