Doris Vlasek-Hails was born in Chicago in 1938, a year after Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in the Prairie Ave mansion architect Richard Hunt had designed for Chicago department store magnate, Marshall Field.  This is significant, because it confirmed that Chicago was an early center of abstract painting theory in the United States.  Although Vlasek-Hails received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and not the Institute of Design, the influence of the early abstract painters and modernists working in this city greatly influenced her style.  Vlasek-Hails moved from Chicago to Indianapolis and became a professor of art at the John Herron Art Institute. In 2000, Hails opened the Indianapolis art gallery Woodburn and Westcott Contemporary Fine Art with her husband, Stan Woodburn Hails.

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Exhibiting in Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Paris, Hails was known primarily for her vibrant and dynamic abstract and non-objective paintings and collages. She also worked as a sculptor creating works in metal and wood, in addition to working in ceramics.