Page 25 - B2B Fall 2018

Tony Perpignano is one of CWG’s three Principal Architects. He
is from Ramsey, New Jersey; he studied architecture for two years at Arizona State University before transferring to Montana State University in his third year. While there, he met his wife, who is from Helena. In 1993 they were married and moved to Helena, where he
did a brief stint of drafting on his own before he was hired by SMA Architects. After seven years with the rm, he joined CWG with the goal of someday becoming an owner; today Tony is one of three of CWG’s partners, and serves as the rm’s president.
For as long as he can remember, Tony knew he was going to be an architect, and he has been able to draw. He was encouraged by his parents as well as his teachers in his artistic abilities. He remembers a story about his kindergarten teacher, who was exceedingly impressed by his ability to draw objects in three dimensions at such a young age. For Tony, drawing is another language. He is of the mind that art is something everyone is inherently born with, something that lies within our subconscious. For him, artistic talent runs in
the family; Tony’s mother was
an artist, and he beams with
pride at his daughter’s artistic creativity and pro ciency in a variety of mediums. Tony has no art training – he is self taught. He started painting in high school, but his college years gave him ample opportunity to develop his skill
in watercolor through rendering and illustration assignments in his architecture studies.
I visited Tony in his studio/man cave, which is actually the size of a large garage in his backyard. One corner is dedicated
to his y-tying hobby; the long wall along the south side is artfully dotted with
colorful paint to resemble the side of a twenty-foot long trout; and there are sh everywhere. Fish on pillows, sh on the walls, sh painted on canvas displayed throughout the room, pictures of Tony ankle-deep in various rivers, proudly holding up all manner of sh for the camera. He shows me his y shing room, which is bursting with rods, gear, and packages of colorful feathers
for y-tying neatly lining the wall. When he tells me his passions are sh and y shing, I believe him.
Tony’s preferred medium is acrylic, occasionally he will use oil. He carries a sketchbook with him
in his travels, which is lled with vivid and delightful scenes he has captured from around the world and brought to life with watercolor. It is his diary, and I could spend
an hour looking through it, but he ips through it quickly and we’re moving on to the sh. Tony used to paint more landscapes, buildings, and landmarks, but the past ten years have been consumed with sh. His passion is y shing and he has developed a certain fondness for catching steelhead. One of
his more recent paintings is an eye-catching acrylic underwater close-up of a trout, whose steely eyes follow you around the
room. Tony is undertaking more comprehensive paintings of sh, from their perspective under water among rocks.
Although Tony has done some commissioned pieces, painting at this time is mostly a hobby, and
a form of therapy and creative outlet for this busy architect, whose role at the rm has evolved into a more managerial one. Eventually
he would like to focus on marketing himself and developing
a more established studio which could support him and keep him engaged in his art after he retires from the rm.
He is eager
to enter a new
chapter in his
life as an artist
as a newly
installed Board
Member of the
Holter Museum
of Art. He looks forward to the opportunities this new role affords him in meeting professional artists and learning from them. He admires the work of fellow artists Steve Kilbey, an Australian musician and artist whose unique style appeals
to Tony. He also enjoys the work of local artist Jim Stevens.
TONY PERPIGNANO CWG ARCHITECTS
FALL 2018
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