At Women’s View, Artists Explore Identity, Reflection, Healing

Belmont - Inside the Twin Pines Art Center, a woman crowned with snakes looks out defiantly from the wall.

Her body turns slightly left, her head angled toward the viewer, her gaze cool and confident, daring the viewer to look away. Some serpents lift their heads, fangs bared. Others coil around her locs and headwrap, almost protective.

The painting is titled Mædusa.

It is one of more than 100 works in Women's View, the annual exhibition presented by the San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture in partnership with the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the County's recognition of Women's History Month.

The exhibition is on display through March 29 at the Twin Pines Art Center. A public reception is scheduled for Sunday, March 15, from 1 to 3 p.m., with refreshments and awards at 2 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

"Women's View is a powerful reminder of how art unites talented artists from across the county, allowing us to see the world through their unique lenses," said San Mateo County Supervisor Lisa Gauthier. "This exhibition highlights the creativity, wisdom and resilience women bring to our communities. In celebration of Women's History Month, I encourage everyone to stop by, soak in the inspiration and maybe even discover a new favorite artist along the way!"

In Greek mythology, Medusa is remembered as a cursed woman, punished by the gods with a gaze that could turn men to stone. But that is only one version of the story.

For artist Shari Bryant, the figure carries many layers of meaning.

"Mædusa exists in a space where a single perspective rarely tells the whole story," Bryant said in an email interview. "The monikers of monster and victim are not mutually exclusive."

Bryant portrays Medusa as a contemporary Black woman, weaving vipers through a crown of locs beneath a patterned headwrap. The painting reframes familiar traits often projected onto the mythic figure - fear, mystery and resilience - through a different lens.

"As Black women, we often navigate these perceptions of being fearful, mysterious and eternally resilient," Bryant said. "I wanted to portray those qualities from our perspective."

In Bryant's telling, fear becomes fearlessness. Mystery becomes wonder. Resilience becomes hope.

Even the title signals a reinterpretation. Bryant spells the name Mædusa - not Medusa - as a deliberate way to distinguish her character from the ancient myth while giving the figure a story of her own.

The painting is part of Bryant's ongoing series Meladies: The Fantastic Black Woman, which imagines Black women as protagonists in fantasy worlds where they have often been absent.

"I grew up loving fantasy in TV and movies," Bryant said. "But I rarely saw people who looked like me."

Across the gallery, other works invite viewers into quieter emotional landscapes.

In Sneha Gindodiya's painting Ghamgeen, a solitary figure sits within layers of intricate geometric patterning that resemble woven textiles or rugs. The structured surfaces surround the figure's inner world.

"I've always been attentive to the subtle emotional moments people carry within themselves," Gindodiya said in an email interview. "The pauses when someone is reflecting, processing a memory or gathering strength."

Her work often explores the relationship between structure and emotion. The patterned surfaces that anchor her compositions reflect the artist's earlier career in aerospace engineering, "a field rooted in precision, logic and structure," she said.

"That training still influences how I approach composition and balance in my paintings," she said. "I usually begin with patterned surfaces. They create rhythm and grounding in the composition."

Her work often focuses on emotional states that are easily overlooked.

"In Ghamgeen, the figure sits in a moment of melancholy, but not in despair. For me, melancholy can be a space of reflection - a moment where someone is processing something deeply personal," she said. "I'm drawn to those quiet emotional landscapes because they reveal a different kind of strength, one that is often unseen."

On a recent visit to the gallery, Veronica Escamez was busy hanging works from some first-time artists.

Escamez is the founder of the nonprofit Casa Círculo Cultural, whose volunteers worked with women incarcerated in the San Mateo County jail to create paintings.

"When they are in jail, they don't have many opportunities to tell what has happened in their lives," Escamez said. "But everybody there has a long story."

Some of the most striking pieces come from an exercise asking participants to paint themselves as children.

"You can immediately see what was going on in their lives," she said.

In one painting, a young girl's mouth is stitched shut while dark shapes crowd the background. In another, a heart appears trapped behind bars.

Some portraits omit faces entirely.

Yet there are moments of hope and resilience. One woman painted her children in bright colors, imagining the moment she returns home.

"For many of them," Escamez said, "just expressing what they feel is part of healing."

Around the gallery, the works range in style and mood. Some delve into myth and fantasy, others into quiet times by water or in a meadow. Together, they present a wide range of perspectives - bold and confrontational, contemplative and deeply personal.

The exhibition is meant to welcome everyone, whether they have an art degree or simply want to stop and look, said Aimee Shapiro, director of the San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture.

"You can just look at the work," Shapiro said while hanging Claire on the Train, a painting by Carol Sconzert. "You don't have to 'get it.' It might evoke a feeling or remind you of something."

Claire on the Trainis a playful example: Viewed one way, it shows a woman bundled in a scarf and hat on her morning commute. Flip it upside down (it's designed to hang either way), and it becomes Claire on the Evening Train, with Claire in her "high fancy hat … off to a fabulous evening soiree."

And nearby, Mædusa continues to catch the eye of visitors who stop in front of the canvas, challenging visitors to decide for themselves what story they are seeing.

"Perhaps the snakes are a metaphor for the different veils we wear in navigating spaces where we are both welcome and not. I'm not sure," she said.

"But I'm personally not a very big fan of snakes, despite what my portfolio may convey."

If You Go:

Women's View 2026 Exhibition Details:
Twin Pines Art Center in the Manor House, 10 Twin Pines Lane, Belmont
Now through March 29
Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.
Admission is free

Reception:
Sunday, March 15, 1 to 3 p.m.
Remarks and awards at 2 p.m.
Admission is free and open to the public.
RSVPs are encouraged at https://bit.ly/WV2026RSVP

Media Contacts

Michelle Durand
Chief Communications Officer
[email protected]
650-670-6114

Joshua Caspillan
Legislative Aide, Sup. Lisa Gauthier, District 4
[email protected]
650-542-1222

Aimee Shapiro
Executive Director
San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture
[email protected]