"We're all artists if we want to be," said Greg Polisseni, '94, as he painted with a group of art students in the third-floor Loft of the Quick Center.
“Art is simply expression and creativity within,” he said.
Polisseni, an artist from Rochester, N.Y., visited St. Bonaventure to share the story of his lifelong struggle to free his artistic creativity — and to offer students a look into his painting techniques.
Polisseni invited the students to gather around a large canvas that measured nearly seven feet wide and four feet high. He then demonstrated how he paints with his canvas on the ground, using glitter for texture and no more tools than water, tubes of acrylic paint, and the occasional long-handled brush.
His first coat on the canvas is color and water, he said. He lets this initial layer sit for a day. As the water and paint settle and dry, “cools will develop here and there, and the look of the painting will totally change,” he explained.
He said he spends hours in his studio studying each layer. Sometimes it can take up to 20 different layers before he begins to see what the work is trying to tell him.
Senior art student Hannah Walker said that she gained a greater appreciation for abstract art through Polisseni’s demonstration. “I like that he actually showed us how he works. A lot of artists aren’t comfortable doing that. He also pointed out that creating an abstract piece isn’t as easy as some people might believe it to be."
Polisseni encouraged the students to be unafraid and to consistently try new things.