Art Journaling- Lost Peacock

Sometimes it is hard to find inspiration, and sometimes, it is sitting in your driveway on a Friday afternoon. I live in the middle of Tacoma, WA. I love city living because of the colorful atmosphere of the neighborhoods. There are no HOAs or covenants, so as long as homeowners aren't cooking meth, or housing enough junk to create a health hazard, people can pretty much do what they want. This creates an eclectic mix of houses. Yes, I have to put up with neighbors having grass a little long, and dandelions in the yard. Since my yard isn't particularly gorgeous, its okay. When the girls color the sidewalk, it can stay there until the rain washes it away. There are odd colored houses, and boats and RVs parked in yards, and I just don't care. The people around me care about their homes, and they may not maintain them in the same manner I would, but we all get to live and let live, and I love that. There is so much personality in each home, and that makes me happy.




Living in the city brings a certain unexpectedness to each day. Some days it is wondering why someone chose that paint color. On this particular Friday, however, it was "Why are there freaking peacocks in my driveway?" Now I know, you're thinking, "You can't have peacocks in the city!" Upon research done among the many neighbors involved in peacock Friday, yes, you can. In Tacoma, animal control considers peacocks wild birds, and treats them the same as seagulls or crows, which means they ignore them.

Even jaded city dwellers get excited when something extraordinary occurs. Usually when I see a ton of my neighbors, something is on fire, or someone is fighting outside (which has never actually been someone who lives here, which is odd, but good). It is quite rare to see them outside all at once. However, one of the first nice Northwest days, sunny and warm, paired with a couple of visiting peacocks brought all the neighbors out to talk.

There was a male and a female, and they wandered about the block as if it were their own. Meanwhile, Budgie is chasing them and trying to feed them bread, my dog is going nuts, and my cat is trying to attack the birds three times her size. People driving by slam on their brakes to see the peacocks, and one family drives by and asks "Where are those peacocks I've heard about?" Other neighbors bring out bread, and even the two-week old across the street came out for the excitement. The peacocks ran the neighborhood for a day. We heard them on the way out to the car before dawn, and didn't know what the sound was. Around dusk, the neighbor runs out of the house, on his cell, yelling "I found the owners!" It turned out, he posted pictures on Facebook (as did I) and a friend of a friend who commented recognized his peacocks. Can you believe people think Facebook is useless? It found the peacock owner!

Since the peacocks brought so much excitement to my Friday, I decided to do an art journal page about them. Really, how often can you say inspiration was literally standing in front of you?

Wishing you all a happy peacock Friday!
~Venetia