Riverside Arts Center, located at 76 N. Huron Street in Ypsilanti, is currently hosting an exhibition featuring select works of the Michigan Water Color Society. The exhibition is free to attend and open to the public on Fridays from 4-6 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The gallery will be on display until Nov. 14, 2025.
The Riverside Arts Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing art to the Ypsi community in an accessible manner. It hosts a variety of performing and fine arts events, including theater performances and art galleries. Additionally, it has art studios, dance studios and classrooms available.
Eastern Michigan University alumnus Rocco Pisto has been a member of the Michigan Water Color Society since the late 1970s. Pisto has one painting, "Violet Cityscape," displayed in the show at Riverside Arts Center.
The Michigan Water Color Society, or MWCS, founded in 1946, is an organization of watercolor painters in Michigan. Each year, MWCS has a traveling exhibition.
“We have an annual exhibition that goes around the state. The juror [of MWCS] picks the top 30 pieces, and those travel to different galleries in underserved areas. Riverside is gallery two of six," Pisto said.
Attending this current exhibition at the Riverside Arts Center is a great opportunity for students to look at someone's professional work, Pisto said. He said he was often seeking opportunities to go to galleries during his time at Eastern.
Pisto noted some of his most important shows being a solo show he did at the Alfred Berkowitz gallery of University of Michigan-Dearborn in 2018 and a two-person show in Frankfort, Michigan. The Frankfort show was the first joint show he had with his daughter, a ceramicist. Now he teaches watercolor painting, hosts workshops and has been featured in galleries around the country.
To students working to become professional artists, Pisto said, “My advice to anyone that wants to pursue [art] that’s studying at EMU is to take advantage of opportunities working with professors, and soak it in. You will never have the time to focus on your major like you do now. There were times that I had to force myself to do work because I was in a field that was constantly changing. Dive in because art is not an easy field. Work hard, and work hard to articulate in discussing your work.”
Pisto’s time at EMU helped shape his experience and motivated him to pursue a career in art. EMU watercolor professor Igor Beginin was his guiding hand. Beginin encouraged freedom and experimentation in painting and played a big role in inspiring Pisto’s creative process, Pisto said.
In regard to his creative process, Pisto said, “Art is therapeutic. Art can change you in a day. For me, when I start painting, I'm an intuitive painter, which means I may not know what I want to do when I start doing it, but when I start evolving the work, the brain starts kicking in; it becomes a painting, not just a splish-splash on the paper.”
“At this point I am living the dream I had when I was going to Eastern," Pisto said.
