Portfolio Home Artist Statement Artist Biography Artist Resumé Publications Contact Artist Statement I am the needle and thread off of my family tree. My father was a fashion designer and his father, a tailor. When I was a young girl I learned to darn and sew by watching and imitating my mother’s handiwork. As a teenager and adult I made my own clothes and my daughter’s when she was a child. Sewing was a passion that kept me connected to my family roots. I happened on embroidery in an accidental fashion. After our pet hamster died, I satin-stitched a floral embroidery honoring him. In the process, I became fascinated with the media’s potential. Several years later I was awed by the sight of a great white egret fishing in a local brook. In the aftermath, I designed what became the first in a series of hand embroideries encompassing wetlands, meadowlands, and woodlands. The works are designed on a circle to honor our Earth. Using traditional surface embroidery stitches with antique and contemporary threads, the work connects the past with the present. They are inspired by oriental approaches to design and technique with realistic rather than stylistic motifs. Prayers for the Earth suites are meditations on nature and a celebration of habitats. Ignited by wonder and conceived out of love and passion for my subjects, I offer them as an invitation to others to become spiritually one with nature. I take my cues directly from Nature herself and master artists with whom I connect: Katsushika Hokusai, Vincent van Gogh, Will Barnet, George Segal, and Dorothy Gillespie. ©  2014 by Kay Faye Fialkoff. All rights reserved.