Horror writer Stephen King once said "Good art should make you uncomfortable." The exhibit Youth Expressions, which opened Sunday at Greenville's Colonial Mall, does that.

The images, by students in Pitt County's public schools, depict their impressions of substance abuse, underage drinking and violence in neighborhoods and schools. It will be on display through Feb. 29.

The purpose of the exhibit, now in its second year, is to raise community awareness of issues facing youth. Hundreds of works submitted for the exhibit depict problems including drug addiction, gang violence and self-mutilation.

"They know about things like that. They see things like that," Hope Middle School art teacher Debbie Huggins said as she stood by an image of two arms bloodied by razor blades. "We hear and we see so much in the news. You get constantly reminded of what's bad."

Works displayed featured slogans ranging from clichéd ("Don't Drink and Drive" and "Say No to Drugs") and cheerful ("Why don't you say goodbye to getting high?) to sarcastic ("Gangs: You might think you are hot until you get shot") and somber ("Stop the hate. Stop the anger. Stop the violence.")

Kaiyla Maye, 11, a sixth-grader at Farmville Middle School, drew a picture of a boy sitting on a bench being approached by a youth minister who wants to help him.

"One of my aunts used to work at a center and helps people who are on alcohol ... that was kind of my inspiration," Kailya said.

"Nobody's ever offered me drugs or anything, but I know that is a part of our school," she said. "It's kind of scary to live here."

Some pieces focused more on health issues than social ills. Several drawings, such as one by Alex Huggins, focused on harmful effects of smoking. The Wintergreen Intermediate fifth-grader drew a picture of a man cutting his life short by sitting at home, smoking a cigarette.

"The Grim Reaper is knocking on the door," Alex said.

Wintergreen Intermediate art teacher Melissa Inman had all her fifth-graders participate in Youth Expressions, though only a handful of their entries were selected for the exhibit.

"Even though they're young, I felt it was a good way for them to express themselves, tell me some of the problems they face in their eyes," Inman said.

Due to the mature subject themes of the project, Inman, a former high school art teacher, consulted the school counselor before giving her students the assignment.

"It was kind of stressful for me at first because I didn't know what they had been exposed to," she said. "It was surprising how many things they knew about at this age."

Pitt County Schools Arts Education Director Jane Austen Behan said students often express emotions through art that they would be hesitant to voice to their teachers and counselors.

"This is a very safe way to do it, through art.," she said. "Even though it is an art exhibit, it's more about the expression behind the art."

The focus on the expression, rather than the exhibit, is the reason the project is being displayed at the mall rather than in local art galleries this year. Behan said organizers wanted to display students' work in a location that would generate a lot of traffic.

"There are so many people that have stopped to spend some time looking at the messages that our youth are conveying through this art," she said. "We feel the site is more of an outreach event. People off the street are just stopping and pondering the images."

Devinder Culver, community programs coordinator for the Greenville Police Department, hopes people who see the images will stop to consider how their behavior may be harming children around them.

"The community will see what we are doing to our kids," she said "This is their expression, nobody else's. Nobody told them to do this."

Gloria Bailey, assistant to the dean for diversity and outreach of East Carolina University's college of fine arts and communication, said giving students freedom to express themselves can be beneficial.

"Sometimes it's art therapy," she said. "That's a good thing for artists to express themselves."

ECU is one of the collaborative partners sponsoring the exhibit, along with Pitt County Schools, Citizens United Against Violence, Pitt County Substance Abuse Coalition and the Greenville Police Department, Graduate students helped build panels for the displays and mounted the work of the younger students. One graduate student is filming the project to document younger students' perceptions of problems that plague the community.

"Some of (the images) are disturbing," Bailey said. "It's a Catch-22. You get a lot of the positive information you need to find out what is happening in the community with children, but at the same time, you get all the negative experiences they may see and they may hear about. "... It's a way to find out what's going on.

"Some of those things, I'm glad they feel free to express themselves, because where else are you going to do it?" Bailey said. "That's what art is about. That's the great thing about art.