Evergreen Canyon Courier

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Morrow creates powerful furniture art
Anne Vickstrom
Arts Columnist

The saying ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’ has never been so aptly supported than in custom wood furniture artist Pat Morrow. Morrow is a petite woman with a gentle nature that might lead you to believe she works with delicate, small pieces of art. Instead, if you get to know this powerhouse of a lady, you’ll find huge creativity paired with massive skill.
Morrow creates one-of-a-kind handcrafted furniture of heirloom quality. “Each table, chest, screen and bench reflects my passion for art and my professional training as a woodworker, painter and designer,” Morrow said. She works “almost exclusively in commission work. I love working with individuals and creating exactly what they dream of having in their home.”
One family has seven pieces of Morrow’s work. Morrow takes a very personal approach to her work. “I learn what they want, where it will be placed in their home and learn something special about them.” For instance, in creating a sofa table for a client, she presented “four different designs, and they chose one. Then I designed three different leaf designs for them to consider. They are from the Midwest, so they preferred an oak leaf, rather than the Colorado aspen.”
With meticulous attention to every detail, not only on the piece itself but also in where it would be placed in the home. Morrow designed a table “to have the leaves on the end of the table lower than on the sides. As you come in the door you’ll see the end first, so I had it lower so you don’t see the underside.” Anticipating a common question she added, “And yes, I carved every single leaf; each is individual in its contour.”
Morrow earned a bachelor of fine arts degree at the University of Kansas and had a successful career as a producer/director in business theater productions in Chicago. Then she left all that and moved to Evergreen where she designed her own home. “I moved here to do my art. I had done all I could do as a producer. I wanted to work on my tapestry weavings.” Once here, however she “did some brainstorming about other art and found woodworking.” She enrolled at Red Rocks Community College and studied furniture-making in the fine woodworking department, where “before long all the men that had snickered at my being in the class began asking me for advice. I had the most fun, ever. And then, I set up my shop and I did it.”
Morrow creates her works in her home studio, which holds no less than six major woodworking tools that require walking around each. But she “has many more than that.” Every step of the creative process is completed by Morrow herself. She designs each piece, personally selects the wood, constructs the object and painstakingly hand-carves details. She has had to “pay attention through summer and fall, how much wood moves.” She explained how she makes joints deeper “so the wood can expand and contract. There are a million factors that go into each piece.”
“The goal for my work is having each and every piece exceed not only client expectations but also my own.”
Don’t miss learning more about this artist and viewing her work. Visit www.trailmixstudio.com or call 303-674-1203.
Anne Hopper Vickstrom writes from her Evergreen home, where she lives with her husband, three children and two dogs. She wouldn’t live anywhere else.

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