Jermaine Donaldson

I'm showing anything that relates to my artwork for my BA Hons-Art & Design course at BCU. I will include artist research and artwork.

[jdon94]

Hey, you've got a great blog. m really impressed, can I do a short interview of you on frankly.me

Ahh thanks, sure why not.

[jdon94]

Module Evaluation for 5105

During the time I was working on my project called Site-Specific Practice, I had to consider how art and design making are effected by Location, Physical Space, Appropriate Materials, Place, Audience, Community, Art Institutions and Funding. My main task was to find a site that already has a piece of art and/or design in it. I also had to find out as much background information about my chosen piece in relation to commissioning bodies/clients, funding, the artist/designer and the subject of the work. I had to choose work for a reason.

One example of an artwork I researched for inspiration was called Aufeinwort, which was created by an artist named Michael Schuster. Michael Schuster’s involvement to the second part of the exhibition project Utopia and Monument is both self-evident and in need of explanation.

The lettering “AUFEINWORT”, which means ‘can I have a word with you’ in English, is prominently displayed in one-meter-high letters on the Graz Town Hall balcony facing the main square, which glow in ever-changing colours at night.

I chose to research Schuster’s work because it’s really interesting to me. The glowing text communicates to the audience in Austria, in the language that they understand. I admire the fact that the colour of the lettering changes in the day and night time, which helps the viewers to recognise “Aufeinwort” instantly, whatever the time of day visitors observe the work.  

This gave me an idea to create an A1 or A0 scale print of two letterings, such as “Aufeinwort” and “can I have a word with you” combined together. When I had to present that idea to my tutors and the rest of my class, one of the instructions that Steve advised me to do was to look more deeply in terms of research into my site, explore it, its surroundings, its history and what it means to the local community etc.

This advice was very helpful because it gave me ideas to help me decide on what type of audience I’m creating my site-specific artwork for, if I was installing my own exhibition for the general public or if I was generating a souvenir to sell to people.

As my project was changing and improving constantly, my idea for my final outcome was to create a MDF wooden laser cut model of the bell tower-style building in Linz, Austria.

I really enjoyed making my laser cut sculpture because the angles and scale looked very accurate. My idea behind it was to create an ornament that tourists who visit Linz can buy and take away with them, to put on their mantle piece. This was one type of artwork that I wanted to make, to remind people of the large and intricate building, which Linz has to offer and that there are amazing festivals, which take place there.

Overall, I feel that I have done quite well throughout the creation of this project and the various processes included. I still believe that there is always room for improvement.

[jdon94]

Monday 11 May 

Supported Studio Practice 

10am – 4pm Room F.05 available 

LM 

Today I have managed to finish creating the body of my MDF wooden laser cut model of the bell tower style building in Linz, Austria. I feel that my sculpture look really good because the edges, corners, angles, shapes and scale look very accurate. 

The wood adhesive that I used really helped my wooden laser cut pieces to join together firmly, which was a plus side of developing my work. I would like to continue to practice creating laser cut models of iconic buildings like the bell tower style building in Linz. I believe that I have improved my artistic skills during the making of my 5105 project and I have had a lot of fun generating my sculpture.

The more I practice improving on my sculpting talent, I could create something that looks so amazing, my model would be marketable. It’s an idea for me to consider, to help me to prepare for my future targets.

[jdon94]

Group Surgeries for 5105 - Tuesday 5th May

Tuesday 5 May

Group Surgeries 10-12pm

1/3 present to rest of yr5

Room F.05

Group Presenting:

Lucy Martin

Molly Rudoni

Dani Green

Jermaine Donaldson

Serina Yasmin

Fardousa Osman

Tati Pondes Lopes

Jess Green

Hope Scott

Danang Panandra

Supported Studio Practice

1-4pm

DH/SBk

Today I had to present to my class what I have done so far for 5105. 

Feedback

In terms of your blog have a little note underneath the posted images, about what didn't work and what you did differently - so that the people who are reading it can see how you’re solving problems as you go along - and you kind of making decisions based on what works and what doesn't work - that’s all part of your reflection - about taking charge of the project - directing it 

Just a few notes on some of these images on your Tumblr blog, what works and what doesn't work - then it show’s where it leads next 

The information about the idea behind my MDF wooden laser cut model of the bell tower style building in Linz, Austria, should be posted on your blog 

You don’t need to clad it 

What you do need, is to have something for The Hand In / Assessment Crit on Tuesday 12th May 2015 

Pull out just a couple of Bullet points that say why your research is relevant for your 5105 project - e.g what is so relevant about this, why you’ve been drawn to that 

You could just take a couple of photographs of your unfinished model being painted on, to show that you have tried it in this different way

Try to experiment with different materials and techniques, such as sand blasting and gold leafing etc 

My Own Opinions

This feedback has been helpful because I have more ideas about different materials and techniques, I can use, to help me describe the texture of my Linz building laser cut model, in order to make it look as realistic as possible. 

I’m not one-hundred percent sure that I would have time to include every experimental idea that my tutors, technicians and classmates have suggested to me to use in my work, however, I can use some of these things in my work and possibly build on my laser cut modelling skills further in Level 6 and my future career.

[jdon94]

A photograph of an individual piece of the front part of my Linz building 

With the assistance of Pete Whitehouse, I’ve managed to create four identical MDF wooden laser cut copies of the front surface, of my bell tower style Linz building model.

I feel that I have done pretty well so far, in terms of my model making development. The main things that I need to work on, is to draw out a template the steps of my sculpture on the 2D Design V2 software, use the laser cutting machine to create a wooden laser cut version of it then use an adhesive tool, to attach the individual pieces, which make make up my model, together permanently.

[jdon94]

Thursday 30 April, 10-5

Tutorials     G.04

Thursday 30 April 1-2-1 Tutorials

Time

10:00

Bambi

10:20

Jermaine

10:40

Komal

11.20

Evan

11:40

Tati

12.00

Andy

1:00

SJ

1:20

Flis

1:40

Lucy

2:20

Flis

2:40

Byron

3:00

Fardousa

3:40

Molly

4.00

Dani

4.20

Eleanor

Today I had a tutorial with Lisa Metherell. Lisa spoke to me about what I need to improve on when I’m reflecting on my research, visiting speaker lectures and working experience at Grand Union, for my individual work placement project. 

I feel that my tutorial has helped me to think about how I can improve on my individual work placement blog, to help my readers to understand what I’ve been doing at Grand Union, why I’ve chosen to work there and the process of myself earning my place there.

Feedback From Lisa

Generally, more of your own voice and reflections through your blog. More specifically:

1) At start of blog: future aims and relevance of identified places of work.

2) Emails/screen grabs of who you (i.e. other galleries too) contacted, how, did you follow up 

3) Critical reflections on what you did

4) notes added to some of your photos for clarity.

5) Overall evaluation - see ‘what your blog should include’ handout for more details on this.

[jdon94]

I have painted onto my unfinished version of my MDF wooden laser cut interpretation of the dome shaped bell tower style building in Linz. Red and White Acrylic paints were used for my work.

I wanted to practice my experimentation skills by painting onto MDF wood because I wanted to compare whether my final outcome would look better with or without paint. 

When I look at and compare what I’ve done, part of the model without paint looks a lot more detailed because I can see very corner and angle of the shapes, however, the section of the sculpture with paint looks less detailed because the paint looks like it’s disguising the edges and angles of every shape that defines the model. 

I now know that leaving my final wooden laser cut outcome to have no colour added to it, would be the best thing to do. Leaving my work to look skeletal without colour would mean that my audience would see every detail that my model shows.

[jdon94]

Monday 27 April

Monday 27 April

Visiting Speaker - Jane Calow

11am – 1pm G.05

Jane Calow is an artist and writer who has exhibited widely. Performed nationally and internationally, her artwork Traject explored the idea of a ‘moveable site’, highlighting themes of physical and psychic spatialisation informed by the psychoanalytical structure of trauma. Her artist’s book produced as part of Traject is held in Tate Britain library archive. Jane directed the international interdisciplinary conference Public Representation and Private Mourning: Commemoration and Memorial (UWE, 2002). She is currently working on an artwork developed from Traject entitled Mantle, working with mourning and grief.  She published as Guest Editor on the 12th edition of the Routledge journal Mortality, entitled Memoria, Memory, and Commemoration and has lectured at the University of Bath on the MSc in Death and Society. She co-directed the international symposium Present: trauma/art/representation at ICIA (2006). Jane has also worked as a curatorial consultant to ICIA on the 2009 programme theme entitled Arts, Spatialisation and Memory for which she co-directed an international symposium. She was Head of Fine Art as Social Practice at the University of Wolverhampton. She was also Research Fellow at the Centre for Contextual, Public and Commemorative Art at the University of the West of England. Jane co-edited the new book, Speculative Strategies in Interdisciplinay Arts Practice (Underwing 2014) with Daniel Hinchcliffe and Laura Mansfield. Jane's Chapter is entitled Shoreline and Sea. Her text is a reflection on her artistic practice (specifically the construction of Mantle) that embraces interdisciplinary research, discourse, collaboration, negotiation and physical making. She draws upon Geology, Geography, Psychoanalysis, Language and Epistemology.

www.janecalow.com

Group Surgeries 2-4pm

1/3 present to rest of yr5

Group Presenting:

Komal Nagar

Niamh Sivertsen

Eleanor Taylor

Yvonne Hamilton

Andy Harrison

Bambi Bains

Jade Bonsey

Talor Thornton

Kemet Tenkamenin

Emma Holliday

Room F.05  

LM

What Jane Calow informed students about

Her experience of moving on from being a student to being a professional - She was at art school in the nineteen seventies and it was a very different context back then to the kind of context we find ourselves living in now 

She studied fine art painting - at that time she knew nothing about any living artists at all 

All the models that they were given through their history and through fine art practice were masculine 

[jdon94]

Website Link: http://rrmodelcraftsman.com/extraboard/cm_extra_lasercutguide.php

I came across this website about laser-cut structures, which gives me some ideas of how I can assemble my MDF wooden laser-cut building model. One example of a tool that I could use to build my Linz building model is an adhesive that can be used to bind wooden objects together. 

I could visit shops like B&Q and Homebase, to see which type of glue is the best quality for me to purchase and use for my work.

[jdon94]

I’ve looked at an Austrian Flag on Google Images, which has given me an idea to use red and white paint, to flesh out my building sculpture to symbolise its identity of the bell tower style building being one of the main attractions in Linz, for tourists to explore.

[jdon94]

Website Link: http://lightwavelaser.com/wall-art-SQ.htm

I have looked at a website, which shows different wooden laser cut patterns. These decorative designs give me some ideas of adding interesting patterns onto the front faces of my Linz building inspired model, to make my work look contemporary and interesting to look at.  

[jdon94]

Today I used the 2D design V2 software and laser cutting machine to create the front part of my sculpture of the bell tower style building in Linz.

I think that the appearance of the clock in my model looks really good, however, I feel that I could have made the outline of the laser cut sculpture more narrow. My work needs to be decreased in width slightly, so that the front surface of my model can fit perfectly to connect to the base of the top part of my building replica.

The next thing I aim to work on, is to draw the shapes of the front of my building model on 2D design V2 thinner than how I’ve made it, use the laser cutter to engrave four exact copies of it then attach it them to the base of my octagonal dome sculpture. 

[jdon94]

Tuesday 21 April

Tuesday 21 April

10am-4pm Room F.05

DH/SBk

Group Tutorials

(1/3 + 1/3 of group)

Dan Hinchcliffe

Group:

Fliss Harris

Tahmina Begum

Evan Beech

Byron Neary

Jo Price

Chris Johnstone-Law

SJ Paskin

Chloe Barrett

Becky Cragg

Felicity Morton

Steve Bulcock

Group:

Lucy Martin

Molly Rudoni

Dani Green

Jermaine Donaldson

Serina Yasmin

Fardousa Osman

Tati Pondes Lopes

Jess Green

Hope Scott

Danang Panandra 

Today my class and I had to talk to Steve and Dan, who are our tutors, about what we’ve been working on during the easter holiday and Monday so far for our Site-Specific Practice project. 

I spoke to Steve and Dan, telling them in front of my class that in the easter holiday, I sketched a plan of the scale of my building model and wrote a description of the materials I want my architectural sculpture to be made out of and what my model is about. I also explained to my peers and tutors how I want Pete Whitehouse to help me create my laser cut wooden building. 

I had some work to show as well. I showed my class and teachers the octagonal dome shaped sculpture, which is a replica of the top part of the bell tower style building in Linz, Austria. My class seemed to like my laser cut model, based on their facial expressions.

Feedback from Steve

Looking miles better then they did last time - much improved - looking really good 

The detail is starting to get in there - the way it’s made - the precision is a much better then they were before  

What it’s starting to look like now is rather than something you’d sell to tourists, it’s starting to look like a model you might see inside one of these places in Linz - to kind of show their architectural structure - it’s almost like an architect had been exploring the forms of things like that

It could be quite interesting to make the whole building in this kind of skeletal shape - quite an interesting reference to the architecture 

I quite like it skeletal - the problem you’re going to have, if you’re going to try and recreate that exactly you’ve then got to put faces on all these things - in the time available you might be better making more of this style of building, rather than trying to cover it 

It’s different than the building - what I like about it is it’s based on the building and it’s not like the building - so it’s kind of like a reference  

It’s good - it’s like you’re doing - it’s like you’ve gone there and done a drawing in 3D 

If you make a bigger version you’ve got like a 3D drawing and it could go back into the building, without going ‘Here’s a model of the building you’re standing in’ - it’s like ‘Here’s a drawing, a 3D drawing of the thing you’re standing in’ - so it’s like a piece of art that can sit in the building

I think it’s good - I think make more and continue doing what you’re doing - make more of the building

In the same way that people have drawings, painting of scenes of buildings in their house on gallery walls etc, it becomes like a really nice stylised sketch of this Linz building 

Good - keep going 

Feedback from Dan

In itself this way of doing it is perhaps the style to run with 

Keep producing - do it that way 

Have your own style 

It’s like a picture of it really in terms of 3D drawing 

Feedback from Student (Lucy Martin)

I think it will look really beautiful once it’s done, just to experience the building in miniature form - you can't really see the building unless you’re up in the sky

My Own Opinions 

Based on what my tutors and one of my peers said about my work for the Site-specific project, I am proud of what I’ve managed to achieve so far. My expectations of what people in my class thought about my work have turned out to be better than I predicted. 

The next thing I aim to do, in order to improve my wooden sculpture, is to draw the outline of the front surface of my interpretation of the Linz building on the 2D design V2 software, create four MDF wooden laser cut copies of it then attach them onto the edges of the base of the octagonal dome shaped bell tower style reproduction of the building. 

[jdon94]

This photograph shows two versions of my octagonal shaped bell tower-style building. The first example (right) wasn't successful because the top of the edges broke, however, the second version (left) was successful because the individual pieces are thick, which means they are less likely to break. 

I looked at images of Octagonal dome shaped templates as well as photographs of the bell tower style building as references to look back on, to help me to create the structure of my laser cut model

Today, with the support of Pete Whitehouse, I managed to make a start on creating a laser cut model of the bell tower style building in Linz, Austria. I created to versions of the top of the my chosen building to use as inspiration. I wanted to compare which one would look better as a final piece. 

The I discovered that the shape of the top of the bell tower style building, looks like an Octagonal dome form. When I first looked at this construction I thought the top part was a sphere because the previous image of the Linz building that I looked at, as a reference, was slightly cut off, which meant that I couldn't  see all of it.

I looked at images of Octagonal dome shaped templates as well as photographs of the bell tower style building as references to look back on, to help me to create the structure of my laser cut model.

Once I’ve finished creating the dome of my wooden building, I will work on the rest of the building. I feel my work has turned out better than expected, because the edges of the sculpture looks more accurate than my plaster cast model. I realise that I’m only at the beginning stage of developing my work for my site-specific project, however, I believe that I have made a decent start to my project. 

[jdon94]

I have drawn a plan of the scale I want my MDF wooden laser cut sculpture model, of the bell tower style building in Linz to be. This is what I aim to show Pete Whitehouse during or after the Easter Holiday’s, depending on when he’s available to help me create my architectural work.

The concept behind my work is to create an ornament that tourists who visit Linz can buy and take away with them, to put on their mantle piece. This is one type of artwork that I want to make, to remind people of the large and intricate building, which Linz has to offer and that there are amazing festivals, which take place there.

[jdon94]

Thursday 26 March, 10-3

5101 Module

AM: 10-12

Today my class and I had the choice to have a 1-2-1 tutorial if we felt that we were struggling with work placements or 5101 more generally. Anyone who wanted to book a tutorial had to sign up on Moodle.

PM: 1-3

Our tutor Lisa Metherall went through the assessment and told us what we need for our blog and our presentations.

We had to hand-in our completed Student Agreement forms, in order for our tutor to allow us to do our work placement.

My class and I had a Colab session until 3, which was led by ourselves, with Lisa dropping in as required.  Our teacher reminded us to meet with our groups before Thursday and to bring any questions or issues we were having to the session.

[jdon94]

Today I have been developing my clay model replica of the Hauptplatz building in Linz, Austria. Tomorrow on Thursday or next week on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, depending on when Gay is available to support me with my practical work, I plan to recreate my steps again because the way I made them wasn't in the correct position that I wanted it to be. This was my own mistake, which I have to fix, so that my sculpture would be able to stand up straight instead of lying flat.

As soon as I rectify my steps, I aim to create a white plaster cast of my superstructure sculpture and use vinyl to produce 4 copies of my building design, to help me to join them together in order to create a Three-Dimensional form.