Local Artist Series // Jake Donlen
Who are you and what do you create?
Geez, stumped me on question 1… My name is Jake Donlen, but since the early days I’ve been creating under ‘Runamuk Visuals’. For the most part I’m a filmmaker, but I paint, shoot a few photo’s and design and manage a clothing brand all under the RV banner.
What materials and techniques do you use?
When it comes to film, It’s all about the subject, making everyone comfortable with the lens and then finding unique angles technically but moreso finding unique angles and insights of the people I shoot. There’s so many options with equipment now, but I try to keep my kit really simple and rely on my eye and capturing things as they happen a lot more than over thinking and over producing things. Less is more. Materials? Geez, anything from Super 8 to pens & pencils.
What kind of inspirations go into your work?
Excuse the hippy in me, but lately, it’s been the contrast of colours I see in nature. I’ve been shooting a lot of imagery for the new clothing range, and I found myself seeing much more when scoping out locations than I had on previous personal projects. I’ve been big on black and white for years, but colour has popped up a lot, and for the first time in awhile there is colour in the clothing designs too. Watching what my kids do with a pen and paper also sparks inspiration
In what space do you like to create most?
It’s kinda hard to call a certain space as different projects need different spaces, but of the bits and pieces from the last year, it was painting a recent collection of work for my girl and I’s show, Liminal. We just painted happily for months, in a little studio in the Noosa Hinterland. It was the most content and care-free I’d felt in years, and when we finally hung it all and launched the show it felt nice, the crew that came were a happy bunch and at the end of the night everything felt right.
What has been your favourite or most important work to date?
I went to India for a fashion project, in amongst the shoot itself I was picking up shots of the people and the feel of the place. That became a short edit, and it’s that piece that puts a smile on my face the most.
To see more of Jake’s work, head to his Instagram or website.
