The Peacock
I brought my sketchbook to church one day. As I sat in the pew, I thought about what I wanted to draw. I had been looking at Robert Delaunay’s Rhythm, Joy of Life earlier that morning. And even though Delaunay’s painting is abstract, it reminded me of a peacock.
I painted a peacock shortly after the 2016 election. The peacock symbolized a heightened awareness that I felt at the time. I liked the colors in the painting, but I didn’t get the bird right. So I painted over it. The idea of creating a peacock stayed with me, in the back of my mind, as if it were waiting to take on new form.
While the pastor talked about the body and the spirit, I sketched a peacock with a well formed geometric pattern. The rhythm and form of Delaunay’s painting inspired me and I found a balance between movement and stillness, disruption and order.
Piet Mondrian wrote, “In life sometimes the spirit has been overemphasized at the expense of the body, sometimes one has been preoccupied with the body and neglected the spirit.” The pastor more or less said the same thing, but clothed in more theological terms. It occurred to me that artists and writers circle around the same truth: a search for meaning in form and essence.
In Greek mythology, the creature Argos had a hundred eyes. Hera commanded Argos to guard the maiden Io. Zeus wanted Io for himself, so he sent Hermes to kill him. After Hermes slayed Argos, Hera put the eyes of Argos into the tail feathers of a peacock. She transformed something ugly into something beautiful and preserved the spirit of Argos.
At home I turned the drawing into a design with Adobe Illustrator. Mondrian wouldn’t have approved. Too figurative. And he preferred rectangles. Still, the colorful circles and overlapping layers feel like an echo of the myth to me, reborn through color and geometry.
The way I see it, I gave the spirit of the idea a new body and preserved what might have otherwise vanished. And I reminded myself that art can transform something difficult, painful, and ugly into something beautiful.
