Originals

ROARING FORK RAINBOW original paper collage


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Size & Details

Size & Details

Original paper collage features a rainbow trout swimming in a mountain stream. Mountain modern artwork merges hand-cut paper collage with painting.  Finished with wood frame and Museum Plexi.

  • Medium: vintage papers on wood
  • Size: 24.75" H x 34.75" W (framed)
  • Frame: hand-assembled black oxide frame with Museum Plexi
  • Hardware: ready to hang with wire on back
Story

Story

Their movements resembled something like the tongue of an electric beast... - Dolan Geiman

As a child, I thumbed through my grandfather's old Outdoor Life magazines, reading the illustrated tales of fishermen plying the high Rocky Mountain streams and wild Idaho rivers. I dreamed at night of richly colored trout, fish that looked as if they had been dipped in the very marrow of the rainbow and then dropped, wriggling, into crystal blue waters. Their movements resembled something like the tongue of an electric beast, darting to and fro beneath the passing clouds. I always wanted to swim with them, to feed them hellgrammites on the end of a silver fork, to listen to them recount tales of their many adventures, spoken in their cryptic underwater trout-speech. Roaring Fork Rainbow Trout is an update on the dream, a vivid remembering of remembering, an homage to the rivers I've found half a continent away, a continued hope of finding these magical creatures and hearing their tales.
I'm always on the lookout for an unusual print, a surprising texture, a glimmer of inspiration in the everyday. From my vast collection of vintage papers, I selected and hand-cut the hundreds of individual pieces that make up this collage, and applied them over a hand-drawn underwater scene and delicious floating snack for my dinosaur fish friend.

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
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.