Meet GARIE CHAVEZ

We recently connected with GARIE CHAVEZ and have shared our conversation below.

GARIE, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

It comes from my parents’ upbringing. I saw both my mom and dad work hard and seeing their attitudes toward work significantly shaped who I am today.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I create and build custom handmade electric and bass guitars from weathered-down trees recovered around metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. This allows me to create 100% sustainable, repurposed wood art. I specialize in fractal art design on the guitar body. It is a process of applying 20,000 volts of electricity to the wood surface recreating a lightning strike in slow motion that also forms unique abstract figures, tree, and vein-like shapes. The wood is sealed with high grade epoxy inlay with choice of any color ink.
The brand GUIHAN is a derivative of my mom’s family name. My mom was born in the Philippines in a small provincial town in Tanauan, Batangas, the youngest daughter of a farmer. If you look at the logo on top of the letter “U” – is my homage to the shape of my mother’s eyes. What better way to name my custom electric guitar brand in honor of my mom. I love and miss her every day.
Once a year in the month of January, I participate as an exhibitor at the Barrett-Jackson Auto Collector Auction show held at Westworld in Scottsdale, Arizona. I showcase all my custom handmade electric guitars in my booth.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Persistence, passion and attention to detail are the key ingredients when I make electric guitars. Because each piece of wood I work with is unique, my fractal art process freely allows for the design to develop organically. My goal is for my clients to have a piece of art that they cherish and know that it is truly one of a kind and made especially for them.
My advise is to folks who are in the early journey is to keep pursuing your dream. Stay patient in whatever you do. Accept the trials and challenges but never give up. Focus on the journey and not the destination.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

Starting a business on your own always has its challenges. There are budgetary costs to consider from buying equipment and tools, supplies, managing social media outlets and attending local venue art shows to get plenty of exposure. It’s requires your 100% mental and physical attention to detail. It is daily hard work every day but very satisfying because you create something so unique that I could not duplicate what I just created. The key to is have the passion and the love for what you do and the rest will follow. I was always told that you have to prospect every day and reinvent yourself.

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