The Art
of Upcycling
Gibsonia’s Sal Greco finds
success as a reclamation artist.
BY JENNIFER BROZAK | PHOTOS BY NICOLE TAFE
S
al Greco has five old pianos stored in his
garage. He doesn’t plan to play them,
restore them or even sell them.
Instead—key by key, board by board—
Greco, who lives in Gibsonia, will tear
those old pianos apart. In the process, he’ll
transform that shiny old wood into coffee
tables, wall hangings and even keychains or
necklaces.
Greco, 70, is a reclamation artisan. He
creates sculptures and display-worthy artwork
from cast-off materials that would otherwise
end up in a landfill.
“I always slow down when I see a pile of
trash on the side of the road,” says Greco.
“I don’t like to see stuff go to the dump. If it
looks like I could use it, I throw it in my trunk
and take it home.”
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He once turned his car around after
spotting a stack of wooden beams placed out
for trash on the side of the road.
“They were each about 4 to 6 feet long, and
were old and weathered,” he says. “I stacked
them all up, pulled in the driveway and loaded
them up. I was delighted. I used them to make
legs for my tables. I didn’t have to go buy new
wood.”
Greco’s interest in
“upcycling” began
after he retired from
his corporate IT job
in 2005. A graduate of
Central Catholic High
School and Duquesne University,
he’d always been interested in art, so
he decided to take an acrylic painting
class. He also had a lifelong love of
restoring old wood, which began in the 1970s
when he refinished his grandmother’s oak
icebox. He began to experiment with more
artistic mediums, and gradually the two
interests began to converge.