Originals

BLUE JAY IN NEST original paper collage


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Size & Details

Size & Details

Contemporary original bird art is constructed from hundreds of hand-cut papers collaged together as blue jay in nest formed from twigs with surprise imagery.

  • Medium: vintage papers on wood
  • Size: 42" H x 42" W (framed)
  • Frame: hand-built reclaimed wood
  • As featured on the 2014 Cherry Creek Arts Festival poster.
Story

Story

A smalled winged creature with blue wings, reflecting the cold of the frozen landscape. - Dolan Geiman

The ice was melting. Slowly, but it was disappearing, and as it melted it filled ditches and sinkholes creating creeks, rivers, lakes, oceans. It had been a long time in the cold, this round planet, wrapped by the blanket of a seemingly never-ending ice age. But slowly the life was returning, and in the midst of this new spring for the planet a new species emerged: a small winged creature with blue wings reflecting the cold of the frozen landscape. It had a voice like a rusty chain but could think like its crow brethren and had a penchant for finding tree nuts. Its appetite rested mainly on the giant oaks where it was born, and as it flew from field to mountain, it carried in its beak handfuls of acorns, which it buried for later consumption. Many of these acorns were forgotten and never eaten, and later sprouted into the oak savannas and dense forests that fill expansive vistas of this vast landscape. If this sounds like a creation myth, it’s far from that. The blue jay, with his sharp crest and ability to mimic many other birds and even humans, is one of the most intelligent birds to arrive after the ice age. In Colorado it is surely one of the most beautiful - its beauty rivaled only by the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. The next time you see this azure cloaked avian friend, give him a nod, knowing that he’s worked a long time to be where he is today.

Story of the Colorado Blue Jay, Dolan Geiman 2014

Process

Process

Each collage begins with a preparatory sketch or, on occasion, a digital rendering which is rendered in graphite on the wood panel prior to beginning the collage.

Learn more about the collage process.

process
Limited Series

Limited Series

Each work in Dolan Geiman’s portfolio is unique and hand-crafted. Works indicated with “limited series” are reiterations of a recurring theme or concept.

A Certificate of Authenticity is available upon request.

  • Each piece in a limited series is created with an inimitable collection of found materials: no two are exactly alike, although they may look similar at a glance.
  • Details, colors, specific materials, typography and frame will differ from work to work.

Learn More

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.