And they are being exposed at an exhibition at Arts Space Wodonga starting today.

My Secret Art Life will showcase hobbies and interests Wodonga Council staff don’t often have the opportunity to talk about.

The council’s people and workplace team manager Marni Jones said the exhibition would encourage the community to think about each individual council worker rather than the whole workforce.

“We are community members who do a lot of work for the city,” she said.

“We want to showcase we love our work but we do contribute and aren’t just employees.

“It pushes the boundaries of the staff having to reveal something about them and hopefully it will inspire people to create beyond the workplace.”

People and workplace officer Marnie Teal has painted four pictures of clouds that have morphed into faces.

“It shows the personality behind the robots in the council building,” she said.

“It’s nice to give people an insight into me.”

The council’s compliance team leader Craig McClanahan said he was not handy with a brush but wanted to use an indigenous painting given to him to tell a story about his past.

“I lived and worked in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory in 2008,” he said.

“I made a relationship with artist Dan Goodwin and I supplied him with a canvas and paint and he made the picture for me.”

Mr McClanahan said it showed people he had a life before joining council and the art gave him an understanding of communities beyond the one he was living in.

“We’re human,” he said.

The exhibition closes on March 22.