The last time you saw a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, there’s a good chance that live-music artist Keith “Scramble” Campbell was there, painting a 3-by-4-foot abstract acrylic artwork of the very band you came to see.

A fixture at the venue, Campbell has created more than 630 live paintings since his debut there in 2000, when he painted the band Widespread Panic. Immersed in the rhythm of the music, the artist moves with the beat, using his paintbrush like an instrument to capture the vibrant spirit and energy of the performance onto his canvas.

Inspired from a young age by New York graffiti artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí, he found his calling in emulating American speed painter Denny Dent, known for creating large-scale, 8-foot canvases of musicians in just 10 minutes, often at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. Discovering live music painting, he says, transformed his life and solidified his path as an artist.

“It seems easier to tell you which artists I haven’t painted versus the ones that I have,” he said recently. “I’ve painted over 1,000 live shows and 4,000 canvases in my career. It is a lifetime of going to shows all over the world. It isn’t just Red Rocks. If it’s live music, I will paint it.”

Q: Where does your name come from?

A: I was a speed roller skater in the 1970s and ’80s. I had a friend who called me Scramble because of the way I scrambled around the rink. Early on, I was heavily influenced by artists Andy Warhol, Bob Ross, LeRoy Neiman and Dalí. When I decided to make art my career, I felt like all of the influences from these artists were like an alphabet soup of names, a scramble of influences on me. I decided that Scramble would be a fitting name for me. (I also felt that it sounded a lot more creative than Keith and it rhymed with Campbell.)

Q: Could you give us a brief history of how you became an artist?

A: When I was in the seventh grade, I wanted to quit school because I knew I wanted to be an artist. My mother luckily convinced me it was wise to stay in school.

In the late ’80s, New York City was deep in the rave culture and the graffiti scene with rising artists like Haring, Warhol and Basquiat.  They showed their work through nightclubs and public art. They were doing paintings on walls, in the subways and on the streets directly bringing art to the people. I was entranced by their work.

In 1991, I answered an ad looking for a visual artist to paint live during a music festival. The man who placed the ad was Perry Farrell, of Jane’s Addiction. The music festival was Lollapalooza.

When I got the job, it felt like the beginning of my career. I had had so many rejections over the years of trying to get into galleries and art shows. It was when I made the crossover from the art world into the music world that I really discovered my path as an artist.

Throughout the ’90s, I did music festivals such as the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Lollapalooza, the HOARD festival, Bonnaroo, Woodstock ’94, the Lilith Fair and even the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. I have painted Widespread Panic 170 times.

Q: What kind of artist are you?

A: At heart, I am really a musician with a paintbrush. My instruments are my canvases, paintbrushes and paints.

I like to think of myself as a conduit of music, transcribing their energy and their music into a dance on canvas.

As a live artist, my paintings reflect the concert. I let the music and the environment dictate how I paint. If it’s windy and the music is hardcore, my paintings will reflect that. I’ll paint fast and furiously, the work looking abstract and impressionistic. I dance and move with the music as I paint. If there is a slower song in between, that is the time I take to fill in the details. The musicians, the weather, the people all play a role in the painting I create. I am trying to tell a story of that night. If it rains or is windy, I add that in my paintings. If there is a rainbow I will put that in there.  I am capturing the entire night into one canvas.

Q: What kind of music do you like to paint to, and do you specifically stay within a specific genre?

A: I don’t stick to any one genre. I have painted over 1,000 different bands and 4,000 canvases that include jam bands like Widespread Panic and Leftover Salmon to up-and-coming Christian rock bands. Next month, I’ll be painting King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, an Australian rock band. I’ve had the opportunity to paint jazz legends Fats Domino, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. I’ve painted Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Prince and other legends like Diana Ross, Melissa Etheridge, Carlos Santana, Blues Traveler, Lady Gaga with Tony Bennett, Johnny Winter and Tom Petty.

It seems easier to tell you which artists I haven’t painted versus the ones that I have.

Q: How did you end up becoming what seems like the artist-in-residence at Red Rocks?

A: After a show in Florida, Todd Nance, the drummer for Widespread Panic, traded a summer tour pass for a painting I had done of the band. I ended up at my first Red Rocks show where the band played in June 2000. It was love at first sight when I did that show.

Since then, I have done over 630 paintings at Red Rocks. I buy my own tickets and pay for every single concert that I go to. Red Rocks does not pay me to be there but they do allow me the space in which to paint.

Q: Do you remember the first piece of art you ever got paid for?

A: It was 1987 at one of my first group shows at a shopping mall where I sold a drawing of Joey Ramone. It was a studio piece before I was a live-music artist. I guess I have always been a music artist. even from the start.

Q: Where can we see your art?

A: On my website (scramblecampbell.com), but I invite people to come see me live at Row 23 at Red Rocks. I also have small paintings, postcards, magnets and other items for sale at the Red Rocks Trading Post.

Q: Do you have a favorite art piece?

A: I did a painting of Lou Reed in 1998 in Bethel, N.Y., on the original Woodstock grounds for the 29th anniversary of the original Woodstock. I got to talk to him and meet him afterwards and he signed the back of my painting. There are also paintings I’ve done of legendary musicians, like B.B. King and Fats Domino, who have since died. All of these paintings I love and will never sell.

Q: What memorable responses have you had to your work?

A: I showed David Crosby a painting I had just done of him and he said, “Not bad for speed painting.” Another time when I showed my painting to James Brown, he said, “Son, I’d like to thank you for coming out and painting my portrait.” He signed the entire back of the painting and said “I feel good. James Brown.”

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

A: In my mid-20s, I wrote a letter to well-known graffiti artist Keith Haring asking for advice. He was a big influence for me back then. He actually wrote me back and said: “I’m not good at giving advice. All I can say is do what you want to do and find a way to do it as much as you want to. There is no ’answer’ that is the same for everyone. You have to find your own direction.” I’ve followed that advice ever since.

Q: What advice would you offer to beginning artists?

A: Try to make your own way and make your own art. Don’t do art for somebody else, do it for yourself.

Q: Describe your dream project.

A: Next season is my 25th at Red Rocks. I’d really like to do a book that talks more about my experiences at the hundreds of concerts and of the thousands of artists I have painted. I feel like I already have the book illustrated with my paintings. It just hasn’t been written down yet. There are so many stories that go along with the artists that I have painted. I want to be able to tell those stories. It’s 25 years of jazz fest, 25 years of Red Rocks, 35 years of live painting. I’d like to tell those stories.

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This special anniversary edition of Colorado’s Taste of Ethiopia Festival offered a unique opportunity to explore the rich heritage and vibrant traditions of Ethiopia. A wide array of traditional Ethiopian foods, collectibles, clothing and music and dance presentations were the highlights of the weekend long festivities.

The event is organized by The Taste of Ethiopia Heritage Foundation which is a non-profit organization, was established for cultural, educational, and charitable purposes. This includes promoting and preserving Ethiopian heritage, supporting educational initiatives, and organizing the Taste of Ethiopia Festival to celebrate Ethiopian culture, which has been present in Colorado for over half a century.

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Click here to read more about the Quarry fire, Stone Canyon fire and Alexander Mountain fire.

Read the latest from the wildfire here.

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The objective of the CGRA is to elevate the image of women and men in the sports field of rodeo and promote the Country/Western lifestyle. They claim to be the longest continuously running gay rodeo in the United States as well as the country’s oldest gay rodeo and one that has survived discrimination and other challenges to become the largest organizing body for the sport. All of the events took place at the National Western Stock Show complex.

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Editor’s note: An untold number of unheralded artists live in Colorado, those creators who can’t (or don’t want to) get into galleries and rely on word of mouth, hard work, a little bit of luck or social media to make a living. You’ve likely seen them on Instagram, at festivals or at small-town art fairs. This occasional series, Through the Lens, will introduce you to some of these artists.

Denver artist Dolan Geiman transforms forgotten scraps into works of unique art that capture his love of nature, the outdoors and the rugged American West.

In his unique collages, the multi-media artist has utilized scraps of years-old wallpaper from old abandoned cabins; metal tins and  signs found partially buried in the ground on walkabouts in the woods; vintage posters and decades-old paper; reclaimed wood and other salvaged materials; random items such as playing cards, old buttons, coins, jewelry, bronze crosses, old leather and even the tops to long forgotten trophies.

Each collage creation is multilayered and rich in narrative inspired by his love for folktales, found objects, and exploring the West.

Specializing in the reuse of these found materials and objects, Geiman painstakingly cuts and combines each piece using a multilayered technique to build his highly textured and intricately detailed pieces. In his sculptural work, the labor-intensive process involves hand-carving wood forms, flattening metal with a mallet, cutting hundreds of metal strips with tin snips, and smoothing and sanding rough elements with a metal grinder. He spends hours each day cutting, welding, pasting and collecting to build and create his pieces.

Geiman says his artwork represents the intersection of his rural, Southern upbringing with his love for storytelling and found objects. “I handcraft each work from the array of materials I’ve been salvaging and collecting since I was a child,” he said.

“I collect like a scientist, I talk like a preacher, I sing like a sailor and I make art like a farmer, planting ideas and getting my hands dirty every day,” he writes on his website.

We asked Geiman some questions about his art. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Q: How would you describe your artwork? 

A: I’d like my artwork to be read like turning the pages of a book. It’s a multi-layered process and each and every element I use in my work has a life to it. My artistic process originates at the moment I begin rummaging through an abandoned barn, a derelict warehouse, or a gnarly industrial scrapyard. To me, these places are veritable treasure troves of materials and, as an artist, I’m lucky enough to have a job that sets me on cross-country road trips on a regular basis.

These locations allow me to discover vast bounties of discarded and historical items inspiring the work that I produce in unique and often unexpected ways. Each piece of art I produce contains material truly special to me for its ability to tell a story and invoke curiosity. I’m always on the hunt for my materials, and this journey is just as much a part of the process as applying paint or glue to the canvas.

Q: Can you talk about the process of your work and how it evolves? 

A: Most recently I was out hiking in the wilderness, looking for elk antlers. I wasn’t having much luck and ended up following an old fence line deep into the woods. As I came down into a canyon, I looked down at my feet and saw a rolled-up piece of rusted tin. I slowly unrolled it to discover it was a bright yellow tin sign that had originally been attached to the fence marking the wilderness boundary, and had been lying there for decades slowly rusting away. I returned to my studio and cutting the sign into thin strips, used the bold yellow tones in a circular wall sculpture featuring a stately Bison. (You can see a video of this on my Instagram.) I like to think that sign was just lying out there waiting for me to come retrieve it for all of these years.

Q: Do you remember the first piece of art you ever got paid for?

A: When I lived in Chicago, I was painting portraits on wooden rat traps I found in the alleyways and selling those to help pay for my art supplies. Before that, I was living in an abandoned office building in Virginia with some gutter punks and art hustlers and we would paint on skateboards and broken window panes and we’d stretch Motley Crue T-shirts over picture frames and paint on those. We’d sell these to tourists to pay for wine and cigarettes and gas for my truck to go drive into the mountains and find junk and catch fish for dinner.

I also did a lot of bartering at that time. One of my fondest memories was creating a small painting of a barn swallow on the back of a cigar box and trading it to a chef in Charlottesville for a steak dinner and a foaming glass of beer. It was 100 degrees outside on the street that day and I remember taking small sips of that beer like I was whispering into a monk’s ear.

Q: What did your parents say when you wanted to become an artist?

A: I am fortunate to come from a very creative family. My sister Brecken Geiman and mother, Lisa Geiman, are both artists. There was a period of my life, however, when everyone around me tried to talk me out of being an artist, and to go into a different line of work. I think they were just worried I would fall into some sort of weirdo-artist vortex, move to the desert with a pet armadillo, live in an abandoned school bus, and smoke cigarettes while reading “Ulysses” all day. I decided instead to move to Chicago and spend every day hustling, selling artwork on the streets in an attempt to get my name out there and to develop the foundation for my art career. There’s plenty of time to move to the desert later.

Q: What is one thing that bothers you about being an artist?

A: I often see other artists stealing ideas from their peers. This, to me, is like stealing a man’s horse. It’s also a very lazy way to approach your career. It’s easy to scroll through Instagram or TikTok and see something exciting and want to try to emulate that, but at the end of the day, it’s more satisfying to pull creations from your own head and work through those, coming up with your own unique recipe. Otherwise, you are not being an artist.

Q: What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

A: “Surround yourself with individuals who are more intelligent than you.” I believe this was a tidbit that came from Napolean Hill. It’s inspiring and humbling to do this.

Q: What advice would you offer to beginning artists?

A: I get folks emailing me all the time asking how they can improve their art business. I even started a segment on my Instagram where I give out a few tips here and there, so if you are serious about improving your art career you should go check that out. One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to work extremely hard to build up a solid client base and always take care of these folks. I would also say that as an artist it is important to decide if you want to be a gallery artist or a business artist. Make that distinction early on and then go hustle.

Q: Describe your dream project.

A: It’s in progress … stay tuned

Q: Where can we see your artwork?

A: Go check out my Instagram page or my website, Dolangeiman.com

The Cherry Creek Arts Festival showcases more than 250 juried artists from around the world during the Fourth of July weekend in the heart of Cherry Creek. The festival is produced by CherryArts. CherryArts is a nonprofit whose mission is to provide access to art experiences and support arts education in Colorado, all year long.

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