At first glance, Stars On Guitars are strikingly beautiful works of art designed to enliven a wall space or lure the eye in a studio or foyer; but on closer examination, these musically themed masterpieces are much more. Each guitar is a labor of love for artist Josephine Getz as she strives to capture the spirit of Music City and the essence of each performer in her custom creations of mosaic memories. For instance, her Johnny Cash memorial guitar, with its sparkling ebony exterior and silver accents, highlights meaningful moments in the illustrious career of the Man in Black, including Folsom Prison Blues, and Ring of Fire.

The Dolly Parton guitar glitters and gleams like its namesake, pretty in pink with a coat of many colors, featuring mementos including butterflies and rainbows representing Dolly’s many facets: author, singer/songwriter, musician, actress and philanthropist. To make these works of art even more desirable, each one comes with a framed poem written especially for the recipient by Josephine’s husband, Gordon. It all started in 2001 when Josephine broke a piece of her grandmother’s prize china and discovered another way to display the treasured heirloom by gluing the pieces to the frame of a mirror.

“Josephine liked the results so much that we started collecting old china at garage sales, antique shops, wherever we could find it,” Gordon explains. “She started with mirrors and picture frames, and then we started building things, like a grandfather clock. Josephine covered them all in mosaics.” The Getz family was living in Florida at the time, and Josephine won several awards at various festivals and juried events.

In June of 2011, the family moved to Tennessee where Josephine was inspired by the excitement surrounding Nashville and the music industry. After experimenting with a couple of guitars, she found her designs really sparkled when she used glass tiles. She mixed in colored tiles, pins, trinkets, belt buckles and interesting things she found on the Internet or at garage sales, choosing items that matched the theme of each guitar and the concept of “Stars On Guitars” was born. “When we’d completed a couple of the guitars,” she says, “we bought a booth space at the October Pumpkin Fest in Franklin, just to see what kind of reaction we’d get.” People went crazy over her creations.

In order to promote her idea of using the guitars as fundraisers, Josephine created and gave away guitars to several stars, including Tim McGraw/Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban/Nicole Kidman. “We’re hoping to get the stars involved, have them sign the guitar and let fans bid on it or for the opportunity to have one designed to their specifications and have the participating artist of their choice sign it.”

Josephine recently finished a guitar for Blake Shelton/Miranda, and she’s working on one featuring Charlie Daniels. “I’m a big fan of his. He’s very involved with veterans.” She’s also creating a veterans themed guitar. Her vision is to personalize guitars to tell a story - not just for country music stars - but for anyone who wants to give a truly exceptional gift, a one-of-a-kind piece of art with special meaning. She is donating a portion of the proceeds from each guitar sale to the Bill Walter III Melanoma Research Fund in honor of her son’s deceased father. As Josephine says, “It’s a way to give something unique to someone you love - a star in your life and make a difference at the same time.”

To see photos of Stars On Guitars as well as one of Gordon’s poems, go to their
website: www.starsonguitars.com or for more info call: 386-316-3123.