Kaitlyn Hughes | features editor |

Sumaiya Tasnim dabbed at a blank canvas with autumn hues in hopes of recreating the Bob Ross painting that appeared on the screen in front of her. The provided sponge brush made it hard for her to maneuver the acrylic paint.

“Using a traditional brush you can really make details, but with a sponge brush, detailing becomes a little difficult,” Tasnim said.

The end product did not matter to her because she was able to indulge in her love for painting.

Bob Ross Paint Night, an event hosted by the Students Against Sexual Violence (SASV) on Tuesday, was the medium for this experience.

Indie music played softly as guests took their seats in the Africa Room. The tables were covered with canvases, brushes and paint. Students followed along to a tutorial from Ross on how to paint a ‘Bridge to Autumn.’

Madison Walker, president of the organization, said the goal of the evening was to help students escape the stress of midterms through the therapeutic use of art.

“It’s nice to put life on pause for a second,” Walker said, “to come back, to be in the moment, to be present and to enjoy something new and something fun.”

Art therapy relieves anxiety and depression and helps people take control of their lives by moving mental focus away from painful scenarios, according to the American Art Therapy Association.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which was another determining factor for the timing of the event. The group tries to host events that support survivors and provide them with treatment options.

Having a night dedicated to painting is a way to bring people together, to raise awareness without having anyone expose their own stories.

“To have something as common as Bob Ross and something as fun and uppy as a Bob Ross paint night, it’s really marketable to a larger community,” Walker said. “It also teaches skills of mindfulness.”

Though no one in the room was an experienced painter, the guests took to the canvases with grins on their faces.

Tasnim acknowledged there was more to the event than just art. She said that SASV gives students a platform for the voices of victims to be heard.

“It normalizes the fact that people should be talking about this,” Tasnim said, “so that everybody is at least comfortable to speak out if something bad has happened to them.”

It is an opportunity for students to educate themselves, while becoming more open to conversations revolving around sexual assault awareness, she said.

Hana Kosiorek was another student creating art that night, but she was not painting.

Instead, she sketched in a small notebook. Though she felt “all painted out” from attending other art-related events, she felt it was important to show her support for a student-run activity.

“The more people that show up to these events the better,” Kosiorek said.

She said SASV met its goal of providing a safe space for students to relax. Kosiorek knows that for those who have been affected by sexual violence, it is a sensitive topic to open-up about. The added support from organizations such as SASV is helpful.

“Even though people have more of a sympathetic outlook on it [sexual violence], there is a lot of stigma surrounding it,” Kosiorek said.

The event took off the pressure of not only painting, but raising awareness around sexual assault. Andrea Palotas enjoyed this aspect. Sexual violence is a prominent issue among young people, but they struggle to talk about it, she said.

About two-thirds of college students experience sexual harassment, but more than 90% of sexual assaults go unreported, according to the National Sexual Violence Research Center.

Palotas is happy to see that Duquesne’s campus has organizations that raise conversations around those issues.

“It’s really special,” Palotas said. “I’m grateful it’s something we talk about, and it’s not just something that is kept under the rug.”

The overall mission of SASV is to advocate, to educate, to raise awareness and to support survivors.

“We want to build healthy relationships on campus. We want to build a healthy community and we want to support everyone throughout their own journeys as personal as they can get,” Walker said.

Walker wants to bring a focus on recovery. She said the organization had a plentiful amount of resources and the best way to get those into people’s hands is through community based events.

Because of this, they host a different activity every month that is open to students.

“I think our mission is most important because we are college students. We’re young, we have our entire lives ahead of us,” Walker said. “I think it is really important at this time to show what a healthy relationship looks like and how we can use that to support the rest of our lives.”

Their next event, a Halloween Bash, is in tandem with the Duquesne Pep Band. The night will consist of costumes and candy, and it will be held in the Union Nitespot on Oct. 22.