By Laurie Morrissey

If you nod off during one of Rob Surette's amazing hero art performances (not that you could), you might miss the main attraction. His six-foot high portraits of famous people are executed in anywhere from two to 10 minutes. He has perfected the art of fast painting, not to mention dazzling audiences with special effects.

Surette has put on close to 3,000 shows at schools, conferences, celebrity events, fund raisers, and corporate events. However, he wasn’t planning on a career in art when he arrived at Saint Anselm from Arlington, Mass. And, although he was a member of the Abbey Players (and the first student to impersonate Fr. Jonathan on stage), he didn’t aspire to a career in theater. “It took years to evolve,” he says of his profession.

It all started in kindergarten. “We had this art fair where we did finger paintings and blew paint through straws. I got the Budding Artist Award, although I suspect I was picked at random,” Surette says. “After that I was considered the family artist. I loved the attention.”

When choosing a major, Surette was guided by the notion that artists don’t make money, and decided on a major combining computer science with business. But he took art electives and spent hours drawing in his dorm room.

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