diPietro lives on the second floor of an old farm on Martha’s Vineyard, creating cutting-edge mixed-media artwork in which he paints over collages composed of old newspaper clippings. He shows his landscape paintings from May to September in Oak Bluffs at Dragonfly Gallery, and down the street he shows his city scenes and mixed media at Piknik Gallery.

It was his childhood pal, Matt O’Neil, who brought him back to Swampscott for a visit. O’Neil recently opened the Lynn restaurant the blue Ox, currently drawing rave reviews of its own in its initial days. O’Neil asked that diPietro supply the restaurant with artwork.

“I wanted to make my way back to where I grew up, so my friends could see my work,” says diPietro.

While the two friends discussed the details during dinner in Nahant, they ran into Elaine Mavros, owner of Jambu in Marblehead, who asked if diPietro wanted to show his work out of her jewelry store on Atlantic Avenue.

Says Mavros, “I love to promote and support young, talented artists. I am most grateful to all of them and for the great pleasure I receive from their hard work and passion.”

diPietro will show his impressionistic oil paintings of city scenes and contemporary mixed media, “a totally different ballpark,” he says, in which he works with newspaper in collage, as well as crayon and charcoal mixed with paint.