Jake Bayles

I entitled this Linocut piece "Neck Brain", which is a two word summary of this self-portrait of my head and face with guitar necks leading to vanishing points on both the front and back of my head. The primary purpose I had in mind was to send the message of my love for transcribing music by ear (always imagining musical notes on a guitar neck) designed in a style printed to look like pin striped lines on a car. The big inspiration for this came from head shots of famous guitar players looking down at the neck of their guitar, such as those of a young Eric Clapton or David Gilmour etc. Originally, I wanted this piece to have more negative white space for me to fill in with a two tone type color scheme to reflect something of the finish on a guitar. I really started to move a new direction when I started carving, and I got the pin striping idea when I carved along the curvature of my hair, which gave me the idea to keep that consistent throughout the piece. Overall, I'd say I'm pleased with the balance of white and black (positive/negative space) in the print, I didn't see the need as much to fill in additional color in the end. One problem I ran into was getting enough graphite on the back of my original sketch to transfer to the linoleum block, but after adding more even coats of graphite, I was able to carve the block with clear, visible lines. Finally, I'd say I grew as an artist with the mindset of combining two things you love (for me cars and guitars) to create a decent work of art while getting to learn an old school traditional way of printing.