Greg Bender is a North Carolina potter and sculptor located in Seagrove, North Carolina.
Greg started as the Art Teacher at Star Elementary in 2002, working for Montgomery Co. Schools. The county built a new school, Green Ridge El. in 2008, and then to East (Montgomery) Middle in 2012, and he has been there since.
In the time between college and present, to fill the need to create, he put most of his energies into his students and his old house. He has also made about one sculpture each year.
About the time his son was born, he went through a program at NC A&T College in Greensboro, NC, and started growing shiitake mushrooms.
After seeing an ad for "Art in the Gardens", an outdoor sculpture show at Sandhills Comunity College in Pinehurst, NC, in 2011 he traveled down to see the gardens. He was inspired by the gorgeous gardens and the art work already there to use the logs that he grew the mushrooms on as a medium, to make two sculptures for the spring show. This sculpture is a continuation of his mushroom log creations.