Standing in a sweaty t-shirt holding a stain sprayer, Grant Pointer doesn’t embody the typical artist mold. “It’s kind of hard to find a concrete guy who has a beret, but that’s kind of what we morphed into,” says Grant. He doesn’t need the artisan garb to design the masterpieces. His typical medium isn’t a canvas, but rather, concrete. And being in the business for almost 15 years with his company, CustomCrete, has made him a master of the craft.

As Tim McKinley flipped through photos of the custom-made wood cabinetry, bars, bookshelves and more that he crafts, it was clear that the only thing greater than the elegance of his work is the humility with which he performs it.  “I’m just a guy with a pickup truck full of tools. I do what I do and thank people along the way. I’m so grateful that I get to do this,” he says, as he showed me an elaborate wooden deck he built, complete with a stone firepit at one end and a sunken hot tub and pergola at the other.

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“It was Jean Baptiste Carpeaux who pushed me over the edge,” says Abraham Mohler, about his decision long ago to become a sculptor. Mohler attended Arizona State University where he was a walk-on on the baseball team. While there, he took an art history class. When studying Carpeaux, a mid-nineteenth century French sculptor, along with Michelangelo, Bernini and other notable sculptors, he began to love sculptures, especially those made of stone.

Mike Rachocki started Scobis Company 12 years ago when he decided to make the jump and go into business for himself. “I got tired of working for other people,” Mike says. Mike and his team of craftsmen, Scott Copple and Ray Ellison, create grand entries for residential homes, universities, businesses and churches.