Riding Bicycles With Pops
Riding Bicycles With Pops
Local Artist & Outdoor Enthusiast Illustrates Children’s Book
Photo Courtesy of Greg Culver
Known fondly as “the sticker guy,” Springville artist and graphic designer Greg Culver can now add “children’s book illustrator” to his list of artistic achievements! Riding Bicycles with Pops by Joaunna Bixby shares the story of Lenny and Ezra, who love when their grandpa (“Pops”) comes to visit because they get to enjoy their favorite activity, bike riding, with him. The book is close to Culver’s heart, as he was an avid mountain biker before kidney cancer affected his ability to ride.
“He has been a mountain biker for a number of years,” said Jen Culver, Greg’s wife. “His friend, Scott Bixby, has been one of his partners in crime, and his wife, Joaunna, decided to write a book about her grandchildren riding bikes with their grandpa. She recognized Greg as an illustrator, and so she asked him to do the pictures for the book.” The two collaborated on the project: Greg drew all the illustrations and Joaunna Bixby worked with Dorrance Publishing Co. to publish it. Available on Amazon, Riding Bicycles with Pops is perfect for young children and is available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book form.
While book illustrations are a new venture for Culver, he’s hardly new to the art world. He attended college at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and has been a graphic designer for most of his career. “He’s just very, very naturally talented artistically,” said Jen. “He’s kind of got a cartoonish style, but he’s most known for his stickers. In fact, they call him ‘the sticker guy’!” Indeed, Culver’s Hot Wing Designs vinyl stickers can be seen all over the area. Whether one is a Buffalo Bills fan, a music enthusiast, a cancer fighter, or a hot wing lover, Culver has a sticker design that’s absolutely perfect, whatever the occasion. In fact, making, designing ,and creating stickers was part of the way Culver reinvented his career in the wake of his cancer diagnosis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jen explained that Greg was diagnosed with kidney cancer on September 19, 2019, two days after they were married. “They took his kidney out with the hopes that they had gotten everything,” she explained. “About six months later, in February, he started having balance issues and headaches, and we went to the doctor, and they found his first brain tumor, the first of many, many, many. He had gamma knife surgery eight times and countless MRIs and scans.”
Shortly after the Covid-19 lockdown in spring of 2020, Culver was let go from his job and continued to battle cancer. During this time, he began drawing and creating the cartoon characters and caricatures that became a sticker business with a national presence. Culver, an avid outdoor enthusiast who loves snowboarding and mountain biking, adapted so that he could enjoy his passions in whatever way he could amid the cancer treatments. Culver said, “I traded in my good mountain bike for a motor-assisted bicycle, so I can cruise the roads and all of that. It was nice because I could still get out and get around!”
Culver’s cancer has since spread to his lymph nodes and his bones, and he is now home enjoying his family and his many visitors. “He’s been doing really well,” said Jen. “He has fought a very strong fight, but he wishes to stay home here where his family is… He has good moments and hard moments, so we just roll with what we have.”
Culver’s courageous fight is an inspiration to all who know him, including his wife. “He’s my best friend and my rock,” she said. The couple has been together for most of their lives; in fact, they dated on and off since the age of 13, when they met roller skating. Though life took them in different directions for a time, they’ve been together for the past 16 years and share a daughter, Piper Grace, who is currently in college and makes frequent trips home to spend time with her dad.
Culver’s family is now managing his website, www.gregculver.com, which houses all three of his businesses: Hot Wing Designs, Buffalo League Hats, and Greg Culver Designs. Stickers and hats are available for purchase, and Culver’s extensive graphic design portfolio can be viewed there.