Color blind Rockford-area muralist enlightened by special glasses
LOVES PARK — Muralist Brett Whitacre is seeing his artwork — and everything else in the world for that matter — in a whole new light.
The 45-year-old Rockford-area muralist, who happens to be color blind, tried on a special pair of glasses Friday and for the first time saw colors the way the majority of the public sees them.
He donned the glasses outside of his recently painted mural on the north side of the building at 5545 N. Second St.
"Wow! Oh wow!
"I'm really drawn to the reds and oranges."
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Color blind or not, southbound drivers on North Second Street can't help but notice the 116-foot-long mural that features a rainbow of colors with overlapping letters that spell out "Loves Park." To make the colors pop out even more, Whitacre painted the mural on a black canvas.
"This feels like you know how in the '70s and '80s they used Technicolor, and you could tell the color was enhanced. "Well, this (the EnChroma glasses) is like an enhancement."
To give a picture of how he normally sees color, Whitacre pointed to a passing bright orange garbage truck.
"Without the glasses, that's a green truck to me," he said.
As for the light brown color of peanut butter? Whitacre said, "I thought it was green forever."
As for the actual color of green and its many different shades, Whitacre said, "The greens have always been an issue. I can't tell one shade to the next. But I'm seeing it so much better now."
Same thing for the color brown.
"Brown is better to me now. I see the orange in it. I always thought brown was just a mix of all the colors, but it actually has a lot of orange. It makes more sense."
Markus Smith, a State Farm insurance agent, whose office building is next door to the mural, also owns the building that the mural is painted on and hired Whitacre to paint the work of art.
"I wanted something that was going to be unique but for the area. I didn't want advertising on it, and he gave me 'Loves Park.' I love it."
According to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, about 3.7% or 12 million Americans are colorblind.
The color enhancing or color-correction glasses worn by Whitacre cost about $300 and are made by EnChroma, a Berkeley, California-based company that developed the patented lens technology to improve the lives of people with color blindness.
To foster accessibility and inclusion, EnChroma glasses are offered to color blind guests in Illinois at the Museum of Science & Industry Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Plainfield Public Library and the Downer’s Grove Public Library.
Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Special glasses makes Loves Park mural even more eye-popping
