Art by students, for students

Music, masterpieces, art and altruism will be on full display Wednesday through Friday during "The Exhibit — A Student-led Art Show."

The capstone project of Lake City High School senior Jos Benak, "The Exhibit" will feature the works of 50 student visual artists, as well as local and student musicians.

"I'm excited," Jos said Thursday, as she worked on preparations at the Harding Family Center, where the show will take place.

"I wake up, I do this and then I go to bed," she said with a grin. "I've really enjoyed it. I've enjoyed the process."

Lake City senior and Coeur d'Alene Tribal member Amya Sines will exhibit her beadwork. She has been beading since she was 8 and sells her creations on her Facebook page, Mymys Beadwork. Amya said it's really cool how Jos wanted to incorporate kids from different schools and cultures into her art show.

One set of her heart-shaped earrings have bright beads set against black felt with bear paws in the center. A set like this takes her about an hour and a half to make.

"I use needle, thread and beads that I usually get from a little craft store down on the reservation," she said, adding that the backings are usually made of buckskin in the traditional Coeur d'Alene fashion.

"I like piecing together different colors," she said.

Rock/grunge/alternative band Sunzile will perform from 5-9 p.m. Thursday. Drummer and bassist Riley Peite and guitarist and vocalist Jaz Carothers, both Lake City seniors, will also have artwork in the show.

Riley has known Jos since eighth grade and is one of her honors art classmates. Two of Riley's acrylic exhibit pieces are music influenced: "Hollow Realm," of Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg in his face-distorting performance mask; and a muted portrait of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, inspired by her dad's love of the band.

"I call it 'Tommy Lee and Mighty Mouse,' because of his Mighty Mouse tattoo," she said with a laugh. "I like to water it down, so the shading here, I just water the paint down, that's how I did the hair out here. It's a little different technique. I gave it to my dad for his birthday."

Jaz, who will also have acrylic pieces on display, said most of her artwork begins with emotion. Her painting, "Unnerved," conveys a sense of anxiety or uncertainty. She said it's probably her most realistic piece so far.

"It's been strange watching it evolve and come into a real emotion," she said. "Art and music have always been more of an outlet for me. At the time there was a lot of stuff going on with music, so I decided to take a step back from that and do something painting-wise."

One piece she'll showcase is titled "Under Seattle Moon."

"I took two different reference photos with this one, just starting with a backdrop of Seattle. I found an image that was nice, because my goal is to move there," said Jaz, who is dual enrolled at North Idaho College and will go to art school in the Emerald City when she graduates. "There's definitely pieces of me in it."

One creation Jos will have in the show is a five-layered piece depicting a blue and orange baboon.

"Everybody in my (advanced placement) class did a piece like this," she said. "We started with tape and we just layered old paint. We had to do a sketch layer and then we had to use shoe polish and metallic paint, so we had to incorporate all of those."

"The Exhibit" will have a soft opening from 7-9 p.m. Wednesday and will be in full swing from 5-9 p.m. Thursday and Friday. It is free to attend, but donations will be accepted for Growing the STEM, a nonprofit that provides engaging science, technology, engineering and mathematics programming for students.

"They work entirely off donations. That's just, wow," Jos said, adding with the March failure of the supplemental levy, which supports electives such as arts and STEM extracurricular programming, "I think it's just appropriate" to support that cause.

The Harding Family Center at 411 N. 15th St., Coeur d'Alene, houses North Idaho College Head Start. It has also always been a place where the arts flourish.

"There's a long history of artists being part of this Harding Family Center," Head Start Director Beth Ann Fuller said. "As I've seen the caliber of this student art that has been coming in the doors, it just amazes me, and the level of professionalism this young lady has shown. I think this is going to be a wonderful community event."