Bill Morrow has been an artist since he was a young child. He didn’t have a lot of material to work with since his family didn’t have a lot of money. 

“My mom would give me pencil and paper and I’d be occupied for hours,” Morrow said. He sat in his rolling chair at his desk, which is littered with paper and ideas. On his head lay a black hat with red peppers decorating it. 

Morrow lived in Rifle for most of his young life and went to Rifle High School, back when it was called Rifle Union High School. Then he was drafted to the Vietnam War. 

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“You could go into the Army and learn how to kill or go into the Navy and get an education. So I chose the Navy,” Morrow said. 

During his two tours in the Navy, he spent most of his four years in a carrier and he learned how to be an electrician. This schooling would help his artistic side once he started working with metal and welding it. 

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Morrow got married during this time to a young woman he’d met while in high school. Cindy, his wife, had gone to Glenwood Springs High School while Morrow was in Rifle. Eventually, they had some children. Their photographs are next to the window in his apartment. 

Throughout his life, Morrow began creating a number of pieces from scrap metal that he would find in junkyards. One of his pieces, called “Firework,” is made from old Harley Davidson exhaust pipes that he found and melded together.

Morrow uses other material that wouldn’t be looked at as artistic supplies. A few of Morrow’s handheld pieces are pine cones made out of horseshoe nails. 

Morrow has art pieces decorating his apartment in the Maxwell Senior Apartments in Rifle, and has a “Money Bug” next to his door, which has dollar signs on its feet, including a poem he wrote about the piece. 

Poetry, quotes and phrases are aligned three by three on his refrigerator, the corners kept tucked under round magnets. They are layered in stacks and most are written by Morrow, others are ones he liked, and he labels them with the author. 

Photographs line his apartment; one in particular is of a tree, from an artist friend. Yet more are strewn about the space: another photograph of Morrow seeing himself in one of his art pieces, a canvas painting of that photograph, a side-profile drawing of Morrow and a charcoal drawing of him are all from artistic friends he’s made over the years. 

Morrow has been a part of the art scene in Colorado for a long time. Metal sunflowers are on Carbondale’s Artway Arch, while another piece named “Caduceus” sits in front of Roaring Fork Family Practice in Carbondale. The caduceus, carried by the Greek god Hermes, was a staff with two snakes intertwined with wings and was said to raise the living from the dead — the caduceus in modern times is associated with medicine. 

“I got the diagnosis a little while ago. The cancer’s metastasized,” Morrow said. 

Morrow recounted a story about his family home in Rifle: his parents had moved out from it and his father was sick. Morrow was trying to find funds to buy the house back and turn it into the Bookcliffs Arts Center. 

“My dad said he wasn’t going to die until that house got sold,” Morrow said. 

Morrow found most of the funds from a couple of anonymous donors. The rest of the money, about $30,000, was covered by his parents. Morrow told his father they’d gotten the house, and then a couple days later, his father passed. 

“I’m not going till I can sell my pieces,” Morrow said. 

Morrow said he hopes to sell as many as he can and then leave all the money to his grandchildren. 

Many of his large pieces are out on a property down the offshoot road on Garden Lane in Rifle, past Rocky Mountain Underground Construction, near a pond; the driveway leads up to a house that Morrow’s aunt used to own — she was the first person to get a birth certificate in Colorado and lived to be a 112, according to Morrow. 

Although the “Insane-a-cycle” isn’t on display in the field, other pieces like “A Split Second of Air,” which is of a rider catching air, or “Running for Office,” a figure with his tongue out, holding a mace and a flag with a angelic figure — possibly justice — on the top of the flagpole, are in the field. 

Some of the pieces on display are delicate and, while being observed on a breezy day at sunset, can move around, leading to a peaceful walk through metals that are brought to life in various ways — some evoking Morrow’s interpretations or his memories that he wrought through the tough substance, some gleaming, some rusting and some dark with being welded together.

Should anyone want to buy Morrow’s art pieces, they can go to williammorrowsculptures.com, although the website isn’t completely up yet as measurements of sculptures are not done being taken. An auction on the website will be taking place in May, according to Morrow.