LOCAL ARTISTS
Local artist hosts photography exhibit honoring Pete the peacock
Less than a year ago, San Marcos lost one of its icons, Pete the Peacock, who resided over the San Marcos Cemetery for over a decade. The town grieved and even dedicated a memorial headstone at the cemetery for the bird but nearly a year later his memory lives on inside Wake the Dead Coffeehouse. Vibrant photos of Pete line the walls of the coffee shop for the full month of March. Behind the camera is local artist Rene Perez who had a unique relationship with the feathered friend. He lives near the cemetery and often takes walks through its peaceful paths.
About a decade ago, Perez and Pete’s path crossed. One day Perez walked out of his home to find Pete there. After watching the bird walk back to the cemetery, the artist decided to grab his camera and go for a walk. It was the end of bluebonnet season, so a lone bluebonnet flower caught his eye. He got down on his knees to capture the flower up close and instantly got a feeling that he was being watched.
“I look up, and he’s like 10 feet away from me. And I’m down on the ground. He’s just there staring,” Perez said. “So I kind of just sat down, and then he started walking up to me. And then he just walked past me, and I was like, Wow! That was one of our first encounters.”
Perez then looked around and noticed one of the graves next to him was William F. Lindsey, one of the founders of San Marcos. He then noticed Pete would post up near the Charles S. Cock grave who was San Marcos’s second mayor serving from 1881-1883. These coincidences gave Perez the feeling that Pete embodied the spirit of San Marcos.
“He was always there, always at the cemetery, I could always count on him every time I went,” Perez said. Throughout the years, the artist would take walks, camera in hand, ready to capture his muse. Photos on display at Wake the Dead include close ups of Pete locking eyes with the camera, perching on grave stones and flashing his plum of iridescent feathers.
Most locals know of Perez’s work through his whimsical paintings that depict local wildlife blending into the local landscape. He personifies creatures like cats, birds, fish and even Pete, posing them in ways that connect to the town’s culture, whether that’s floating on the river or walking through the square. His artwork has solidified itself physically in the town with murals all throughout the city. Perez has had many art exhibitions and holds down a residency at Blue Dahlia Bistro, but his current show at Wake the Dead is his first exclusively photography exhibit.
Perez is an avid photographer, taking his camera not only on walks through the cemetery, but often on the river where he captures the wildlife that calls the San Marcos River home.
“I think I was a photographer before I was a painter; I remember in high school I would climb up on a tree and take pictures of a fight from a birds eye view,” Perez said.
He keeps the practice alive by taking weekly river trips on his kayak.
“I’ve been doing a lot of river photography, so I’ve been getting a lot more into that and that always feeds my paintings,” Perez said. “That’s why I painted Pete so much because I had a ton of peacock pictures.”
The artist had stopped painting Pete after his death, but while preparing for the show and revisiting the hundreds of peacock photos, he felt inspiration to paint his friend once again.
“He was just the perfect little addition to all the nature that’s already there and all the wildlife; it’s really sad that he’s not there anymore. It’s not the same,” Perez said.
One can visit his photography exhibit throughout March at Wake the Dead Coffeehouse. View more of Perez’s work on his website at jreneperez. com and his instagram at @reneperezart Explore his river photography on his instagram
at @riverratsmtx Photos of Pete the Peacock provided by Rene Perez
