When most of us look at an orange, red or yellow flower, we simply see nothing else but that color of the plant. Unlike us, this artist is able to sees an array of other colours at the flower’s edges as she is able to see 100 times more hues than the average person.
Artist Concetta Antico from San Diego, California says she was blessed with the ability to absorb more colourful lights as she has more receptors in her eyes from being tetrachromatic. While a regular person is able to see approximately one million colours with three cones in their eye color vision, tetrachromat Concetta is able to see up to 99 million with a fourth cone class. These cones are light-sensitive cells that are located in the retina of the eye and are responsible for responding mainly to bright light and the sharpness of vision, colour perception and then transmitting them to the brain. It was deduced from the handful of tetrachromats that have been identified, that only 2% of women have the genes to see the world in a more colorful and beautiful way.
Ms. Antico says that she makes the most of her talent to see more colours by painting “bright, impressionistic pictures of animals and landscapes”. She also said that she tries to instruct people on how to look at the colours around them in a new and more exciting way.
“Everyone has the potential to expand their ability to see colours the way I do, but our urban lifestyles and focus on technology is shutting it off,” she said. “I’m the one here waving the colour flag, teaching people to see the turquoise and greens in the grey rocks and even tap into their own interpretations of the colours that exist.”
