Meet Pat Kofahl | Custom Framing, Printmaking and Photo Restoration

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We had the good fortune of connecting with Pat Kofahl and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Pat, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
We help the world by helping our community. We help our community by providing services that impact their lives and sense of well-being on a daily basis. Human memory can be fragile and ephemeral in nature. That’s why we have things like diaries, photographs, movies, music and the like. Many of us have become experts in acquiring memorable events – we take trips, we watch our children grow up and become adults, we compile scrapbooks and thousands of images on our phones, yet somehow we seldom get a chance to look at and savor these precious memories. That’s where we come in.

Through our custom publishing and framing services, we help our customers create and share these precious memories by compiling, arranging, printing and framing those special moments in their lives so they get to see them and enjoy them every day, rather than have them stuffed away in a drawer somewhere or stuck in the recesses of an old hard drive or memory card. We actually help make the past come alive by making it a part of the present for the friends and families who have also become our customers over the past thirty years, while also allowing them to share those memories with their friends and families. By extension, our work impacts the entire community, and by that extension, the entire world. In a sentence, we share happiness.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I guess I’ve always been a photographer. Something about capturing a moment and preserving it forever has always fascinated me. For me, it’s a way to incorporate the past into the present, in a way that can remind us of all the beauty in the world, which enhances our present and helps create a positive outlook. I like to think that the thousands of hours I’ve spent acquiring images, working in the darkroom, learning new software and camera systems have all been a dress rehearsal for the picture I am about to take, for the print I’m about to make. If you love what you do, it’s always easy, some things easier than others. The world is full of exquisite beauty that exists all around us in every moment. Our job is to be aware of it. My purpose and goal are to help remind us of that fact.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Living in Arizona, we are surrounded by the Sonoran Desert, the most complex and diverse desert in North America, with a profusion of geological formations, plants and animals not found anywhere else. Further, a visit to Arizona would be incomplete without checking out Sedona, Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell near Page, the stunning beauty of Monument Valley, and the amazing and majestic Grand Canyon, home of the turquoise blue Havasu Falls. . Sabino Canyon in Tucson is the home of the Seven Falls trail, which has one of the best swimming holes in the country. For cuisine, we’d have to hit up Chris Bianco’s eponymous Pizzeria Bianco, which is continuously listed as the home of some of the best pizza in the country. Of course we’d have to chow down on the authentic rattlesnake appetizer at Rustler’s Rooste at South Mountain, and imbibe a few Suave Margaritas at the world-famous Barrio Cafe. To round out the evening, we’d enjoy the view and a nightcap from the rotating Compass Grill on the 24th Floor of the Hyatt Regency downtown, or marvel at the city lights from the patio of A Different Pointe of View high atop scenic Tapatio Cliffs on the north side of the Valley.

A visit to this town wouldn’t be complete without taking in a game, either the D-Backs, the Cardinals, The Mercury, Coyotes or the Suns, also home to the annual Fiesta Bowl, which has decided the NCAA National champion in years past.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Without our customers, our staff, and our suppliers, we wouldn’t even exist. Everything we have learned along the way was catalyzed by the direct input of others who have so kindly given of their time, effort and expertise. Some lessons were easy, some more challenging, but all were educational and enlightening. When I look back now at the very early days of Esprit Decor Gallery, I see clearly how much we have learned, how much there was to learn at the beginning, and how much others have helped us along the way. We are here because of them. It’s a humbling experience to realize just how much our success has been made possible by others. to paraphrase the famous quote by Sir Isaac Newton, If I have seen far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.

Website: www.espritdecor.com, www.patkofahl.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azshutterbug/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-kofahl-1153b520/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PKofahl

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pat.kofahl

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/esprit-decor-gallery-and-framing-phoenix