DORAL, Fla.-- When Fernando Dávila was 8 years old in Colombia, he failed a drawing class because he painted donkeys red.There was a reason for that: He is colorblind.Now the 72-year-old Dávila is an established and respected artist whose vibrant paintings have been exhibited in South America, Europe and the United States.“I have the most wonderful job in the world, which is painting every morning,” Dávila said from his studio in a Miami suburb.
“To mix colors.To have joy to share with the world, that's really my passion.”He started off painting only in black and white until he was around 30 years old because of his colorblindness, a congenital condition which makes it difficult for people to tell the difference between certain colors, particularly red and green, and shades of color.
There is no cure for the condition, which for Dávila also makes the colors pink, violet, turquoise and yellow-green confusing.Since the mid-1980s, Dávila has painted in color through the help of glasses developed by an ophthalmologist in New York, where Dávila was living at the time.One lens is transparent and the other is shaded red, and they help him discriminate between contrasting shades that normally blur together.
With the lenses, he can see almost two-thirds of the colors, but without them he only sees around 40% of the colors.Dávila compared his condition to having a box of chocolates but only being able to eat a sample of the selection.He says he has such a strong desire to see every color.“It's something that I miss in my life, that if somebody says, ‘Look at this flower,’ which is bright, bright pink, I want to do it,” he said.
“It's something that comes from my heart so passionately.I can feel the vibration of color.”Popular ReadsWoman fatally stabbed at Barnes & Noble store in apparently unprovoked attack: PoliceDec 24, 11:50 AMJudge tells administration to submit plans for return of migrants sent to El SalvadorDec 22, 7:01 PMRob Reiner's...