Artist Profiles
Dolan Geiman: Rebuilding the American West Through Mixed Media
Meet Denver-area artist Dolan Geiman, whose hand-cut paper collages and salvaged-metal sculptures reinterpret wildlife, nature and the American West.
Artist at a glance
The artist
- Medium
- Mixed media / collage / assemblage / sculpture
- Based in
- Englewood, Colorado
From across a room, a Dolan Geiman mule deer can read as a bold image of the American West. Move closer and the animal begins to break into cut paper: printed words, aged color and fragments whose earlier lives remain visible. That shift in scale is central to the Colorado artist’s mixed-media work. He makes new images from material that already carries a history.
From the Shenandoah Valley to a Colorado studio
Geiman grew up in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where exploring woods and collecting discarded objects were part of childhood. His mother taught art, and his father worked for the Forest Service; a 2024 Mountain Living profile describes how those experiences fed both his interest in nature and his habit of salvaging things. He earned a BFA in printmaking and sculpture from James Madison University in 2001.
His career did not begin with a single studio formula. Geiman has described selling artwork on the street after college and working with scrap wood, then developing a professional practice that moved through Chicago before he and his wife and business partner, Ali Marie, relocated to Colorado in 2015. The studio now identifies its location as Denver (Englewood). It says he has worked full time as an artist since 2001.
Building images out of found history
Geiman’s materials include vintage paper, reclaimed wood and salvaged metal. In his account of making a collage, a sketch becomes a guide on a wood panel. He selects old papers for their existing colors, cuts each piece by hand and layers them into an image. The studio says some pieces contain hundreds or thousands of fragments. Paint may shape a background, while the paper itself retains the color it had when found.
A bird, bison or landscape can therefore be read twice. At a distance it holds together as wildlife or western scenery; up close, typography, sheet music, letters and worn textures interrupt the image. Those details are not a printed imitation of collage. They are the surface of the original work, and their different ages become part of its story. A work such as Westward, with a bison against a painted sky, shows how paper, acrylic, wood and a salvaged-tin frame can work together.
Collage is only one part of the practice. Geiman also makes assemblages and sculptures from recovered metal and other found objects, including animal forms. His imagery moves through wildlife, flora, landscapes and Americana. As he told Mountain Living, attention to small details in nature and concern for wild places also inform the work. The West here is a subject, a store of symbols and an environment he continues to observe.
A career built in front of collectors
Juried fairs have been a durable part of Geiman’s career. His artist CV lists Cherry Creek Arts Festival, MAIN ST Fort Worth Arts Festival, Bayou City Art Festival and the Park City Kimball Arts Festival among his appearances. CherryArts independently records him as the 2024 Bidder’s Choice Award recipient in mixed media. His CV also records Best in Show honors at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Sun Valley Arts & Crafts Festival, without years; those honors are best read with that limitation.
The direct encounter is useful for this art. A collector can ask to see the depth of an original collage, the edges of hand-cut pieces and the construction of a metal work. The studio also sells limited-edition prints; its process page explains that these are archival reproductions made from photographed originals. Knowing which version is in a booth or online listing helps a buyer understand what they are taking home. Art Show Magazine’s guide to buying original art at a show offers questions worth asking.
The business extends beyond weekends under a tent. The studio offers original works, prints, commissions and appointments, and its CV lists projects for organizations including New Balance and Boston Children’s Hospital. Geiman and Ali Marie describe direct collector relationships as central to that model. For working artists, it is an example of how an art-fair audience can connect with a studio practice that also includes custom work and ongoing sales. Browse Upcoming Shows for places to meet artists in person, or read more Artist Profiles.
See Geiman’s current work, originals and fair schedule on his official website.
Reporting note: This profile is based on Geiman’s published studio pages and CV, CherryArts award records and the cited Mountain Living feature. No interview was conducted for this article.
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