About Exemplar Guitars

ABOUT... 

A masterful Woodworker and a dream-driven Artist meet on Facebook and...

Tracey Brown

Mark Johnson

Artist/Musician/Dreamer

Mark spent 7 years of his life in the city and the second half as a country boy where wide open spaces and miles in bewtween neighbors were a major force in contributing heavily to him becoming a creative person.  "I can't remember where music and art began for me. It seems it has always been there", said Mark. Dissapearing into a world of superheroes, mythological creatures and music to occupy his time, Mark found a home in the love of creating a thing. "Bringing a thought from mind to the physical, is magical for me".  In highschool he brought together 3 friends to form, "Dream" a rock band which would lead to other musical endeavors. After attending, The Columbus College of Art and Design, OSU and then graduating, Cum Laude from Ohio Weslyan University, bachloring in Fine Arts, Mark taught k-12th grade for several years in the public school system. An illness would end this dream, but become the vehicle in which his truest hopes would be realized.  He has since free lanced for companies and individuals across the country working on everything from, portraits, book illustration, school and business logos, sword and coin designs, and a reletively popular comic strip on Facebook and Youtube, and a plethora of other ventures (May I say, Plethora?).  Mark is excited to be designing guitars for "EXEMPLAR GUITARS" with Tarcey.  He also enjoys teaching Art and Music from home, writing, performing, recording and producing original music, which he sells online. Mark's relationship to the Eternal, his wife, Melissa and his children and grandchildren are and always will be the true love of his life. 

Mark enjoys:
Science (Sound and Light, Metaphysics, and the fact that a speck of dust is half way between the size of an atom and the Earth!)
Science Fiction (Movies, Books by Clark, Bradbury and Lovecraft and more)
Movies (Amadeus, Bladerunner, Citizen Kain, The Maltese Falcon and more )
Art (Klimt, Michelangelo, Mike Mignola, Neal Adams, Modigliani, Jack Kirby and more)
Music (Queen, King's X, Van Halen, A Perfect Circle, Yes, Moke, Boston, Kansas and more)
Food (Sushi, Japanese and Chinese foods, Eel and Avacado Roll, Udon noodles, Tomatos in Lemon Juice and a tall class of Clamato are a few of my favorite things)

Tracey and Mark's story here...

Nothing should go to waste

Trash to Treasure

99% of all the wood Tracey uses is saved from burning in giant fire pits, or simply rotting and releasing its stored CO2 into the atmosphere.  When people cut trees down they have to take them somewhere, usually that is a giant fire pit where all that beautiful wood is simply destroyed. Hickory, Pecan, Oak, Maple, Camphor, Magnolia, Cypress, Cedar, Gum and many other useful and beautiful trunks of wood are simply discarded.  Tracey's good friends own a saw mill for cutting, and a kiln for drying the wood.  They are three old farts that have a passion they passed on to Tracey, "Don't let beautiful wood go to waste".

History

For over 40 years Tracey has turned old wood, new again.

As a young person I would spend hours in the antique shops and one ofhis earliest jobs was as a furniture refinisher,  Refreshing family heirlooms to new again, bringing new life to what appeared to be lifeless piles of moldy scratched up junk and making them once again priceless to their owners,  Tracey then went from refinishing to designing and building.

"As a musician I studied guitars, how they were made and wondered why even the best makers did not customize them for their players unless you were Eric Clapton or Eddie Van Halen and then they did it for advertising and it cost them nothing. Meanwhile I paid thousands of dollars for the same thing everyone else had.  Dont get me wrong I love every guitar I have purchased, and I put that love into every guitar I build."

-Tracey Brown

Tracey's  Dream

To Create New Heirlooms for Your Family

Whether its a new dining table that gets passed down to your kids (better put it in the will) or a custom built guitar specifically built for your son or daughters graduation, my designs and closely working with you will make sure it stays around for a long time. 

New Technology Leads to Great Products

Epoxy, CnC Routers and Lasers are not Really New Technology....

However...  Combining these technologies  helps Tracey to create custom pieces that can be uniquely yours.  Through computer design and unlimited colors of wood stain, Laser Etching and Epoxy, Tracey can bring fantastical  new age and rustic designs to your home at a fraction of the cost of the mass produced / partical board furniture.

Express Yourself and Let Exemplar Help. 