On February 25, 2010, our community lost John Gutierrez.  John was one of Baltimore’s great creative talents; he was well known for his award winning custom metalwork and furniture design.  John was an early resident of Clipper Mill;  his first Baltimore studio was located in the Tractor Building in the early 1990’s.  Gutierrez Studios grew steadily over the years and now occupies over 20,000 square feet of the Clipper Mill campus.  Gutierrez Studios’ clients include the Woodberry Kitchen, The Visionary Art Museum, MICA, Tapas Teatro, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in DC and many, many more.

For those who live or work in the Clipper Mill Community, John was a fixture.  His studio hosted a range of activities from dynamic parties to salon discussions featuring local and visiting artists.  Many of us got to see firsthand the work of Gutierrez and his craftsmen at their semi-annual Open House Studio Tours.  The highlight of virtually every gathering at John’s studio was the crowd gathered around an enormous fire in the fire pit in front of the studio.  In 2009, John started to redesign the fire pit to better meet local safety and fire regulations.  Gutierrez Studios’ own Maury Primrose picked up on the project and a beautiful new design emerged in the process.