I started playing guitar when I was 7 years old. My dad got me an Olympic White Fender Squire Stratocaster and I was hooked. All I wanted to do was play guitar. I didn’t think about where it would one day take me. I didn’t consider the implications of picking up the guitar every day. I just wanted to play. I didn’t care about how bad it hurt or how bad it sounded. I just wanted to play. I like to think that learning the guitar was the doorway into the space of creativity. It was playing music that first taught me about style, composition, and texture. I learned about the expression and storytelling that is found in every art form. Most importantly, it taught me how to care for something and how to commit yourself to cultivating that thing. Then, somewhere along the way, my childhood love for music grew into a dedication to all things creative.

Almost 20 years later, I care now more than ever. I care deeply about how it looks and how it sounds and how it feels. It is my method of honor.

George Gutierrez