Jake Bayles

The main purpose for this Zine project is to spread the word of positivity and encouragement through the eyes of a guitarist. The big inspiration for this came from the message of Stevie Wonder's album "Songs in The Key of Life" which promoted peace in our world. With the color scheme of my piece, it was also inspired by the cover art of that album, as well as the general idea of abstract art. From the beginning, I wanted the piece to have a relaxed and free feeling radiating from it to the viewers eye, and with the warm colors and cursive writing, I think I achieved that somewhat. In terms with what I'm pleased with, I'm glad about the collage with the cutouts and guitar picks that signify the theme of each page and add their own textures. One big challenge I faced was working with the paint. I utilized the painting technique of wet-on-wet, which gave the colors more of a blended look to add to the theme of positivity and imperfections. The trouble with it was getting it to dry evenly without unwanted residue, but adding plain water to the surface of the page after it dried help me to smooth that out. I believe with this project I found my own voice as an artist, being able to express a positive message through the language and theory behind music and guitar technique.