There are no shoeboxes of old birthday cards collecting dust in Sandy Schimmel’s closet. There are no take-out menus cluttering her kitchen counter or pieces of junk mail taking up space on her coffee table.

The colorful paper waste that most people can’t wait to shove in a drawer or a trash can, Schimmel is turning into art worth thousands of dollars.

The Phoenix-based artist collects drawers full of business cards, postcards, brochures and all types of junk mail, which she keeps arranged by color before she pain-stakingly chops and arranges them to produce finely-detailed mosaics.

“It takes a really long time because it’s all low tech,” Schimmel said. “Everything is done by hand. People always seem amazed when I say that but there’s really no other way to do something like this.”

Schimmel begins with a canvas — often an old piece of art collected at a garage sale as canvases can be reused but never recycled. She then paints the image that’s captured her attention using non-toxic, water-based paints. When she is satisfied with the painting the real work begins as she pastes upwards of 1,000 pieces of colored paper over her painting with non-toxic adhesive.

The process can take anywhere from a week to two weeks to complete for pieces that range from $200 to $5,000.

“It’s like a puzzle to me,” she said. “I get obsessive about finding just the right shade of color. It’s a lot of work but I think what makes it really special is the clever use of material.”

Though Schimmel’s work varies in subject, the bulk of her pieces are portraits — many of pop-culture icons like Marilyn Monroe and Jimi Hendrix. In these portraits she attempts to explore the concept of society’s version of beauty using the upcycled materials advertisers use to bombard society with that version.
Upcycled materials, like the paper tiles used in Schimmel’s mosaics, are disposable items reused or transformed for something of greater use or value.

A self-described hippie, Schimmel said she has always been environmentally conscious whether it’s maintaining a compost pile or finding ways to reduce her carbon footprint. She said she has enjoyed bringing that part of her life into her art.

“I had already given up toxic art supplies because I had learned even completed paintings continue to leech fumes into the air,” she said. “I just kept moving more and more to natural materials.”
Kate Chimenti, director of Translations Gallery in Denver where Schimmel’s art is currently on exhibition, said a large part of the appeal of Schimmel’s mosaic portraits is the story behind the art. While environmentally safe materials have become the norm in modern art, she said guests of the gallery have responded to the idea of discarded paper being upcycled and reborn as a beautiful work of art.

“People usually don’t realize what goes into her art until they get up close and read the tag,” Chimenti said. “It adds a whole other level for people. Everyone has junk mail or stacks of old greeting cards they throw away. She’s using them to create this really unique color palette.”

Schimmel’s current work is the result of a long-progression both in terms of medium and materials. After working for years in paint, the New York native fell in love with mosaics while studying in Turkey and Italy. After stints designing handbags, painting murals and designing and painting needlepoint canvasses, she found a way to merge the painting and mosaic work in a way she found appealing and engaging.

“I had worked in glass and ceramic mosaics but I didn’t want to be just another mosaic artist,” Schimmel said. “I wanted to offer something different. I had a box of old greeting cards and some of them had great colors. I took an old self-portrait and I thought, ‘Well, if I ruin this I can just redo it.’ I made a really simple mosaic but when I was done I knew I was on to something.”

Schimmel’s art will be on display at the Springs Preserve Museum in Las Vegas beginning Oct. 16 and can be purchased on her Web site at http://www.schimmelart.com.

By Jared Harmon