Custom Painted Guitar Pedals

My dad has played guitars for over 40 years. He has only recently rediscovered the joys of electric. With that he has also rediscoverd the fun of effects pedals.

Unfortunately I don't know that much about effects pedals. For a more indepth explanation of the kinds I painted here, see the entry in my dad's blog "Something Completely Different."

I studied visual art for two years at Bard College under a number of working artists who have exhibitions in musuems around the world, including the Guggenheim and the Tate. I also studied art history under a pulitzer prize winning author and a groundbreaking Asian art historian. I continue to paint, draw, make paper, design books, and cards as well as paint commissioned works for friends.

This is a picture of the first guitar pedal I custom painted. My dad purchased a make your own pedal kit and wanted it decorated. A friend of mine is putting the guts together.

I chose the colors for this first pedal because I thought they would bring together the colors my dad already has on his effects board (see his blog entry linked above).

The design is drawing on impressionism. I thought of later Kandinsky works while I was in the midst of making it. Like many impressionists, and certainly Kandinsky, I was thinking of the way music makes a person feel. The design then, was meant to recreate some of the feelings and ideas that come to mind with the different textures of sounds made by various effects pedals.

The second pedal I painted was a pedal my dad got through a trade online. It was orange originally, and instead of putting a coat of primer on it, I used the orange as a background and worked with the model paints I already had. This was difficult because I didn't have very many warm colors to work with.
This pedal was designed with similar concept in mind as the first. Except rather than thinking of a variety of textures as I did with the first one, I thought more of lava and fire. I also thought a little of the way leaves look in autumn for some of the dappled patterning. The shapes recall lava flows and rock formations. The color concepts were, as I said above, partially due to the palette in addition to the original orange background color.

If you or a friend are interested in having your effects pedals custom painted, either comment on this post or shoot an email to: alexis.tara@gmail.com

Please, serious inquiries only!