Turning Scrap Paper Into Art
Local Artist Reclaims What Others Would Overlook
Imagine a pile of miscellaneous business cards turned into a stunning, colorful collage of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s! Or scrap pieces of paper meticulously hand-cut to create ripples in shimmering blue river water on a collage of Yosemite’s El Capitan! These are real life pieces created by Stephanie Almendariz, owner of The Reclaimist.
Almendariz is a hand-cut paper artist sharing an inventory of majestic fan art and landscape collages at the Midtown Farmer’s Market in Sacramento. When she sets up her canopy early Saturday morning, she curates pieces from her extensive collection including collages of beloved figures Jack the Pumpkin King, Frida Kahlo, and Bob Marley, and California landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk to name a few. Almendariz sells her collages, and takes requests from customers to create collages from scratch.
“A lot of people know exactly what they want on their collage, and some people are just a deer in the headlights,” says Almendariz. “I’ll be working with a client, and they’ll have an idea, and we’ll then meld it together.”
As patrons stroll into The Reclaimist tent, Almendariz shares the unique inspiration depicted in each collage. Almendariz’s collage of Russian spy Svetlana, for example, depicts the character’s internal conflict of being in France. Observers can see a Russian street map reflected from the figure’s eyes and teeth, and a French street map on her face. In Almendariz’s ongoing collage of the Eiffel Tower, viewers will find text from Parisian magazines that she hand-cut and layered together. Almendariz says the labor can be anywhere between 20 to 200 hours per piece depending on specs. There is currently a 2 to 3 year waiting period for delivery.
“I’m working on a Martin Luther King piece right now for a customer who waited three years for me to get to him and start working on his commission,” says Almendariz. “I sent him 20 different historical photos for him to pick, but he ended up asking me to choose so it’s really understanding what each person wants.”
For a Star Wars collage, a customer asked Almendariz to create an image of Yoda lifting him up, a shot evidently not present in any scene of the series, so an original for the artist.
Back in 2008, Almendariz’s husband gave her a CD lyric book and asked her to make something out of it. This prompted her to teach herself the craft of hand-cutting paper from any print publication, and gluing together the pieces to form a collage that engrosses viewers into a deeper story. Once an original collage has been created and sold, Almendariz duplicates it using a 260-megapixel camera at a professional studio. Her collages are only available at the Midtown Farmer’s Market and on her website, while this year, she did make appearances at the West End Celebration in Sand City, and Chalk It Up in Sacramento.
“I don’t really do shows at galleries, and don’t hang my work in stores and such because people might appreciate them, but they don’t really understand the story or the artwork if I’m not there to explain it,” Almendariz says. “I also think it’s cool to be able to meet the artist.”
Almendariz lives in El Dorado County with her husband and five kids. She jokes that her daughter could help her manage the booth when she’s older to give her a break from managing it alone.
