Meeting with Argentinean artist Atilio Pernisco, I reconnected with the notion that “colors are just tint” and that as awkward as it may be, the color green isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With over 10 years as an artist and having created more than 100 pieces, Pernisco assures us that although his inability to see certain colors was once a burden in his life, it is that old burden that has given his art pieces a whole new perspective. U.S. born Pernisco studied the arts in Pasadena, CA but not before spending much of his childhood in Liniers, Buenos Aires. We met with Pernisco at Silver Lake’s Metro Gallery where we spoke about the moment that he became aware of his color blindness, trying to cope with that as a struggling artist and about the “green faces” that make up some of his work.

HG: Can you recall the moment you realized that you were color blind?

AP: It was in kindergarten. I remember the teacher telling me “Atilio, pick up the brown crayon” and I swear to you I didn’t know which one to pick up, so as I was about to pick up a color she stops me and tells me “No, no. That’s green.” And it was like that up until I learned to read the labels and discovered that if the name of the color started with “br” then it was brown and if it started with “gr” then it was green.

HG: How has that affected your work and what has been the response of those who see it for the first time?

AP: People see my paintings and ask “the green faces are really interesting, what’s the symbolism behind them?“ and I’m like, “What? I painted green faces!” I can’t see red or green, and working with pure colors can be difficult. I never said anything about it because I think it is a disadvantage. I suppose I was assuming that anyone that saw my paintings would think that my faces weren’t normal. I didn’t know that they would be accepted.

HG: Was that “misinterpretation of color” what occurred when you created “La última vuelta”?

AP: I did “La última vuelta” about Laura, a woman I know. She’s a very nice person but she could never have a baby and was very sad on the inside, but she would never tell you that or let you know it. She goes out and is a very sociable person, but on the inside she’s different. “La última vuelta” is about her broken dreams and about the sense of lost. The ferris wheel symbolizes childhood and the dead animals can represent either unfulfilled dreams or dead dreams. So I don’t care about her face being green so much as people do, perhaps it adds to the story.

HG: How has the passing of time affected the symbolism and meaning to the pieces?

AP: The symbolism changes the second you recall something. Like Borges said, “you change the past, you create the fiction and then it’s an interpretation and not so much a reality”. Symbolisms are universal so you can see certain icons that would touch your buttons in the now, but that might not do so in the future, or might not have in the past.

HG: Does your color-blindness affect other parts of your life?

AP: It does when I work on graphic design which I also do aside from painting. There's been instances where I’ll get a call from someone and they’ll tell me “hey your work looks great but why is the face of the teddy bear green?” But as an artist I have the liberty to do what I want because after all, colors are just tint and if it feels right then I just leave it.

HG: So then we should expect to see more green faces?

AP: Probably, I can’t help it. Right now I’m trying to discover
how to mimic the color of a squid into two new art pieces. Squids are huge and large and they give me the idea that they’re popping up on shores somewhere and creating chaos! I understand now that I have to open up a bit more to things along the line of environmental are being extinct. And if it turns out green then, oh well, let it be green!

To view more of Atilio’s work and to see what Metro Gallery has to offer, log on to www.metrogallery.org