In the quiet sweep of Island tides and the hidden currents of melody, Jay Shaughnessy, better known in creative circles as Bstract, has built an art practice that feels like a lived conversation between music, motion and abstraction.
He grew up in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, immersed early in both nature and sound. “You see the change in light every day; it’s subtle yet constant,” he says. That sense of flux would later become central to his work. Music was his first voice. After studying in London, he found himself touring with the Lloyd Yates Band, crossing towns and festivals, guitars and vocals in tow. Alongside him was Emily Faye, a singer-songwriter and partner in life, whose own career would eventually take her to stadium stages.
Then came 2020. The tours paused, the rehearsals halted, and everything slowed. In that pause, Bstract turned to visual art again, producing nearly 150 physical abstract works over a year. “I started scanning them,” he recalls. “Eventually I preferred the digital versions — the flexibility, the layers.” He posted the work anonymously at first, under @bstractart, seeking reaction without bias. The response was immediate and fervent.
Early in 2025, Bstract entered into a collaboration with Superluxe, a fine-art / Web3 platform, bringing his work into new formats and markets. According to Superluxe’s public announcements, Echo Chamber, one of his collections, is offered there in multiple forms: digital editions (NFTs), limited edition prints, and art on glass via a proprietary “Curtisium AROI” method. The platform describes these works as “digitally enhanced” and rooted in symmetry, abstraction and perception. While such partnerships always carry risk of sounding promotional, for Bstract the move simply feels like an extension of his existing aims: to blur boundaries, connect with collectors and let the art evolve.
At his core, Bstract speaks in layers. The seed of a piece might be a guitar riff, a looped drum beat or a soft bassline. From there he builds textures, sometimes painting by hand, then scanning, transforming, combining with animation or algorithmic shifts. He has spoken of linking some works to real-world data; Tide is a piece that responds to tidal data from Jersey. In effect, his canvases live and breathe.
The collection with Superluxe, Echo Chamber, leans into mirrored abstraction: “creatures, hidden forms, emotion dissolving into colour,” he says. His intent is never to prescribe meaning, to leave space for viewers to bring their own stories.
He and Emily collaborated on Glow, a landmark work of theirs: a sequence of 100 pieces, each with its own musical accompaniment and visual identity. The project took eleven months. “We turned it into a kind of dance between our worlds,” he says. Even now, he smiles when describing the parts where Emily’s voice becomes visual echo in his animation.
The transition from musician to multimedia creator hasn’t been without its challenges. In the early years, he admits, “you are your own marketer, your own gallery, your own logistics team.” As his audience and ambitions grew, so did his need for trusted infrastructure: platforms, partners, collectors, and collaborators.
The tie with Superluxe is one such infrastructure move. It gives his work exposure in new circles and formats, but he remains cautious. “I still want to control what I share,” he says. “I choose what gets launched, when, and how. It has to feel right.” The partnership is not a takeover of identity but a channel, another way in which his art can be seen without being forced.
He remains hands-on with collectors. “I love hearing what someone sees. Sometimes I send a half-finished version just to get their reaction.” He sees that dialogue as essential, not just selling art but building community.
What’s next? Bstract hints at work in gaming, immersive installations and film, though he’s not ready to name titles. He’s also helping Emily finish her debut album, which may feed back into his art world again: visualisations for her songs, perhaps exhibits with live performance.
He describes his path less as a climb than as a river. “I don’t measure success by the headlines. If a person sees one of my pieces and feels that it reflects their own emotion, floating, unsettled, in motion, then that is enough.”
From Jersey’s constant breezes to digital galleries, Bstract’s story is not about trend or hype. It is about the intersection of sound and form, risk and attention, and the quiet persistence of creation. His art now exists in physical form, in pixels, and on innovative marketplaces like Superluxe. For those who encounter it, the invitation is open: step in, and explore what echoes back.
