Originals

MOTHER NATURE (FAWN) original paper collage


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Size & Details

Size & Details

Original paper collage on wood of Mother Nature holding a baby fawn with a feathered crown featuring a nautilus shell, birds nest, and feather detail. All hand-cut paper. Finished in handmade salvaged tin frame and Museum Plexi.

  • Medium: vintage papers on wood
  • Size: 58.75" H x 44.25" W (framed)
  • Frame: finished in handmade salvaged tin frame with Museum Plexi
  • Hardware: ready to hang with D-ring hangers on back
Process

Process

The newest Mother Nature with Fawn is an evolution on the original story of this mythical figure. When I began the series, I wrote, “In the mid-summer heat, in a field of pigweed and poison oak, Mother Nature lifts the newborn fawn from the gnashing maw of the farmers combine and places her in a shady spot by the river, within sight of her birth mother...When the lightning strikes the mountain and lifts the spirits of three hundred stricken dragonflies from their mortal bodies, it is Mother Nature who takes them home and refills their bodies, and plants them in the clouds so that, with the next rainstorm, their souls can return to earth to dart above the racing river.”

In this newest version of Mother Nature with Fawn, I was able to incorporate much of the story’s imagery in the intricate paper collage. Look closely to see a map of the night sky in the dragonfly’s wings, its constellations repeated in Mother Nature's garb. Like all collages, this one began with an underlay of vintage papers affixed to a wood panel and whitewashed with acrylic paint. I crafted the cornucopia of nature surrounding this female icon by hand-cutting a vast array of vintage papers and finished the piece with a handmade frame assembled from salvaged tin.

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.