Supriya Menon insists she is not an artist.
“I’m such a left-brained person,” said Menon, an information technology specialist for the Marin County government.
However, Menon made a New Year’s resolution to try something that discomforts her. She got her opportunity when she joined a series of lunchtime art workshops at the Marin County Civic Center cafeteria. The participants were asked to create self-portraits for an exhibit of art by county employees.
Menon pieced together her portrait from materials such as dried chili peppers, burlap and embroidered chiffon saree, which reflects her Indian heritage.
“Not everything goes well,” she said. “I’m creative, but I’m not good with my hands.”
Menon is among 21 county employees whose work is being displayed at the exhibit, titled, “The Art of Public Service.” The collection will be outside the Board of Supervisors chamber through Sept. 10.
Employment analyst Erika Powell and county library administrator Juliet Schiller organized the workshops and art show.
“My proposal for this series was to build a process where participants could let go of perfectionism, reconnect with curiosity and childlike wonder, and discover that meaningful, beautiful art can come from honesty and experimentation rather than technical skill alone,” Schiller said. “What emerged at the end was not just visually beautiful work, but artwork carrying emotional honesty and personal meaning.”
The exhibit was open to employees who are seasoned artists and those who believed they weren’t artists at all.
“That was really powerful for us — to create a space where we had artists and we had people who said they couldn’t draw a straight line,” Schiller said. “They were able to create work that was deeply personal and moving.”
Powell described the workshop activities as an “oxygen mask” for employees.
“We wanted people to have a break, and the energy in the room was palpable,” she said.
Schiller said the county supported the project, which ran on a $2,000 budget. She said it also received support from the ARTT store in San Rafael, which kept supply costs low. ARTT, which stands for “another reclaimed treasure from trash,” promotes the use of recycled materials for artwork.
Participants in the art project were encouraged to tell their personal stories through the self-portraits and to explore what it means to be seen as public employees.
“We offer public services like, OK, you’re the tax collector and I have to come up to the Civic Center to do XYZ. But do you really know the people who are serving us?” Powell said.
For the show, Powell created a portrait that focused on her green eyes.
“One of the things that people always notice about me are my green eyes from a brown-skinned woman,” she said. “One of the things I wanted to tell in my piece was there is a deeper story underneath the eyes.”
Powell said she placed fabric around her canvas. The fabric has images of Powell’s Black, white and biracial ancestors.
“I wanted to highlight the story underneath the story and to use my eyes as an invitation to say, How well do you really know me?” Powell said. “How well do you really know these different versions of America that live within me?”
Schiller sewed an embroidered portrait of herself that she left incomplete. She said she is a Chicana who was in foster care.
“If you look at the piece, it’s somewhat unfinished in one area,” Schiller said. “I feel that the story is ongoing and it’s a part of me while I explore what it means to be taken from my culture and those roots, and trying to reclaim what I can reclaim.”
Menon said she wants to create more art after her experience with the workshops.
“I want to try more things,” she said, laughing. “It broke some barriers for me.”
