The oddly glowing and extravagantly bejeweled Blue Hippo of Luck and Love in Situ.

 

Imagine you are wandering on your own, contemplating your future when your reverie is interrupted by a huffling noise amid the nearby grasses. A grunting noise accompanied by that of squishing of muck and mire, green blades of grass moving to and fro. You explore further and come upon a clearing - a puddle of mud occupied by a single, blue hippopotamus.

This beast is not only of unusual color, but also covered in a pattern of sparkling jewels. He glitters in the sunlight, his eyes are shimmering sapphires. Typically, hippos are dangerous to humans, but this particular specimen is not. In fact, you have discovered a mystery, a good luck charm, an enchanted being with the power to distribute luck and love to those who find him by accident. For those who need a boost of luck, or a true love to arrive, you only need to find him.

Gaze upon him, then close your eyes and visualize that which will fulfill your heart's deepest wish. His power is yours for just a moment, as he will disappear as quickly as he arrived.

The Oddly Glowing and Extravagantly Bejeweled Blue Hippo of Luck and Love In Situ.

Sandhi Schimmel Gold's Blue Hippo

in si·tu

/in ˈsīto͞o,ˈsē-/

adverb & adjective

adverb: in situ; adjective: in situ; adverb: insitu

in its original place."mosaics and frescoes have been left in situ"

in position. "her guests were all in situ"

Copyright 2015 Sandhi Schimmel Gold - Schimmel Art. Made from upcycled/recycled/repurposed junk mail and other paper that would otherwise go to waste - on canvas - using only non-toxic materials. Covered with repurposed "jewels," rhinestones and sparkling lacquer.

 

10 years in the making - HARAJUKU Girls Kawaii! Style...

Something like...oh, ten years ago Gwen Stefani's song Harajuku Girls came out. I liked the song, the album, and thought the styles the Harajuku girls developed was so much fun! I never forgot it.

Here's a pic of Gwen with a few of the girls... and here's a LINK to the song on YouTube.

 I had a dream about a year ago... in it, I was creating these ridiculous necklaces featuring plastic babies, that were flocked. I searched high and low for the right size babies, bought 'em, painted 'em, flocked 'em. They're still in my studio waiting for a place to go.

I rediscovered Harajuku girls again... and there are a LOT of different styles. I like the Kawaii style that includes a lot of toys, baby colors, and ornaments. Here are some samples of what's happening in 2014:


Cute, right? I love the sparkles, the Hello Kitty look, the bright colored hair... so I decided to create a portrait of some Harajuku girls using upcycled items. I collected a lot of used things from thrift stores... barrettes, yarn, buttons, toys, jewelry, glittery things... and then started drawing, painting and cutting paper.

I made some changes along the way - in color scheme and a few other things...my motto is "The Impulse is the Action!" I put some red and white rays in the back to simulate the Japanese flag... everything else is from my imagination and inspiration.

first sketch

The paper I used is in my studio...a collection Holiday cards, packaging, postcards, business cards, menus, calendars, training manuals, trade magazine covers, catalogs, business cards, tags, etc. I save everything. All the paper used in the background is Christmas cards, or paper with metallic. Every single piece is cut by hand and glued on to the painting -I created- on canvas.
I cover all of the painting with paper... and the only paint at the end is used on the eyes.

Paper part done!

After I finished the paper mosaic, I added a little blush [yeah, real makeup] to the "girls" to tint the paper! I sealed the composition with a non-toxic gloss lacquer. Ah...but I wasn't done yet.

I assembled all those thrift store toys, jewels, etc. to add to the portrait. I know - the girls are flat, and the toys are dimensional. I HAD TO follow through with my vision. I attached, using glue, thread and fishing line... a variety of "stuff."
I even took some of those babies, painted on some pajamas, flocked them with irridescent glitter and coated them... drilled holes into them and made them into a necklace!

plastic babies in their glitter onsies

I cut slits into the canvas to attach hair clips, a crown and earrings. There are jewels, a doll, a pony, hello kitty eraser, a baby pull toy, more weird plastic babies, teddy bears, buttons, and other jewelry.
I was going to use lavender yarn for hair, but it didn't lay right.
At the very end, I touched up the eyes, adding just a bit of paint. The finished piece is 30x40" unframed, but edges are finished. You can see it "in person" in Miami in December at the Spectrum Art Fair. For information on how to get tickets to the oepning, send an email.

Yeah, it took 10 years for a song to make it to my easel, and to finally get some babies on a necklace!
Thanks for reading!

"LUNA" a Pareidolic Portrait [what's Pareidolia?]

This is "Luna," a new mixed media portrait.

 Materials are: Junk Mail, Acrylic Paint, Glitter, Textured Glazes.

Pareidolia is the experience of “seeing” something in a stimulus or an object that’s simply vague and random. An example is the Shroud of Turin. Remember when you were a child lying on your back in the grass, watching the clouds go by and you saw a bunny or a castle in the sky, or the man [or woman] in the moon? Or the Madonna on a piece of toast, or a cluster of cactus? Maybe you've even heard messages when records are played in reverse [number nine? number nine?].

Carl Sagan believed that the ability to recognize faces from a distance or in poor visibility was an important survival technique. While this instinct enables humans to instantly judge whether an oncoming person is a friend or foe, Sagan noted that it could result in some misinterpretation of random images or patterns of light and shade as being faces.
Leonardo da Vinci wrote about pareidolia as an artistic device. "If you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills."

So often, people compare my work to those photo mosaics they've seen at Disneyland or in magazines... an image made up of thousands of photographs created in a computer.

Photo Mosaic at Disney

In fact, many people believe I use some sort of computer program to create my work. I'd like to say that no... I actually DRAW...PAINT...CUT...GLUE... using nothing more hi-tech than pencil, brush, scissors and sometimes and exacto knife.

So, I decided to tackle one of the most common Pareidolic images, the man in the moon... but I love women's faces better...

It's only a Paper Moon

I began by creating a monochromatic background and crescent moon in large squares - if you look closely, you'll see movie tickets [Knight & Day how apropo], greeting cards, advertisements, invitations, fly cards, postcards and photographs. Yes, I have a room full of paper. I save everything. I recycle everything. It took HOURS to cut and sort by tone all of those pieces! I reversed the progression on the moon.  It's only a Paper Moon!

Then the painting of Luna took shape... I kept to a somewhat monochromatic color scheme, only adding a bit of pink paper to the lips and greige shades for the hair.

Luna before the asteroids...

A Crater!

I was pretty happy when I got there, but never leaving well enough alone, I grabbed palette knives, brushes, glitter, gravel, textured gels and my own fingers to create peaks, valleys, craters and rocky textures.
This changed the perfectly flat "collage" into a textured moonscape. Now my woman in the moon looked like she was ON the moon!

This portrait, one of many in my collection of paper mosaic portraits is 30x40" on 1" museum wrapped canvas. Edges are painted black. Wired, ready to hang!

See more here: Schimmel Art Web Site

Warsaw Waiter... huh?

Women's faces. Yeah, that's my usual... ["idiom, sir?"] genre. What's with the guy with the curly hair?

A moment to back up. I read a lot. Books, Magazines. I get way too many...

and today, as soon as I stop typing... I am going to go have an "education" day and pick a bunch of the magazines up, go through them once and for all, glean everything I want from them. And then recycle them.

Yeah, I even recycle magazines.
Not by putting them in my art, though... I magazine bomb. I would yarn bomb, or photo bomb...but I can't do everything.

When I go to the library, or doctor, or dentist, or car wash...anywhere magazines are lying around, I innocently plop them down and leave them for someone else to enjoy. And, by the way, nothing trashy. No People, no US, no Star Magazine.

Okay, anyway... I was probably reading Town & Country... or Travel & Leisure... or Conde Nast Traveler. Came across an interesting photo of a fellow, a waiter at a restaurant in some eastern European country. It was NOT Poland, I remember... Maybe it was a "stan" country -Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, or maybe a Baltic state... or Ukraine. Anyway... this dude looked pretty cool. His attire, his hair, his NOSE harkened back to an earlier time. I created his portrait out of junk mail, as usual... but he looked too modern.

I found some crackle glaze... actually created for ceramics. I thought I could create an "Antique" look by creating tiny cracks [this stuff by Modern Masters is great, by the way]. I used to love making ceramics when I was a kid,

and remembered how to use it to my advantage.

I used the glazes [there are a few steps] and rubbed dark brown ink into the cracks... let it settle and then rubbed it off. It worked, and I got the effect I wanted.

My husband makes fun of me and my crazy ideas. But a lifetime of art experimentation, etc. Years of being a display artist, prop designer, pattern maker, sample maker, and all around use-your-noodle, you're clever after all... has me creating and taking risks. I love this guy, he belongs on the wall of someone's library, or in a home filled with antiques [unlike most of my other art...] and yeah, he is definitely NOT from Poland, but I'm a big fan of alliteration. So sue me, title Police.
Here's my Warwaw Waiter - 16x20" mosaic portrait - he's in a wooden frame but it's not shown here:

Sandhi Schimmel Gold's Warsaw Waiter

Aurelia - Golden Girl

My Golden Girl... Aurelia

Despite the similar features to a somewhat familiar face...my portrait of Aurelia is NOT an actress. The inspiration was drawn from a photo of a captivating brunette in a crisp white blouse.

I'm first to admit I appropriate images seen in advertisement... images of beauty as defined by society. I take those images and re-make them - re-invent - re-interpret the shapes, planes and curves of a face... and make something completely new.

Although it is difficult to tell, the entire piece is gold. Hundreds of pieces of hand cut and hand affixed "mosaic" pieces - of paper. White and cream pieces of junk mail, greeting cards, holiday cards accented with foil embellishments... golden pieces, bronze, and deep browns with accents of gold. The background is painted in gold and bronze.

16x20" on canvas.  Aurelia \a(u)-re-lia\ as a girl's name is pronounced aw-REEL-yah. It is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Aurelia is "golden".

"Peor es Nada"

So - who are you - the product of your DNA or who society labels you as?

This is a new, original mosaic portrait I created in my "True, the Looking Glass" series.

In 1835, a schooner named “Peor es Nada” left one of the Channel Islands after gathering the the last of the surviving natives, the Nicoleño people. One woman was left behind. The accounts of the reason vary - perhaps her baby was not on board, or she went back to the village for a prized possession. Did she jump ship or just not make it in time? A storm arose, she had not returned and the ship sailed back to the coast of California.

Over the next 20 years, this Nicoleño woman lived alone on the island. She learned to make baskets from wild grasses, to fish, to hunt seal and otter and built a dwelling from old whale bones. She sewed herself a garment from cormorant feathers and seal sinew. She survived inclement weather, fought off wild dogs and alluded hunters and hostile visitors to the island.

Meanwhile, her people were sent the San Gabriel Mission in California, and she was all but forgotten.  Her people were absorbed into California and all aspects of their culture and language disappeared.

Eventually, Captain George Nidever landed on San Nicolas Island in 1853 and found the lost woman. She boarded his ship with her bone needles and a basket, wearing the feather garment [and not much else!]. She was taken to the mission in Santa Barbara.

Now, she was a ward of the Nidever family and the Mission. No one could understand her language, including Chumash Indians from other Channel Islands.

The lost woman was given a new identity - new clothes, a new name, a new religion - she was baptized Juana Maria [even though she did not understand what that meant] and something else - foods she was unfamiliar with. This new diet quickly made her ill and she died within seven weeks of her “rescue.” She was buried in an unmarked grave, used for "Indians."

The phrase “Peor es Nada” can be translated as “Better than Nothing” or “Worse than Nothing” - This portrait is my loose interpretation of this story of lost identity - the two faces of the woman - the ward of the glittering church with a fresh new identity - and the brave, wild native woman adorned in cormorant feathers. I’ll let you decide which interpretation of the phrase works best.

The medium used - recycled paper, paint, feathers, jewels and yarn. On canvas: 24x36” Due to the delicate nature of the medium, it must be framed behind glass. Please contact me for pricing.

If this story sounds familiar, a fictionalized version was captured in the book Island of the Blue Dolphins  and later into a film of the same name. If you have children, it is a wonderful, well-written story, albeit frightening for little ones.

The “truer” story of the woman can be found here.

"We're All Free" - A Portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Do you ever wonder where you get inspiration - ideas that compel you to create?
I'm new to Richmond, Va. When I arrived, the Spielberg people were all over downtown - the capital area filming a movie about Lincoln. Lincoln seemed to be everywhere - galleries propped paintings of the president out front, Lincoln stuff everywhere...Lincoln fever.
I chatted with my niece who told me she had a "thing" for the president - her husband thinks she has a crush on him...and then I looked at the mini poster hanging in my studio of Lincoln... and thought. Why not.

Silly me, I thought creating a portrait of the 16th President would help me "fit in" in my new surroundings.

I grabbed an image online, a canvas and started the process. A lot of people who see my work ask me HOW I do what I do, so I'm sharing through photos. I took pics at every step of the way in the process - from the seat in front of the easel.

<-----Here you can see the image and my starting point. I draw with pencil and then start filling in with paint. I don't always paint, unless I really need to see how shadows are going to play. The green was the original idea... it changed later.
And here, is the painting done. I didn't paint a background. ----->

<---Idea generation - let's put a "flag" design in the background. I started with red. Originally, I was going to fill the entire background with photos of random people.
Now, I drew a circle...a "halo" --->
around Lincoln's head and added white and blue stripes, following the curves of the red stripes - within the halo.  Cutting all those little pieces of paper was really hard.

<---I added a "stripe" of people above and below the white and blue stripes.
And here, I filled in the halo's --->
background with sky blue pieces. And, I started on the shirt, and the tie. The tie is made up of pieces from my Dentist's appointment reminder postcards. I'm telling you, I save everything paper.

<--- I was a little stumped here. I decided to make the entire background sky blue - to have the halo just floating behind.
I used a variety of grey shades ---> of paper to fill in Lincoln's face. Most of them have text, but some are just texture - there is a lot of time and effort made to sort all of the junk mail in grey into shades, making sure all the tones are right.

<--- I wasn't totally happy with the
blue. I wanted to make it more homogeneous. So, I added some random shapes of blue tissue to tie it together.
And then some random white  ----->
tissue on top of the blue pieces. It's hard to see in the photo.

<---I used greys for shadows in grey for the hair, beard and coat. It didn't make sense to make this composition even MORE complicated or busy, the black also mimics the original resource photograph. I cleaned up ---->
the paint, details and coated the entire thing with a water-based lacquer. And now, it's done and looks like this!

We're All Free

I was trying to get this done in time for President's Day, but things don't always go to plan...

as any artist will tell you. The reason I added all the little people - of all colors, ages, shapes and sizes within Lincoln's halo - is to represent the President's dedication to Emancipation. and his belief in freedom for all people.

We're All Free

24x24"

Footnotes:

• As always, my art work is all hand done, mosaic "tiles" are created by upcycling a variety of paper - from junk mail to calendars to postcards, etc. All materials used are water-based, acid-free and non-toxic. For more information, please visit my web site.
• While I was working on this piece, I kept humming a song from the musical "Hair"

 "Four score
I said four score and seven years ago
Oh sock it to 'em baby, you're sounding better all the time!
Our forefathers, I mean all our forefathers
Brought forth upon this here continent a new nation
Conceived, conceived like we all was
In liberty, and dedicated to the one I love
I mean dedicated to the proposition
That all men, honey, I tell you all men
Are created equal.

Happy birthday, Abie baby,
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, Abie baby,
Happy birthday to you!"

You can listen here -[Happy Birthday, Abie Baby] [warning, some very explicit language]

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

My Dinner with a Super Model!

How does an unknown Virginia-based artist end up having dinner with a super model 

and her boyfriend at Cipriani in New York City?

Faire* question.

Answer: Kismet

and to modernize this charming word in familiar terms - FATE.

But, let's also recognize the significance of the internet in this story.

Some time in 2010, yours truly perused the Neiman Marcus fall catalog. Came across a photo of a beautiful young lady and ripped it out. 

Put it in a drawer full of inspiration - magazine pages, photographs, and many other images. Popular culture, fashion, beauty - yes, these are my references. It might not be an accepted or respected resource material, but it's my artistic vision to recreate one image of beauty from another:

"My work reflects our society's obsession with beauty through advertising - and the endless images that bombard us daily. It is a purposeful intermix of images derived from advertising and thousands of incongruent pieces - images and text - from advertising that arrives through my mailbox. Assembled like a mosaic; the junk mail paper tiles create an entirely new image - an eclectic and tactile portrait reworked in my imagination, utilizing materials that would otherwise go to waste."

At the right moment, I pulled out that photo and created a painting on canvas. The image is a jumping-off point. It is only a sketch, and then I make up a story as I go along. I often don't know who the model is, unless it is a celebrity... As I created this piece, I realized this beautiful young woman reminded me the serene beauty, sexiness and confidence of a young Catherine Deneuve in the film Belle de Jour. The colors I chose became a 60's pop scheme reminiscent of the time of the film...and the title "Faire" is one word from the some phrase I translated from French - "Do I remind you of someone else?"

 

The composition is mixed media - a paper mosaic. All of the pieces of paper were hand-cut pieces of junk mail, or paper that would go to waste. The background includes scraps of scrapbook paper that a friend was going to throw away! I don't color the paper - that is the color of the material - it might be a magazine fly card, a postcard, advertising, catalog cover, menu...anything. I save everything paper to upcycle/recycle/repurpose into my art.

The piece was shown in NYC at Art Expo, and afterwards was sent to Translations Gallery in Denver - one of the galleries that represents my work.

If you know me, you know I post images on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, I blog, I send out emails. I can't help it, my background is in marketing, and I don't just make art, I do whatever I can to get it into the hands of the collector who I made the art for...

finding that person is the challenge for the artist, the gallerist, the collector!

Екатеринбу́рг is somewhere in the Ural mountains in Russia. An artist there saw a blog which featured my work. She followed the link to my site and realized the subject of one of my pieces, "Faire" looked a lot her friend, Masha. She sent Masha a link to the blog - who followed it to my web site. She and her boyfriend, Adis were certain "Faire" was indeed Masha Philippova!

That night, they called the phone number on my web site. Adis told me he thought I created a piece of art of his girlfriend. I felt a bit awkward, I didn't know where the conversation was going. We talked for a bit, in the meantime I was scouring the internet for photos to confirm Masha was Faire. Adis wanted us to meet, but of course, we're in Virginia, he and Masha are in NYC. He would have loved to have a reproduction of the piece - BIG.

However, my husband Norm and I were headed to NY in just a couple of weeks. I thought I would see if I could get the original piece from the gallery to take to NY. 

The next day, I called the gallery in Denver. "Sandhi, great news - I just sold one of your pieces!' Judy told me. "Which one," I asked. "Faire." Uh-oh. Yes, that is great...and the timing couldn't be stranger!

I created a reproduction on canvas - as large as possible. We took our trip to New York [we were going on a pilgrimage to see Ronnie Earl play at BB King's in Times Square anyway]. Adis invited us to Cipriani [you know, like Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy...where W Somerset Maugham [my favorite author] and Hemingway used to drink!].

We had a lovely dinner, the four of us talking, eating and laughing - thinking of how impossible the circumstances were to bring us together. Adis is charming and dynamic. I spent a lot of time looking at Masha's incredibly beautiful face, and there was much mutual admiration around the table. I am hoping we can meet again and work together showing and sharing my work with the world!

In the meantime, I signed the reproduction of "Faire" on the bar, and we went our separate ways...for now. 

And that's how this [temporarily] [hopefully] unknown artist had dinner with a super model!

Rollercoaster Redux

I create art from all sorts of twisted inspiration. I see an image, it starts going where it's going and I follow it.  The impulse is the action.

I have an affinity for music, and sometimes a simple song inspires me, but then the materials at hand take me somewhere else, and then...I take off in another direction. 

Sweet Honey Rox...before

A few years ago, I created an image of a fabulous diva inspired by an Ohio Players album cover. Boy, am I giving away my age. Anyway, I remember this gorgeous black woman pouring honey all over herself - and so gave my subject golden skin and 

Sweet Honey Rox for a title...

{there she is on the right with her arm up in the air}

The Ohio Players were famous for the FUNK and a song called Love Rollercoaster. Click on it to hear it on UTube.

And, for racy album covers...nudity...bondage...honey.

I was in Pittsburgh in January. I visited the Warhol museum. I was really moved by Andy's early work - illustrations, cards, advertisements, shoes, fairies, etc. 

There was one piece I loved - darn, all I wrote down was this note - "GOLD DOILIES." 

And, I wrote Sweet Honey Rox on it too. 

Well, I can't share the Warhol with you...but I came home and got me some GOLD DOILIES...and my scissors...and glue... and whaddya know. Sweet Honey Redux.

Now that I looked them up,I realize the image I was thinking was my inspiration was actually a series of Ohio Players album covers... Ecstasy, Pleasure, Pain and Honey [featuring Sweet Sticky Thing].

So, here is my funky and fly Sweet Honey Rox Redux

...with thanks to the Ohio Players and Andy Warhol. 

Somewhere in the 70's, they both got under my skin and in my grey cells. Let me know what you think. And check out the DOILY details!

doily detail!

Inspiration...the memory of an album cover, coupled with a visit to a museum, a beautiful woman, an emotion and a couple of hands holding scissors and glue.

See you in NYC!

New Release:
"Faire"
24x30"
$2875.00
Mixed Media on Canvas
see more of what's coming to NYC
here

Buy Local, Bid on my work!

I'm an advocate of the "buy local" movement.

Way back when I worked at St. Mary's Food Bank, I made sure the organization joined Local First, Arizona and when I started my own business, I joined, too.

The Fall Festival is coming up in two weeks, and to lend my support I have donated

an original piece of art for the silent auction. 

"Thinly Veiled Attempt" is 16x20"

It is a junk mail mosaic, embellished with gold netting and jewels. 

It's not a good photo of the piece, but here it is:

 

If you're in Metro Phoenix on November 13th, I hope you'll attend the Fall Festival and bid on my work - it goes to a good cause.

Shift your spending!

Ever Fallen in Love with Someone...

With someone you shouldn't've?

There are two songs that inspired this new piece, "Ever" - 

one is Queen Bitch by David Bowie, the other is  Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) by the Buzzcocks...I like this version by Billy Talent.

You know the feeling - you're pissed - you're heart's in the basement your weekend's at an all time low... you're up on the 11th floor...gazing at your hotel walls...and you're phoning a cab, and you're stomach feels small...

You've fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have fallen in love with.

Love doesn't always end well. Sometimes it just STINKS. If you haven't been there yet, you will be someday. It's good to have a great song to blast and sing along with during those moments of fury. These two worked for me [oh, a long time ago, kiddies... I'm happily married].

So, here's a hot red-head. Naming her "Ever" just 'cause it's pretty. What YOU need to figure out is whether she's the mean one, or if she's the angry one because her lover is fooling around somewhere else [perhaps with someone in a bippity-boppity hat?]. 

"Ever" is a lovely mosaic created entirely from junk mail - 24x36" on canvas...like all my other art.

Have you seen my slideshow on Planet Green? 

Did you know I am teaching art classes in Phoenix?

Hope to hear from you - let me know what you think!

Sandhi

Urban Geo-Scape

What's an Urban Geo-Scape?
This.....----->>>>>

Not a very good photo, but you get the idea.
Abstract
Stylized City Scape
Geometric Shapes
Urban color scheme...

Urban Geo-Scape

This one is 24x36" junk mail - on masonite
White, Black, Shades of Grey
Acid Green, Orange and Red.

Framed.

Not just another pretty face...

Not just another pretty face?

I realize a lot of people really appreciate my work, but they just aren't into faces. I get it.
So, in a flash of inspiration, I took to my library of books - tile, art nouveau decor, elements of design, stained glass, architectural elements, turn-of-the-century architecture... to find a couple of images that would spark my imagination.


Results? Three new pieces.
Each 24x24" on canvas - Floral [Art Nouveau], Fleur de Lis [Tile] and Stained Glass.

Still made entirely of junk mail.

I thought these would be easier to make than a portrait...and I WAS WRONG. Just as hard.

I hope these new images will appeal to a broader base than just faces... but they're still pretty!

See more at Schimmel Art