Originals

DRIVE-IN DEER original paper collage


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Size & Details

Size & Details

Original paper collage artwork features a buck and doe deer in rural western landscape with remnants of an old drive-in theater in the distance. Only the tan foreground & blue sky have been painted; all other elements are hand-cut paper.

  • Medium: vintage papers on wood with acrylic painting
  • Size: 39-7/8" H x 69-7/8" W (framed)
  • Frame: hand-assembled weathered brown wood frame with Museum Plexi
  • Hardware: ready to hang with D-rings on back
Process

Process

While most of my work starts with an initial drawing or sketch, some of my pieces are actually combinations of sketches. Sometimes an idea will sit in my sketchbook for a few months or even years, and will be revisited and reworked much later. Such is the case with the Drive in Deer collage. This piece started years ago as a painting idea, but never left the sketchbook until this past fall. The deer were the main actors on this stage, and while searching for a proper backdrop I came across another sketch for a drive-in movie theatre. And then, viola!, the two sketches overlapped into one.

Learn more about the collage process.

process

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Dolan Geiman Paper Collages

Dolan's signature paper collage artwork celebrates America's West and Southwest. Color, composition, and detail come to life in hand-cut vintage materials, many salvaged in Dolan's cross-country travels.

Creating the original collage starts with a wood panel. Dolan pulls vintage sheet music from his vast collection and applies these to the wood, first with glue, then with a top layer of whitewash paint. In many prints, this background layer of sheet music peeks through.

Next, Dolan draws the outline for the original collage in graphite atop the sheet music.

Dolan returns to his extensive trove of collected papers – think magazines, antique textbooks, handwritten letters salvaged from abandoned farmsteads - and begins pulling the ideal colors for the piece. He cuts each piece of material by hand and carefully layers into the artwork. These collages are carefully crafted from thousands of small papers: no two are exactly alike.

Dolan's paper collages are finished in a handmade frame constructed from salvaged metal or a modern, minimal wood or metal frame.