Decorate your modern home with vintage-inspired design
My job as an artist and designer is to make your space more beautiful. Whether that’s through stitching patterns that you stitch up yourself, fabric you can sew your own projects with, or home decor products such as wallpaper, my aim is to uplift you and your surroundings. ❤️
Meet Peacock & Fig
Peacock & Fig is named to reflect my love of vintage art and design, such as the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau eras (which often showcased peacocks). The name also represents teal (peacock) and purple (fig), two colours that have featured heavily in my art and design for the past two decades. Plus, I also happen to live across the street from a park with wild peacocks in beautiful Victoria BC. The peacocks legitimately sometimes block the entrance to my building, staring at their reflections in the glass. I hope my designs similarly mesmerize you (but please, make sure to leave room for the residents to get past…) 😂
Peacock & Fig started as a hub to learn how to unwind and relax with the moving meditation that is cross stitch and embroidery. That led to designing stitching patterns inspired by vintage florals (and a pinch of sass), and in the past several years I expanded my art and design skills into surface pattern design and illustration. For analog media I love to play with watercolours and dip ink pens, and I also create a lot of artwork in digital software such as Procreate and Adobe Illustrator. No matter the medium or end product, one thing is the same in all my designs — my love of beautiful uplifting colours, being inspired by vintage art but adding in a modern and less formal twist, and deeply wanting to inspire others to create beautiful surroundings for themselves.
Meet Dana
I personally have learned the importance of creating an environment that uplifts you and inspires you. I am a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, and I was hurt during my service as an Air Force Intelligence Officer. The loss of my career due to the injury (neck and shoulder), plus learning how to cope with ongoing chronic pain, forced me to start over again in a completely new way. Stitching not only became “therapy” as a means to cope, but also the finished product was a reminder that I was still capable of creating beautiful things. My desire with Peacock & Fig is to help inspire people to create and surround themselves with beauty. It is an integral part of our lives, particularly since the pandemic when so many people had to work from home in less-than-ideal situations. Our environment shapes our day, our ability to focus, and our capacity to handle whatever life throws at us. I feel very honoured to be an artist, to be able to uplift and bring fun and joy to people through my designs. Beauty gives us hope, and with hope we can do anything.
Dana’s Military Service
Below are a few photos of my time in the military. If you’d like to find out more about my story as a military member, you can see me as one of the featured riders in “Warrior Rising,” a documentary that was made about the Wounded Warriors Canada Battlefield Bike Ride in June 2015. I was the only rider with physical challenges, and using a recumbent trike (and riding with my service dog Coco), the trip was 600km from Vimy Ridge, France to Nijmegen, the Netherlands over six days.
Work with Dana
If you’re interested in working with me for design commissions for surface pattern designs, spot illustrations, or a collaboration, please email me at dana@peacockandfig.com or use the contact form. I occasionally will take on commissions for stitching pattern designs (I work with industry magazines such as XStitch Magazine and companies like DMC), but my main focus currently is illustration and surface design.
