SEQUIM — In your art, you can create any world you want.
So learned the students whose work is celebrated in the show now open at the Museum & Arts Center, 175 W. Cedar St., Sequim.
The MAC was packed Friday night with teenagers and their parents, brothers and sisters for the 19th annual Sequim Arts Student Show, a multimedia display of nearly 100 pieces by youngsters from Sequim to Neah Bay.
Artist Karin Anderson of Sequim organized the show, which will stay on display through March 29 at the center, where admission is free.
“We didn’t know she could do this,” said Andra Smith of Sequim, referring to her 18-year-old daughter Mollie’s art.
Mollie, who plans to major in political science and global studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma next fall, said she had to take a fine arts class to graduate from Sequim High School.
She chose painting and went all-out for beauty with an up-close, personal view of a peacock.
Devon Santiago, another Sequim High student, dived into the world below the surface.
Anchored by a scarlet octopus, her “Deep Water” is a vision of stovepipe coral, moorish idols and spotted eagle rays.
Devon, 16, has yet to scuba dive, but she learned about these animals on the Internet and used acrylics and modeling paste to depict their undersea community.
In Wendy Bennett’s drawing class of just five students at Forks High School, Micki Villicaña lit out for Paris. The assignment: Create a portrait of yourself in a place where you want to go.
Micki, 16, stands in front of the Eiffel Tower, of course.
Favorite show
The Sequim Arts Student Show is “my favorite,” proclaimed DJ Bassett, the MAC executive director who sees more than a dozen exhibitions come through the center each year.
He presided over the bestowing of some $1,000 in cash and art supplies sponsored by local businesses and art community members.
One prize has yet to be given: the People’s Choice Award, for which voting will continue until March 29. As with the Best in Show honors in the senior and junior divisions, a $50 cash award, sponsored by local artist Judy Priest, will go to the People’s Choice winner.
With the Sequim Arts Student Show and its permanent exhibits on local history, the MAC is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.
For more on the center and Sequim Arts, visit www.MacSequim.org or www.SequimArts.org, or phone the MAC at 360-683-8110.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
