My family had recently moved to Long Island, New York, when I was born. My parents were Italian immigrants and initially lived in Brooklyn. It was a kindergarten teacher who was probably the most influential teacher in my life. She was an abstract impressionist and realised I was interested in art. When I was five years old she invited me to the opening of her art exhibition. It made a great impression on me.

At primary school, the mobile art class - a cart loaded with art materials - visited our class twice a week. For second-level, I attended Mineola High School, a large public school with about 3,200 students - there were over 600 in my year. The school had an excellent art department with some very good teachers.

It was at High School that I decided I wanted to be an artist. I went on to the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, one of New York's major art schools. The school, established in the late 19th century, had courses in art, architecture and engineering.

Pratt was an amazing experience and opened my eyes to a lot of things. I was fortunate that we had some really good illustrators and designers on the faculty. A number of them were heavily involved in designing posters for the movie industry.

At college the focus was very much on drawing. I remember that one term we spent nine hours drawing every week. Drawing is extremely important and gives you a good foundation. Once you have acquired the basics you can begin to break the rules.

I remember, too, a Korean woodwork teacher who taught us the Korean way of working with wood. He made you realise that there are different ways of doing things. I remember spending six weeks planing the legs of a desk I was making. I learned that anything worthwhile requires huge effort and patience.

After graduation I worked as an art director in publishing. I then joined the Peace Corps and went to Africa where I set up an art studio in a teacher training college in Lesotho. It was there that I met my wife, Ann Barrington, who is from Wicklow.

I came to Dublin in 1981 and taught at the College of Marketing and Design. My wife, who works for the Department of Foreign Affairs, has just been posted to New York and I'm working there as a free-lance designer and illustrator. In Dublin, our children Aoife and Oisin attended Scoil Lorcan. We're hoping that we can keep up their Irish in New York.