Born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, Mary Shindell moved to Arizona when she was five years old. Her education as a child was in the public school system of Mesa, Arizona. Shindell received a BFA in painting from Northern Arizona University and an MFA in drawing from Arizona State University. Mary worked as an artist in the schools in Arizona and Nebraska and also taught drawing at the University level. After living several years in other parts of the country the artist returned to Arizona in 1989 where she has lived and worked ever since.
The art of Mary Shindell is drawing based and includes limited-edition printmaking, small and large-scale drawings, installation, and public art. Her studio work has been included in national and international exhibitions. She also works within a downtown Phoenix collective gallery, 515 arts (of which she is a founding member), to facilitate interaction with the public and with other artists in her community. Recent public art commissions include, the city of Chandler, the city of Phoenix, Valley Metro light rail system, the city of Goodyear, Arizona and Scottsdale Public Art. In her studio work Shindell is continuing to explore the intersection between digital and hand-drawn media using the desert environment in unconventional landscape formats.