Mission of kindness: Hampton artist presents his work to the worthy

Though 78-year-old Sal Greco said he has been sketching all his life, taking an acrylic painting course 12 years ago set in motion a mission of kindness for him.

The Hampton resident originally painted on canvas, then wood, and now it’s all about reclaimed wood.

He did some large pieces and then gravitated to reclaimed materials for woodworking. He made coffee tables, sculptures and wall art.

Greco is a member of the Pittsburgh Sculpture Society, and his work has been featured in galleries in Lawrenceville and the North Hills.

Two years ago, he got into making smaller pieces. Greco paints mini-art on 4-by-6-by-1-inch reclaimed wood pieces. He doesn’t use any brushes. His finger, fork, comb, steel wool or a knife are his typical painting instruments.

“It was neat for me because I could explore different types of media in small pieces and I liked the variety,” he said.

With these small pieces, he can do 50 or 100 in a short period and have no two pieces look alike.

“I let the wood dictate to me the way the paint should be applied,” Greco said.

When he started making mini-art, he just dropped them off at various places. For three or four months, Greco left his pieces at Panera Bread and local coffee shops.

He felt what was missing from just leaving them places was the interactions he could have with people.

So he started asking people if they wanted to do a survey, and if they said yes, he’d pull out 10 of his pieces and ask which one appealed to them.

When a person picked one, Greco offered it to keep. As he interacted with more people, he started thinking about giving away his art as a way of rewarding kindness: for example, someone who held the door for him, a person who smiled and said hello, a driver who stopped to let him pass, or a customer service person who was friendly.

He has also given art away after he observed someone being kind to another person. Greco told the people he gave them the art because they were kind.

Greco has given away more than 500 mini-art pieces since he started. He enjoys creating them and gives them away to share his joy with others.

His mini-art also provides him with a way to escape day-to-day stresses.

“I get lost in it. If something’s bothering me, I can go up to my loft studio and lose myself in painting, sculpting, or woodworking,” Greco said.

He takes pictures of recipient with their new art pieces.

“I can look back at these pictures and reflect back on their kindness,” Greco said.

He also keeps a log of all the mini-art he’s bestowed. The log has the date, name, location, and the reason the mini-art was given to the person.

As an extension of his kindness program, Greco offers companies the opportunity to show kindness to their employees or customers by having him offer mini-art to them.