LYNN – When Montserrat College of Art teachers told Rocco Capano he could not make a metal sculpture, Capano visited a foundry, found out his teachers were right, and then proceeded to learn a metal fabrication process last used by artists almost 80 years ago.Capano is a West Lynn painter, sculptor, filmmaker, musician, music producer and former high school dropout who embraced art to turn his life around.Montserrat conferred a graduate award in drawing and painting on Capano in 2011, but the brother of City Councilor Peter Capano said he is largely a self-taught artist.”I’m trying to push it and do different things,” he said.Working out of his apartment and an attic studio, he crosses the boundaries separating painting and sculpture to create his work. Paintings overlay a canvas made from cassette tape boxes and some of Capano’s portraits straddle the line between mosaics and paintings.”It seems scattered but I have a plan,” he said.The son of Maria and Rocco Capano grew up on Alley Street and got into trouble as a kid.”I was hanging out. I couldn’t stay in school,” he said.He eventually earned a GED diploma and spent an extended period of time alone, shut up with his canvasses and studio equipment, painting, recording and learning about art. Attending Montserrat taught him how to hone his craft with specific skills, but he also found out that art instructors limited his imagination. He preferred to learn from his mistakes and experiment.”I don’t want any cookie-cutter results,” he said.A portrait of his grandfather, Peter, is painted against a background of Italian saints signifying Capano’s Italian-American home life. Old records Capano collects have become sculpture material and music catalogs he samples on his sound studio equipment.He records music but he would like to record other local musicians and convince eateries and other businesses to put the recording compilations on display for sale. Proceeds would help cover costs associated with Lynn-based art projects.”It would be a double artists collaborative,” he said.Capano pursues his art full time and said he “hustles around” to make money. He is constantly trying out ways to cross artistic boundaries and experiment with new techniques or new twists on tried-and-true-creations.”I like surprises,” he said.