{"id":459487,"date":"2026-05-21T04:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459487\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T04:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:24:15","slug":"marin-gallery-exhibits-self-portraits-of-county-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459487\/","title":{"rendered":"Marin gallery exhibits self-portraits of county workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supriya Menon insists she is not an artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m such a left-brained person,\u201d said Menon, an information technology specialist for the Marin County government.<\/p>\n

However, Menon made a New Year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Menon pieced together her portrait from materials such as dried chili peppers, burlap and embroidered chiffon saree, which reflects her Indian heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everything goes well,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m creative, but I\u2019m not good with my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menon is among 21 county employees whose work is being displayed at the exhibit, titled, \u201cThe Art of Public Service.\u201d The collection will be outside the Board of Supervisors chamber through Sept. 24.<\/p>\n

Employment analyst Erika Powell and county library administrator Juliet Schiller organized the workshops and art show.<\/p>\n

\"MarinMarin County employees Supriya Menon, left, and Juliet Schiller chat in the third-floor art gallery at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, Calif., on Monday, May 18, 2026. They each contributed a self-portrait for “The Art of Public Service,” an exhibit at the gallery. (Alan Dep\/Marin Independent Journal)<\/p>\n

\u201cMy 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,\u201d Schiller said. \u201cWhat emerged at the end was not just visually beautiful work, but artwork carrying emotional honesty and personal meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit was open to employees who are seasoned artists and those who believed they weren\u2019t artists at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was really powerful for us \u2014 to create a space where we had artists and we had people who said they couldn\u2019t draw a straight line,\u201d Schiller said. \u201cThey were able to create work that was deeply personal and moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell described the workshop activities as an \u201coxygen mask\u201d for employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted people to have a break, and the energy in the room was palpable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Self-portraitsSelf-portraits by county employees hang in the third-floor gallery at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, Calif., on Monday, May 18, 2026. The exhibit is titled, “The Art of Public Service.” (Alan Dep\/Marin Independent Journal)<\/p>\n

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 \u201canother reclaimed treasure from trash,\u201d promotes the use of recycled materials for artwork.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe offer public services like, OK, you\u2019re 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?\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n

For the show, Powell created a portrait that focused on her green eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that people always notice about me are my green eyes from a brown-skinned woman,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of the things I wanted to tell in my piece was there is a deeper story underneath the eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell said she placed fabric around her canvas. The fabric has images of Powell\u2019s Black, white and biracial ancestors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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?\u201d Powell said. \u201cHow well do you really know these different versions of America that live within me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CountyCounty employee Juliet Schiller holds her self-portrait at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, Calif., on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Alan Dep\/Marin Independent Journal)<\/p>\n

Schiller, who is Chicana, sewed an embroidered portrait of herself that she left incomplete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the piece, it\u2019s somewhat unfinished in one area,\u201d Schiller said. \u201cI feel that the story is ongoing and it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menon said she wants to create more art after her experience with the workshops.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to try more things,\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cIt broke some barriers for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supriya Menon insists she is not an artist. \u201cI\u2019m such a left-brained person,\u201d said Menon, an information technology…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,5601,305,306,811,308,93,61,60,6492,1529,199151,83623,43,7784,83625,60163,199152],"class_list":["post-459487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-california","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-marin-civic-center","tag-marin-county","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-san-rafael"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}