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
