Few people experience light and color the way Concetta Antico does. But with her latest endeavor, The Alchemy Lounge, the owner of The Salon of Art Gallery in La Jolla hopes to broaden the way people view the world and indeed the universe.
Antico, a painter, is tetrachromatic, meaning she can perceive more than 100 million colors due to the presence in her eyes of four types of cones, or photoreceptors.
Most people have three, allowing them to see 1 million to several million colors. The additional cone that Antico and other tetrachromats have allows heightened sensitivity.
For example, what most perceive as green or black can appear much more complex to Antico and an estimated 12% of women with tetrachromacy.
Beyond art, Antico has long had an interest in the supernatural. In her youth, her mother and grandmother would turn teacups upside down, throw a pinch of salt over their shoulders and place brooms around the house — practices often done to promote good fortune and ward off negative energy.
“Over the generations, I think these kinds of folk tales and interesting tidbits get ed down through family ties,” Antico said. “And I want to bring some of that back, because you’d be surprised how many stories people have once you open the door. There’s a lot of rabbit holes we can run down.”
The Alchemy Lounge will feature monthly events in which The Salon of Art Gallery at 7655 Fay Ave. transforms into a space dedicated to metaphysical exploration and community-building, Antico said.
The events on the second Thursday of each month will feature guest speakers, various rituals and seasonal food and beverages.
Topics will include astrology, astronomy, new-age ideas and “anything in that realm,” Antico said. She described it as “a spiritual party of sorts.”
“It will be controversial for sure,” she added.
The Alchemy Lounge’s inaugural event will be from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, June 12, with astrologer and alchemist Timothy Thayer, a friend of Antico’s for 30 years whom she describes as a “wizard.” Thayer operates Timothy the Astrologer in Ocean Beach.
“Alchemy is about transmutation, the combining of ingredients in a homogenized form to create a new element,” Thayer told the La Jolla Light. “It is also about performing the same in an internal, mental form within the alchemist.”
Future speakers will include psychics, energy healers and people who deal with spells and other otherworldly topics, Antico said.
Ahead of the first event, Antico is seeking to The Alchemy Lounge. Forty hips are available, costing $50 a month and including free tarot card readings.
“I think a lot of times people are struggling to meet like-minded, open-minded folks where you can have these intelligent, scientific, what’s-possible-type conversations,” Antico said.
Before opening The Salon of Art Gallery in November, Antico operated three Bird Rock locations of Art Tours, later rebranded as The Salon of Art, from 1995 to 2003. Afterward, she and her business moved to Mission Hills.
There, she toyed with the idea of opening a hip-based space called The Private Parlor, dedicated to arts, crafts and music. But the idea “was ahead of its time,” she said, and didn’t draw as much interest as she hoped.
Now she believes the tide has shifted.
“I think people are starting to find out more things about the world and our universe than we used to know,” Antico said. “I think people are very intrigued and they really want to know more.”
For more information about The Salon of Art Gallery, visit concettaantico.com/the-salon-of-art-gallery or email [email protected]. ♦
