Giovanni DeCunto realized he could live with his art at the tender of age of 12, when the mother of one of his best friends bought a painting for $35. "I thought I had a million dollars!" he recounts.

Hailing from Lawrence, Mass., where his grandparents moved from outside Naples, the 67-year-old artist has come a long way since the days of selling art for a few bucks. Regarded as one of the nation's leading expressionists, works by DeCunto can be found today in prestigious collections at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Fogg Museum (Harvard) and the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago. But despite all his success, DeCunto has remained true to his roots. "It's important for people to know who they are, where they're coming from and where they're going," he says.

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Fonte: Bostoniano