Sometimes the simplest of acts speak the loudest, like pinning your child's artwork on the refrigerator.

"I remember it like it was yesterday and now that I'm a published artist, teacher and designer - my mother's praise was the most profound," Lisa Fazio Cotroneo said. "She pinned it up and told me, 'you're an artist.'"

Now a mother herself, Cotroneo shares her talents in a multitude of ways. For the past 16 years, she has run a private studio in her Mineola home where she teaches an array of art class to children ages seven through high school. Classes include painting, sculpting, cartooning, fashion design and much more.  

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