I draw a lot of birds and sheep. They are my default creatures and I love them. I just drew the ballpoint peacock bird up top for a friend’s forthcoming album art. He’d said the album was inspired by late, fabled novelist Flannery O’Connor and then told me about her obsession with birds, something I had no awareness of.
I did a little research and came upon this amazing magazine essay O’Connor wrote in 1964 where she explained the roots of her bird-love and why she raised peacocks in particular.
Here is a completely awesome quote from it:
“The peacock does most of his serious strutting in the spring and summer when he has a full tail to do it with. Usually he begins shortly after breakfast, struts for several hours, desists in the heat of the day, and begins again in the late afternoon. Each cock has a favorite station where he performs every day in the hope of attracting some passing hen; but if I have found anyone indifferent to the peacock’s display, besides the telephone lineman, it is the peahen. She seldom casts an eye at it. The cock, his tail raised in a shimmering arch around him, will turn this way and that, and with his clay-colored wing feathers touching the ground, will dance forward and backward, his neck curved, his beak parted, his eyes glittering. Meanwhile, the hen goes about her business, diligently searching the ground as if any bug in the grass were of more importance than the unfurled map of the universe which floats nearby.”
Amazingly, hilariously perfect.
On that note, it is now time for the latest WEEKLY NEW WONDERS PLAYLIST featuring the finest songs from this week’s travels. There are many beauties, for real, for real. You can listen below on Soundcloud or Spotify. Bird on…
Listen on Soundcloud
Listen on Spotify
PICKING UP ROCKS 