CLASSICALLY TRAINED* ARTIST

CREATING WORK - THAT STRADDLES FINE ART & CRAFT

 

Born to Hungarian refugees, Sandhi Schimmel experienced most of her early life in New York and Pennsylvania.

Her parents were strict, religious and highly creative. They encouraged their children to participate in all of the arts; dance, acting, visual arts & traditional crafts, learning to play and perform and musical instruments. Sandhi began playing piano at 4 and was a participant in music and art programs including as the youngest camper at the renowned Lighthouse Arts and Music Camp. Sandhi’s creative family includes 3 authors, 2 designers, a well known comedian, and a writer/producer for TV and film.

 

Creative pursuits support Sandhi’s neurodivergent idiosyncrasies. She spent most of her school years hidden in the Art Room. During college, Sandhi discovered she one of just a few Eidetics in the world; her ability to retain images was studied for 2 years by Dr. Michael Siegel and a paper on her was presented to the American Psychological Association. And, she is considered to be one of the true living Synesthete artists.
 

As an adult, Schimmel relocated to Arizona and California.

While working as a fine artist and display artist, she also took on many ventures.

• Using the traditional needlework skills she learned as a child, she produced one of a kind hand-painted canvases as "Saschi" for needlepoint boutiques.

• Graphic art experience to produce a line of T-shirts.

• An apprenticeship as a handbag designer, pattern maker and sample maker.

• She studied textile and surface design in graduate school

• did metal work at UCLA

• jewelry design and fabrication for Wander & Company

• and continued drawing and painting; creating a variety of art works for interior designers and commissioned portraits for a variety of clients.

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Founding her own visual merchandising company, On Display, Sandhi used her innate talents to develop, design and fabricate a wide variety of items for retail and special events. Including store fixtures and props, designed retail store window displays and interiors, created one of a kind themed events, built sets and backdrops for theaters, fabricated holiday displays for shopping centers, staged homes and gained national attention as her designs for Levi Strauss, Wells Fargo, the Galleria and more were featured in various national and international publications.

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A surprise “gift” of a guillotine paper cutter and a box of old greeting cards sparked that eureka moment. At first, the paper, cut into small squares -- began ornamenting lampshades, frames, walls. Until the day Sandhi began gluing the paper to her existing acrylic paintings. Galleries took note of her work and she officially established Schimmel Art in 2001.

 

Chance meetings with a gallerist in Beverly Hills and some prominent Eco-Warriors kicked Sandhi’s career into high gear on the West Coast. She was invited to be backstage at the Golden Globes, appeared on Access Hollywood and many green-building, design and celebrity events from L.A. to Chicago to New York City. She numbers many celebrities as clients - from movie and TV stars to real housewives.

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Her work sold in galleries, and her collectors are around the world. Sandhi has created bespoke commissioned works for private and corporate clients. Schimmel Gold’s original works are counted in of private, public, celebrity, and museum collections. Prior to COVID, she was often the top selling artist in several fine art galleries. Unfortunately, many bricks and mortar galleries have since closed.

 

Thanks to her work being seen in galleries, museums, in textbooks, magazines, on TV and all over the internet... her “paper mosaic portrait” technique has been copied and co-opted a thousand times.

 

Sandhi has also created an installation of hundreds of small works she entitled “Treasure Tiles,” small assemblages on painted canvas - a junk mail mosaic, adorned with mirrors and a variety of personal objects, souvenirs, mementos which belonged to her self, her Grandmother, Mother or her child. No two pieces are alike, are framed with upholstery trim, ribbon or other materials from the artists’ of supplies.

 

Sandhi frequently collaborates with philanthropic organizations, using her artwork to raise thousands of dollars for nonprofits and volunteers at a creative reuse center in Richmond.​

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*Education?

Bachelor of Fine Art - Painting - SUNY

Masters Studies - Surface and Textile Design - ASU

Independent studies in several disciplines at various locations: mosaics, pattern making, graphic design, and more.