My name is Jessica King…
I was doing simple beading at age 3. Beads where always around and something that I could do quietly anytime. I was so into beading growing up that for one of my birthday’s I took my friends to a bead shop and we all made a necklace. I still have but it only fits as a choker. Getting into my grandmother and mother’s jewelry drawers was a favorite pastime activity. The sparkling cocktail pieces where my favorite. I experimented with silversmithing at college and also made some unusual found object pieces and a necklace made from the fronds of a date palm and a cut up placemat.
I have been an artist since I was 4 years old. It’s in my blood, passed on through the generations of relatives that worked with their hands. My love of getting down and crafty, lead me to get my degree in fine arts. My concentration was Sculpture with a minor in Women’s Studies. I started out with steel fabrication. It was challenging and very rewarding. It allowed me the opportunity to be the master of some very powerful tools I created. But I found many draw backs to working with metal; the cost and the dangers of physical injury and long-term toxic exposure were the issues I directly faced. Another factor that was a cause for concern is that metal is a precious resource. Plus add the fact that large metal sculptures need a lot of room to house and a large pocket book to afford them. I made the transition to mixed media art as a way of expressing a truer part of myself. I use the everyday materials that are around all of us to not only speak about the world in which we live in but the inner dimensions of my soul. My artist abilities never came from just what I learned from school. They come from places of stillness and chaos, where I love to dwell.
I was about seven or eight when I got my first camera. At first I used it to document my summers spent on vacation and summer camp. But as I got older and more into fashion magazines I really got into taking pictures of my girlfriends. We posed in front of bed linen backdrops. By the time my senior year of high school came around I was on the yearbook staff. I took three semesters of photography in college. I really began to focus my lens on nature. I found unusual beauty in the weeping wounds of trees. My first wedding photographer gig was in 2001 for my brother who lives in Indiana. Since that time I’ve been behind the camera at several weddings and captured expectant mothers and precious babies.
As long as I can remember wanting to be an artist I can also remember being a nature lover. As a young child I got caught throwing Kleenex shreds on the ground in a bookstore by mother. My punishment was picking up all the trash, in the whole store! After I got home I wrote a poem and drew some pictures about taking care of Mother Nature. From that moment on I have felt the call to be a steward of the environment. It is important to me to think about how I live affect more than just my family and the place we live. My example might help shape how others treat the world. I’m not perfect, I still use paper towels, I get carry out and to go containers but I recycle everything I can. I take too long of a shower and I have a lot of grass to water, but I have low flow showerheads and faucets and I do turn the shower off when I’m not rinsing and I don’t use fertilizers or pesticides. I compost, have a vegetable garden and have wild flowers for the butterflies and bees. But now that I have a child and I see the state of the planet now more than ever I feel the pull to make a difference.
The first time I saw behind the fairy veil I was eight years old. It was in the books that my mother and aunt bought for me and in the gardens around my home. Out amongst the flowers and trees I saw them dancing and fluttering in the branches and petals. I think I must have collected every fairy book in and out of print from the 70’s on including all the folklore and artwork dating back thru medieval times. I hoarded anything and everything on the subject of fairies from Herself the Elf to Tinkerbelle Back in my day that was all there was commercially available concerning fairies. Now there has been a blossoming of fairies within the mainstream. Many more personalities, culture, characters, accoutrements, fiction and media are readily available to all ages of fairy fans.
I always wanted a child to pass fairy lore on to. So when I found out that I was pregnant I whispered to the fairies to give me a “child of the fae”. I wanted to know that my baby would be watched over by my winged guardians. I made a promise that I would teach my child about the ways of the fairies and how important it is to believe in things unseen as well as to protect the wilds in which they dwell. They answered my prayers with a beautiful baby girl. She is everything I hoped for. She has many fairy qualities about her. From her tipped elfin ears to the jeweled twinkle in her eyes, she has the glimmer of a child who sees beyond the material world. Fiona a pixie toddler but she also has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Whatever her limitations are or may be they will not stop her from making an impact in the lives of all that know her. She has this certain way about her that illuminates through her whole being. Her personality is always light and jolly. Her smile is enchanting and so grand that it shines through her whole being. My beautiful daughter, Fiona Grace King is the living and growing inspiration behind Miss Fi’s Kingdom and all of the wonders within it.
With in Miss Fi’s realm you will find my journey through creative discoveries and greener living. I design things that I think the fairies would like. Using common items and unique finds I will create items that will inspire a more magical lifestyle. Most important I will find ways to make things that are useful and benefit to the world we live in.