Always Lifting
Always Lifting is a new video podcast hosted by Karen Norheim, CEO of American Crane & Equipment Corporation. It’s part of a broader content platform exploring leadership, innovation, wellness, heritage, and grit – all through the lens of curiosity, resilience, and storytelling.
Always Lifting
Murals and Metal | Always Lifting Ep. 7
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In this episode, Karen sits down with artist, sculptor, and muralist Greg Dy Young to talk about creativity, grit, and lifting others through art.
After a life-changing injury in 2017 left him facing multiple surgeries and a long recovery, Greg made the bold decision to finally put his artwork into the world. What followed were award-winning exhibits, massive community murals, and powerful sculptures made from reclaimed materials.
You will hear about:
- The story behind the HOPE mural for suicide awareness
- Designing the vibrant American Crane mural from blueprint to installation
- Creating a custom metal eagle from shop materials
- Why community art empowers people who “aren’t artists”
- How resilience, rejection, and risk shape creative growth
Greg’s work is bold, colorful, and instantly recognizable, but at its core, it is about connection. Whether he is transforming junk into sculpture or leading 175 employees in a community paint day, his mission is simple: use what you have to make something better than you found it.
If a door opens, walk through it.
Subscribe for more conversations on grit, leadership, and creativity!
Learn more about Greg and his work, check out his page
Follow him on socials:
https://www.instagram.com/didyoungart/
https://www.facebook.com/didyoung.art/
Contact him at didyoungart@gmail.com
Today's guest is an incredible artist whose work brings color, movement, and soul into every space it touches. Greg Didyoung is an artist, sculptor, muralist, and more. A storyteller with a bold, emotional, and instantly recognizable style. I first encountered Greg's talent through the mural he created for American Crane. It's a massive, vibrant piece that came to life through his collaboration with my amazing sister Stephanie and our team. The vision, symbolism, and creativity behind that project was extraordinary. And then there's the eagle he sculpted from Reclaimed Shop Material. A piece that perfectly blends imagination, grit, and ingenuity. Greg is someone whose work lifts people every day. Greg, I'm thrilled you're here.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me, Karen. It's great, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. So I have so many questions for you. Um and to start with, I, you know, when did you know you wanted to be an artist? How how tell us about your path to coming to this point that you're at here today?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I was always into art, you know. My dad was kind of into art too, um, but always tinkering, always creating on the side. But um, you know, I went to college to be a photojournalist, and I did that for many years, um, and just kind of did art on the side. You know, never really showed anybody, just kind of what I always joke about is like I'm a closeted artist, like nobody knows. You know, I never really put myself out there. And then unfortunately in 2017, I had a life-changing injury, um, bit of uh adrenaline junkie. So, you know, whitewater kayaking and downhill mountain biking went off a big jump, send it and double compound fracture. Um, so okay, I'm out of work for a little bit. And then, you know, to make a long story short, I re-broke it again, whitewater kayaking, and they're like, well, that was strange. So more plates, you know, we do it again. And then things aren't going right, it's not healing. Turns out I have a chronic bone infection. So I was out of work for a very long time, you know, a pick line in my heart, all these things, and I said, I need something positive to focus on. I'm just sitting at home, I'm not working. What do I do? I'm gonna throw my artwork out into the world. And I just, you know, as I go down for my one major surgery, as you can see, all the great scars on my arm and all that fun stuff. Um, I'm going down on that exact day at the Goggle Works. My friends submitted some stuff for the Art of Jazz. It gets accepted. I hobble out a couple weeks later for the award ceremony with my cast, my pick line, and everything all medical, and I won Best in show. And talk about being thrust into the world, you know, the art world. I'm like, wow. So then I go to Studio B in Boyertown and I win that show. So it was kind of one of these, hey, maybe I have something here, you know. Maybe I wasn't so confident in myself and my work at first, but I was like, I put myself out there, took the risk, and got rewarded, so to speak. Now, after those two awards, a lot of uh like no awards. So you're like, Am I doing the right thing? And you know, a lot of fumbling through. But I kind of started to find my voice there, and I said, Let's just continue this path. And then I started to look for open calls, and that's how I found out about murals, start entering in, and then that just started to grow from little murals to a little bit bigger to bigger and bigger and bigger murals to the giant hope mural for suicide awareness. That's kind of the big piece that put me on the map. That's on Cherry Street.
SPEAKER_01Uh tell me a little bit about what's in that mural. Like what's the what's the artwork in there for those that are listening? Just to kind of tell the story a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_00You know, they I did a couple small uh murals and I got approached by this community artist, Michael Miller. He is fantastic. And uh he comes up to me and he goes, I think you're the right guy for this project. I like your aesthetic. Also, we need a mural that talks about suicide. So, how how do you get across that very, you know, that topic? Yeah, very heavy topic. So we wanted it to be uplifting, but also real. And I had a few designs that they were like, This is too heavy, this is not correct. So, you know, you kind of get pummeled and you're like, I don't know if I can figure this out. But every time I got rejected on a design, it led me to the correct path to get the right one. So that has just a giant head on it. It's the flowers for brain for growth, and then there's these Tetris pieces that come down, and that kind of symbolizes um the imperfection because Tetris, you know, there's a right way, but also there's you can there's variable in you know how you do it. So people really loved that, and then that took off to I did another one for um by the Wawa at Rockland, and that one was about alcohol, so it was kind of these great things, but the big part about it was I learned about community artwork, and uh that was new, not just sitting in my studio, you know, doing graphic design or or doing painting or anything like that. These murals really involved the community, and you know, even though I was the designer, the people who painted it were all involved, so it's you're talking hundreds, thousands of people, and I just really love that synergy of this teamwork, and I think that relates to your company. Yep, because you guys are very team oriented, so there's a lot of parallels between that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I the a process, I mean, I think it's amazing. Your story, first of all, is amazing. So coming from like a the universe sent you a very loud message that they wanted you, you know, it wanted you to go do some art. You use it to kind of heal yourself, and and then you're using it as storytelling, hopefully to heal others or to spread the awareness. Yeah, I I think that's so amazing. And this idea of community art and this and the mural. So, you know, as you know, and we'll let those that are here with us today know American Crane has a mural as well that you designed, and the process was so awesome for our team to be involved in that. Why don't you tell a little bit about how you how you bring together the community murals and and even the experience you've had with American Crane? Um, tell me a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so like, you know, when we do these murals, a lot of people like you guys don't really know how it works. So it's kind of fun to see you guys learn how we create these giant murals because everybody comes to me. I'm not an artist. I'm not an artist, and you don't have to be an artist, you know. So what we do is we kind of meet with you guys, figure out what you want, come out with a good design. And then once we have that design, we will take it and actually put it on like a canvas material, make it large, and then it's kind of paint by numbers. So anybody can do it, but it kind of empowers them to say, Hey, like I was a part of this, and I think that's the big part of these community murals, is just that you can bring everybody in. You can come and paint it, you can help install it, and then all of a sudden you take ownership of it. It becomes not my mural anymore, it's it's our mural. And I think that's the teamwork that just is great, you know, whether it's your company or whether it's like a nonprofit that we were working with, just a way to really bring people together in a very tactile and visual way. It's it's exciting, it's a really fun.
SPEAKER_01Very special. I mean, it was a very special experience to to be a part of that. And to um, I know for for those that painted from our company to be a part of it, it was really very, very exciting what you do uh and bring bring that in there. How how do you go about designing then the mural? Like I know for ours, there I know I know what it looks like, but maybe describe it a little. And and I think you even put a few fun little Easter egg things in there for yourself too. It's like how how do you go about designing something so big?
SPEAKER_00Well, there's a lot of things you have to look at too. When you do like uh public art, you want to think about how will it be viewed? Is it gonna be viewed from afar? Is it gonna be viewed close up? Is it gonna be both, such as your mural? Right. You know, so there's a lot of um thinking about the perspective. So I knew that you guys were doing really cool stuff. And driving by, if you didn't know anything about your company, you wouldn't really know. So I said the first thing I want is if I'm driving by, I want to say, what is going on in there? I want to draw your eye in. So that's where the first part of the design is the American flag, you know, your American crane, and it's just kind of angled to lead your eye right into the story. Also, you know, talking when I talk to you guys, when I talk to employees, you start to see common themes. And you start to say, okay, this has come up over and over again. This has to be in the design. So I realized a while ago that your father, Advar, I'm saying it correctly, um, I was like, he's kind of the cornerstone of the company, and he's literally the cornerstone and the design. So he kind of anchors it. And then I wanted to show like the cool stuff that you guys do. I was like, wow, you're working with NASA, you're working with nuclear energy. I was like, let's just start that so that you're just interested, almost like an exciting cover, you know, like a cover of a book that you want to know more about. So I knew that was going to be the start, but then it's kind of what do we do? And then, you know, going through the tour of your facility, seeing just this the scale and the precision. And I think the big theme was the teamwork. So I'm like, okay, I gotta show the cool stuff you make, but more importantly, I need to show the people that make that possible. So kind of went through and um said, let's just make the process of manufacturing, from the design to the shipping. So that's kind of what I did. We just kind of went through, kind of took pictures, kind of had a snapshot, and then I designed the mural to kind of tell the story from blueprints to cutting it out, to designing it, to painting it, to to wiring it. So it was fun. And then I think when people saw the color palette, they go, This is gonna be so gaudy and too bold and crazy. And I said, No, it needs to be. You know, it's you're making me design it, so I'm gonna put a little bit of my flavor in there. So it really turned out great. I think some people were like, they didn't see it at first, but once they saw the whole picture, they were like, Oh, I get it. So that was kind of the biggest compliment for me.
SPEAKER_01It's fantastic. I know you're wearing our shirt today. I love representing. So I I yeah, no, it it really is fantastic and you know makes me smile every time I'm coming into the building. And it's just been a wonderful experience. Similar. So you've been through our shop, you've been all around, and so we love metal. You love metal.
SPEAKER_00I love metal.
SPEAKER_01So, like, tell me about your sculptor work with um reclaims. You know, you well, you talk about what you did with us, or even just like what got you. I was on your Instagram page looking at this vacuum cleaner art that you're putting together. It was so cool. Tell me a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_00Every project keeps getting bigger and heavier, but um, it's it's a good problem to have. Yeah, right now I'm working with uh Rainbow Vacuum to make a uh a little like kind of Terminator-esque guy sucking up dust bunnies. So it'll be a fun piece. But it was during the pandemic, and I was away, there was no murals being done, and um now I'm away from my shop, I'm up in Vermont, and there's these rusty grills, and I just started making little robots out of them, and people really liked it. And I'm like, I really like working with my hands. And you know, I was a digital artist for a while, but I'm like, I always as a kid, I was playing with Lego, I was tinkering, you know, behind my dad in the shop, and I'm like, I want to delve into this, I want to grow, and it just kind of kept expanding, you know, making little birds out of spoons and forks, so then that grew into bigger sculptures, and now I think that's probably the majority of my work is doing sculpture, and I like reclaimed because it's um you're taking something that is discarded, used, and you're finding a new innovative way. Just like in business, like how can we be innovative? How can we approach something differently? And that's how I do it with junk. So it's it's exciting, you know. The the eagle that I made you guys, that was all old nuts and bolts. But so cool. You know, when I take it, you know, your employees go, Oh, I know what that piece is from, or I know what this bolt is from. So again, just like the mural, they kind of take ownership of it. So I think just to see that process is pretty neat.
SPEAKER_01The way you created the talons of the eagle, like with I guess it's the bolt sort of mouth, it's just so creative, so fantastic. Yeah, I I I love it and I I think it's so interesting how you were able to reinvent things.
SPEAKER_00And he's got to have the essence, you know. Like even when I do like a mural, it's a lot of research, which I think is really fun. Like, I'll delve into how does that animal act, or how does your company function? So there's always that like studying at first, and then during that process is kind of where I say, what kind of vibe do I want? How do I want it to be? So I knew the eagle had to be some attitude, had to be cool, you know. And it's a female, you know, you're a woman-led company, and bald eagles are the females are much larger. Okay. So the scale of the scale of that, that's a female uh bald eagle, it is made to scale of an actual real one. So and it weighs way more than a real one, but it's incredible.
SPEAKER_01Is there one format that you love the most? I mean, you've got the mural, that you've got, um, like you said, your sculpture work. I mean, even tell us a little bit about any other painting or drawing that you're doing that inspires you.
SPEAKER_00Well, when I when I first started, my first one was actually a thing that I like coined the term photo grain prints. And it was putting my digital work and photographs on wood. That's really what got me started because I was like, I'm not the best digital artist, I'm not the best photographer, but I can be innovative and make it stand out. And I started to I invented a process to put it on wood. Now it's ubiquitous. You can now you can buy them on metal and stuff, but I was kind of one of the first really early to start that, and that kind of taught me that you know, maybe you're not the best, but if you can be innovative and then just keep doing that, you'll get really good. But just that's just kind of my path is just trying to be different. So I enjoy the you know, the metal sculpting, it's great to make something out of nothing. But for murling, I think the most rewarding part of that, the reason I like that the most is just the community aspect, because I'm not in my shop. I just to see everybody else just embrace an art, I think it's really exciting, especially people who don't consider themselves artists.
SPEAKER_01You really are pulling them into the process. I'm forcing them in. I'm saying, roll your sleeves up and let's do it.
SPEAKER_00And then you know, once you break through that barrier with anything in life, you're like, that wasn't so bad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then you can just keep growing and building on that.
SPEAKER_01Definitely. Yeah. It's um super exciting. Um, are there any murals currently that you're working on? Or can you get started?
SPEAKER_00Yep, I'm working on uh with Threshold um for their cafeteria for their 60th anniversary. So for that one, I'm doing a diamond jubilee, is what they call a 60th anniversary. So we're just gonna talk about personal growth. I'm gonna use monarchs to convey that they didn't want people. Um, you know, they help a lot of disabled people, but we don't want that imagery of the cliche of a guy in a wheelchair. You know what I mean? Like, let's be more inspiring, which is a fun challenge for me. So this design that I'm working on right now is the stages of a monarch growth from caterpillar to to flying away, and that kind of symbolizes how threshold kind of rehabilitates people to make them ready to be independent. And so that's an exciting project. I'm also working on one for a mural exchange. Um, I don't want to speak too much about it because I don't know if Mike Miller has the exact school, but we're gonna go to Costa Rica. We're gonna have kids at a school here in Brooks County help paint a mural. They're gonna finish it in Costa Rica, and then in Costa Rica, they're gonna start a mural and have people here in Brooks County finish it. So it's gonna be learning about different cultures and then a cross-exchange with a bunch of kids, kind of get them into art. Um, so that's gonna be happening in late March. So that's pretty fun.
SPEAKER_01That's great. Did do you have any, you know, mentors or or, you know, I know Mike Miller is someone that you've worked with and you've talked a lot about um working with him and his work and murals over there. But is there anyone, you know, any inspiration artists or um mentors over the years that have kind of also helped you kind of define your style?
SPEAKER_00Not really. I would say, you know, Mike Miller taught me definitely the community aspect, and I give him credit for muraling. But when it comes to sculpture, you know, I hate to say it, you just go on Instagram, you're like, well, that looks cool. I want to do something like that. You know, so you see people like Matt Wilson, he does great um birds out of cutlery just like I do, uh, airtight artwork. So he's my probably my biggest inspiration that got me started in sculpture. And then it's fun because you mirror him, but you want to be your own voice, you want to be independent. So um, so I kind of took what I learned from his work and was like, how do I find my own voice, you know, within that?
SPEAKER_01So I remember when we were at um American Grain and Painting, I think your father also came. Is that correct? Yeah. So you made it like a family affair. It was like uh, you know, for us a company affair, and my sisters are so our family was involved too, but that was I think that's probably really special to be able to include in the Yeah, and and he would be a big part of it too, because you know, he'd be not necessarily making sculptures, but he was always in the garage tinkering.
SPEAKER_00If something broke, he could fix it. So I did learn a lot of mechanical aspects. You know, I I was a vote tech kid in high school, didn't even think I'd go to college. So I learned a lot about cars and mechanical stuff from there. So kind of all these things that I didn't realize all helped me become who I was today, but maybe at the time I didn't realize how it would help me in the future, but kind of have it all come together.
SPEAKER_01It's interesting how our path finds us. Yeah. We don't have to have it all figured out, right? We just have to make the next couple steps that feel really good and uh don't be afraid to fail.
SPEAKER_00Like that's you know, like I said, I came out the gate with art and I won the first two exhibits I was in, and then it was no wins for a while. And then I'm like, what did I do? What am I doing? You know, and uh I tell people all the time, I'm like, you know, nobody's gonna help find you. You gotta put yourself out there. You know, you need to and then not be afraid to fail or try to do better next time. And and that's tricky. And even when you're good and you have some wins and you don't win, it still hurts, and you still gotta pick yourself back up and and just keep trying. So yeah, that's my advice.
SPEAKER_01No, I think for so many people, artwork can be uplifting to look at. Um, and I but I want to know your thoughts. I feel like sometimes people doing art, even art badly, like well, you make us those of us who work in the mural, it came out beautiful. Uh, you know, I had a chance to to do some wood carving with my my mom and my sister and my my niece, which was super fun. Um, you know, but I'm not I'm not making anything wonderful, but I feel like the act of creating art is very therapeutic. What are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_00It is, and it's also you need to realize, like with art, I think also nowadays, with this whole AI and everything is perfect and machined, and it's nice to have that organic with your hands, that kind of uh what we call wabi-sabi, being a little imperfect, you know, and not being so hard on yourself, saying, like, okay, this isn't as good as the guy next to me carving, but I made this, I did it. Right. And the only way you're gonna get better at it is if you keep doing it. So it's one of those, it's just about personal growth. And then you can take that with art and anything with your life, you know, and it's just about putting the time in and having the right attitude.
SPEAKER_01Perfectly imperfect. Yes, right? That's what we are as humans, right? I love that. That's awesome. Um Has art taught you anything, I mean, about resilience or grit? And we've talked a little bit about this, but when you I mean, let's go back in your journey a little bit with the the art wars or different pieces. Is there, you know, tie in a little bit of grit and resilience for me in there.
SPEAKER_00Like, um, you know, it's one of those, like I've had a lot of challenges, like getting the right design, you know, having that grit to say, like, okay, when things aren't exactly what people want, trying to figure it out and not get discouraged. I think that's kind of the grit, making sure that everybody is on the same page.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And that it's what everybody wants, you know.
SPEAKER_01It is interesting because you're you are you have a customer for your artwork in the mural. And I can see, as you mentioned, you have to go through multiple iterations until they're happy with it. That's probably a really challenging process.
SPEAKER_00And and as an artist, it's tricky because a lot of times, you know, there's lotteries that say, screw you, this is what I'm doing, if you like it or not. But with community art, you really need to have that dialogue, that back and forth to make sure that you're not forcing just your vision on them, but that it's what they want also. So there is that kind of walking that line of making sure everybody is happy, but then I'm still having my own artistic voice within there. So yeah, it's tricky, but it's fun.
SPEAKER_01When you when you people come and look at your art, whether it's like the amazing sculptures or or the photo, tell me again, wood grain or photo grain prints. Photograin prints or you know, the um the the murals. What do you want them to take away? Is there is there, you know, how do you think it lifts people?
SPEAKER_00I always thought of myself, you know, if fine art was a grocery store, I always considered myself the potato chip aisle. I'm kind of I've like pop art. I just want you to get it right away. I don't want you to sit there and say, well, how does this make me feel? I there's definitely space for that in art. I love it. But for me, I try to speak to the common person who maybe doesn't get art, you know. Um, so that's what I try to do. I try to make it punchy, poppy, fun, and and inspiring. Everything's got a little bit of playfulness in my stuff, you know, all my little sculpture animals and my murals are very colorful. So I just try to be vibrant and uplifting.
SPEAKER_01It it it works. Like you definitely have that. I I definitely definitely feel the vibe for sure. You know, what's next? Like what's I you know you talked a little bit about some murals. Is there any other fun projects you're working on? Any other sculptors, sculptures that you want to do or something that we can think of for the future for you? What's coming?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like so it's fun because I did a lot a lot of outdoor sculpture exhibits throughout the East Coast right now, and they've all asked to s to keep them up. So that's kind of fun. So uh, you know, you always think about what will the next exhibit be for these outdoor sculpture shows. Um but personally, I've been so busy doing commissions, all I want to do is make a giant T Rex for myself. So that is uh Uh I've been saving material and I don't even know what the future is, but like you know, it's you get so busy with work, you don't get to do stuff for yourself sometimes. And um, that's something that I really want to work on. And it's gonna challenge myself for scale, for weight, for design. So um, yeah, like I said, I have the that working on, I have the vacuum guy working on, a lot of commissions for little birds and stuff like that. So it's you never know what's gonna pop up next, you know. So that's what's kind of fun. It's the ebb and flow with art, you know, you'll be very busy and then all of a sudden it's a little slow. And so just kind of always making sure you have stuff in the back. So you're always something's always cooking.
SPEAKER_01Well, it sounds like you have a balance too between art for yourself and art for others, and and being able to weave purpose out of both of those and making space for both of those, right? That that's what sounds like to me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's you know, you have to have that balance too, because you don't want to burn yourself out on one thing either. So that's kind of why it's nice as an artist to be a little varied in your mediums, because you can kind of hop around and make sure that you're bringing the best to the table each time. If you're stuck in one thing, you can kind of get worn down and unmotivated. So I do find just having to switch it up just keeps me fresh, keeps me aggressive, keeps me ready to go.
SPEAKER_01That's that's makes a lot of sense. I mean, that's life in general, right? Yeah, exactly. None of us want to be burn out, right?
SPEAKER_00We have those universal themes like in being an artist that I think you can apply to to everything. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I want to see the T-Rex one. Oh, yeah. Sounds amazing. Yeah, we were talking earlier about our mutual love of Vermont. So do you plan to get to go to Vermont a little bit? Is that where T-Rex will come to life?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yep. Uh my first big sculpture show was the uh called NBOS, which is the North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show. Okay. And that was fun because it was my first time ever in what I call like the big leagues of outdoor sculpture. And then, you know, I just used that opportunity to talk to people, to network. And at that show, it's one of those, oh well, you should go to this show. And then last year I actually won Best in Show for uh another bald eagle that I did. Nice. Uh that was all made out of cutlery. But then that took me to Massachusetts, that took me to Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and I have stuff down in um historic Yellow Springs right now. So so it just kind of keeps growing. And every time I go to a new, you know, a new venue, my goal is to figure out what new can I get from that. So I'm always trying to build that ball, trying to network, trying to see what else is there. I say if a door's cracked, it's your job to walk in it. Like if somebody opens the door, they're not going to push you through. You have to walk through it. So that's just what I'm doing. Just kind of keep expanding and keep growing.
SPEAKER_01Open-minded, looking for opportunities. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00You never really know. So it's just having the open mind and being when the opportunity comes, being ready for it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Do you do do you know, we talked about artwork being something that you recharge and reset with? Is there anything else you do to recharge and reset besides art that gets you? Are you still doing your outdoor activities?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm a big outdoor guy, you know, much to my doctor's dismay. I was like, I'm still gonna, I care how many screws and plates I have in here, I'm still gonna ski, I'm still mountain biking, but I'm trying to be smarter about it. Uh try to try to know my limits. You know, I think when I was younger, I was a little too aggressive, overzealous. And you could even say that with early artwork, too, as you try to figure out, you know, what am I good at? Where should I be? And but yeah, that's my big inspiration as I'm an outdoors guy, and that's why a lot of my work is figurative, like animals, uh flora and fauna and stuff like that. So that's my inspiration. Just kind of the break away from all the heavy metal and just get out into the woods and explore. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's great. We can always take so much inspiration from nature and quiet. And um, I think we probably have similar vibes about spending time in Vermont or anywhere outside, even you know, wherever you're at, it it certainly clears the mind and it's yeah, fills you up.
SPEAKER_00Because uh I actually threw like the Appalachian Trail class of class of 2010, and that's how I first found out about Vermont, just walking through it, and I'm like, I love it. And then when I was doing art, um, you know, full-time, still needed a little extra income when I'm first starting out. Started working for the park service up there uh in the summer with my little tiny house, you know, parked at the state park, and I just really fell in love with the area. Um, but it's the balance because you know, there's no walls in Vermont to put a mural on. There's not a lot of buildings. So I do find myself coming, you know. This is where I'm native, I'm from Berks County. So just trying to have my cake and eat it too, doing artwork in both areas. But it's been very rewarding.
SPEAKER_01Smart, you have a process of recharging and finding it. It's nice.
SPEAKER_00Um and I'm fortunate enough to get to do it, you know. It's I couldn't do this without uh the friends and family that kind of help support me too, you know. So it's just having that network.
SPEAKER_01So if you were to put into words what it means to lift, we've talked about this with your artwork in different pieces. Like what does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_00To me, it's taking what you have, whatever resources you have, whatever strengths you have, okay, and then saying, like, how can I make this better than I left it? Whatever that is. That's that's lifting to me, is you know, turning junk into something cool or teaching somebody like hey, you can paint a mural. To me, that's lifting, using your skills, using your strengths, and helping other people kind of elevate them, elevate everybody, you know. Uh high tide, all ships float, you know, that kind of thing. So to me, that's lifting.
SPEAKER_01Well said. Well said. Well, thanks for coming on today. It's been a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic, yeah, it's fantastic. You guys are a great company. I think just I just want to one little anecdote I want to say was during your grit day, it was so funny because I remember for the community paint, it was our largest ever community paint that Mike Miller and I had ever done at one time. We have never had that many people painting at one time.
SPEAKER_01I think we were what? Um, I'm gonna guess close to like at least 175. Yes. So I think it's about the number. And the annual grit day is where we bring all of our employees together, and this was the big team building activity, which was a massive, massive hit for us. Yeah. So it's exciting that we were we were your biggest. I didn't know that. Yeah, it was awesome.
SPEAKER_00Because having that many brushes move like at the same time. And then, like, you know, they're not all artists, but I remember, you know, being on stage saying, like, you guys are gonna be artists today, and some of you guys are real tough fabricators, like, we're not artists. And then I remember after that one hour was up, I couldn't get the brushes out of everybody's hands. I'm like, time's up, time's up. And they were like, no, no, no, I'm not done, I'm not done. So just kind of seeing them get excited about it was just fantastic. Like, you have a great company, great employees, and it's just fabulous to get to do them. You're all for a company like American Crane.
SPEAKER_01I appreciate that. And it was a joy to work with you and really um awesome experience. And I hope the best for you on all of the stuff that you're working on. I really, like I said, I'm gonna want to see the T-Rex. Yeah, absolutely. And uh, you know, really your inspiration um and your spirit, it comes through in all of it. So thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for having me, Karen. You're welcome. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Greg's creativity and passion shines in each and every one of his projects. I'm proud to share a kinship in steel with him, and prouder still to show off all the work that he has done for us here at American Crane. For more of Greg's work, check out the show notes below. Give us a subscribe, and don't forget, always lift!