Bryce Morrow, Owner and Operator
Born in the heart of the Pacific Northwest in the mid seventies, I was lucky enough to take advantage of the wide open spaces to explore, with more opportunity for adventure than any one person could ever experience in two lifetimes. Although the small town I grew up in hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years, the world around it seems to be decidedly smaller.
Raised in a great environment of the Lewis-Clark Valley where love of family is the core of its traditional values. Educated by a generation that still clung to the old ideals that hard work and a man’s word meant something; where God came before all things, and we should always be willing to extend a hand to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
As a child I didn’t take to traditional education well. I had authoritarian issues from an early age. At a very young age, my father taught me how to draw. I was able to use art as an escape to remove myself from reality and as a coping mechanism to create my own surreal image of how I wanted the world to be. Little did I know, that art and craftsmanship would direct me on a lifetime career path; the starving artist.
After high, school I directed my love of all things outdoors and my passion for creativity toward a pursuit to become a professional taxidermist. This was not the most illustrious path I could have chosen. It did give me a 12 year education on the anatomical intricacies of nearly every kind of game animal in North America and many from around the world. I owned and operated the business after several years of managing it for the aging and retiring owners. Unfortunately education has a cost; my impeccable timing of buying a business during an economic downturn, purchasing our first home and raising three small children all by my mid 20’s was a recipe for a mental breakdown. My decision to turn to alcohol for relief put me on the course for a failed business, bankruptcy and a decade long struggle which would nearly take my life multiple times.
By 2003, I changed careers to a full time artist and stone cutter for a local memorial shop. I previously worked part time for the same company drawing designs for headstones. Although it was a career in art, it was labor intensive and the work was far from satisfying as the undertone of death was always prevalent. During that 25 year career, I struggled with drug and alcohol addictions, depression with bouts of suicidal tendency, and just an overall lack of fulfillment from a career that, at best, was celebrating the life and death of total strangers.
After two trips to a rehab facility and several years of counseling and soul searching, I celebrate years free from addictions that nearly ended me. Along this road of recovery I’ve had to take a good hard look at myself and I can’t help but feel that at 48 years old it’s time to set forth on my own path. After two long held positions over 30 years creating art for others, it’s time to create my own. Let me help you celebrate your loved one by designing a one of a kind memorial that will last life times.