lAn artist since the age of 15, Joseph won several national art awards in competitions sponsored by the Boys Clubs of America. His most notable win was on an entry of a small painting of the Head of Christ that still hangs in his Marblehead home. During World War II Joseph enlisted in the Navy where he served on the USS Chase Destroyer in the Atlantic. From there he was posted to various places around the globe with a final outpost in Portland, Maine. After he was discharged from the Navy he worked in Maine at several odd jobs including potato picking and running a hot dog stand on Old Orchard Beach. He also attended the Portland Museum of Art and the Portland School of Hairdressing. After graduating he moved to Boston where he met his wife Grace. His career as a hairdresser ended at age 56 when he was asked to become Art Director of the School House Gallery in Sanibel Florida. It was there Joseph's art become a focus of the Southwest Florida art community and dozens of people from all over the world, including Alfred Mott, descendant of Mott's Applesauce, started to collect his works. He and his wife Grace ran the Schoolhouse Gallery until 1996 when they moved to Marblehead to be closer to their children and family. (http://joepulitano.com/the_artist.htm)