Originals

CUSTOM COLORADO WILDLIFE original paper collage


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Size & Details

Size & Details

Collage commission for a Colorado home featuring a herd of bison, moose, Colorado birds and the client's grandfather, nestled amongst the beautiful Colorado mountains at sunset, rendered in hand-cut paper. Modern art merges hand-cut paper collage with painting. Finished with wood frame and Musuem plexi.

  • Medium: vintage papers on wood 
  • Size: 72" H x 72" W (framed)
  • Frame: handmade salvaged tin frame with Museum Plexi
  • Residential commission
Story

Story

Some of the best of Dolan's techniques in one oversized collage artwork.

Imagine your beloved grandparent in their most
favorite place. Now imagine that scene recreated in paper collage, on a background scaled to 72” high by 72” wide and finished in a handmade salvaged
metal frame. This custom artwork brought a cherished relative back to their treasured mountain landscape amidst a herd of bison, a bald eagle and a shy moose making a subtle cameo in the background. Working in close consultation with the clients to ensure each aspect of Grandpa – down to and including his shirt pattern – were an accurate representation, Dolan created this multilayered, intricate scene from vintage papers and acrylic paint. From the moss on the rocks to individual petals on flowers, this oversized work represents some of the best of Dolan’s technique, parlayed into the large, the personal and the narrative.

Process

Process

Each Dolan Geiman collage is crafted from hand-cut vintage papers sourced over decades of exploration and careful categorizing, held dearly until the perfect piece arrives to claim their colors and texture. Learn more about the making of paper collages here.

process

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.