Inspired the world around her, Curator Jill Larson wanted to create an art exhibit based on bullying, specifically girl-on-girl bullying.“Watching the news, I saw all of these horrific acts happening to girls, them committing suicide because of bullying. That was a big impact for me to do this show,” said Larson in a phone interview on Thursday.Thus, the Mean Girls Art Exhibit was born. It debuts in Pittsburgh on Feb. 22 at SPACE Gallery at 812 Liberty Ave. as a combination of a visual arts exhibition and a community engagement revolving around the concept of bullying, said Larson.Strong Women Strong Girls (SWSG) is sponsoring the free exhibit.After two years of planning, Larson chose a combination of paintings, drawings, sculptures, video projection and other types of media for the exhibit.“I don’t think it’s as black and white as the ‘mean girls’ and the ‘nice girls.’ It’s a combination of both, and the exhibit looks at how and why girls bully,” Larson said.According to the exhibit’s website, Larson has curated over 50 exhibits, working with over 300 artists. For this particular exhibit she chose 10 artists.One of these artists is Randie Snow, a 47-year-old freelance graphic designer from the North Hills. While graphic designing is her job, she got into fine arts 10 years ago when she met the late artist James Church at a studio tour with her friend. Church taught an art class and mentored her in assemblage art – making art by using found objects.“It was a passion I’ve discovered. [I’m a collector] and it all clicked together,” said Snow in a phone interview on Thursday.Snow and Larson worked together in the past, and Larson thought Snow’s work and style would be good for “Mean Girls”. Snow knew this was a serious topic because everyone has experienced one side of bullying at least once in their life, but she was up for the challenge.“It is a challenging subject, but I thought it’d be interesting to see where I could take it, and how I could portray the message,” Snow said.Snow took this task and used the most horrifying consequence of bullying to portray in her piece: suicide. In her research, Snow found that the youngest girl who committed suicide because of bullying was only eight years old, and this greatly impacted her.Snow is doing a large assemblage piece consisting of 32 individual last rite crosses – a Catholic ritual that fills wooden crosses with two candles, Holy Water and scripture passages to take to the sick or dying. She will fill these crosses with items reminiscent of these girls’ lives and personalities. The initials of the victims are also on the crosses. Once the crosses are complete, they will hang on the wall to spell the word “die.”“This pertains to the mean things said to [the victims]. It shows how vicious girls can be, the impact it can make,” she said. “What really stood out to me [in my research] was that some girls were bullied to the point where they feel they’re not worth living. That has to change, and I hope people see the gravity of what their words can do to other people.”Another artist is Marian Barber, a 24-year-old graduate student from Littlestown, Pa. studying studio art at the University of Delaware. Larson contacted her in January and Barber said she was interested and thought the concept was “really awesome.”“I thought this would be an interesting opportunity and I’ve seen Jill’s work. The concept is interesting, it’s tackling an important issue, and it’s for a good cause,” said Barber in a phone interview on Friday.The artist draws inspiration and creates stories from the places, faces, history, people and wildlife of her hometown and the places she has been particularly images from the Civil War, folklore and legends.Barber is doing a series of 10 drawings, using watercolors and acrylic, titled “Lore” as part of a bigger piece to be clustered on a hand-painted wall. The pieces will be a narrative work and will use the conflicts between her characters as an allegory for other issues.“For this show, I focused more on the female entities that pop up in my other drawings to illustrate the power struggles [women face],” Barber said.Barbara Schreiber is another of the 10 artists tackling this subject through art. The 59-year-old artist and writer from Charlotte, N.C. grew up with artists in her family, so art was the normal thing to do for her. It was also the only thing she wanted to do. Schreiber knew Larson for a long time from working with her in the past.“Jill always [addressed] social and political issues,” said Schreiber in a phone interview on Friday. “When Jill calls, I jump at the opportunity. She really understands my work and puts it in an interesting context.”Schreiber is featuring a two-set painting, “In a Dark Room” and “Small Ghost,” in the exhibit. She was inspired simply by observing the world around her and wanted to deal with political and social issues through a domestic lens.She uses two characters, a ghost to symbolize the feeling of being isolated and forgotten, and a girl to show children left to fend for themselves when adults are pursuing other goals.“[My pieces are] a meditation on being invisible, and realizing the world has gone on without you,” Schreiber said.Larson and the artists want to not only spread the message of anti-bullying but also get people to talk and create dialogue around the subject. There will be various workshops throughout its time in Pittsburgh. Larson is also looking into travelling the exhibit throughout the country.“Through the show, I hope something positive comes out if it for girls to help prevent bullying,” Snow said.Larson had a similar purpose in mind.“The ultimate goal of the exhibit is to get people to talk and create dialogue around the subject of bullying,” Larson said.            For the full list of events visit their website at http://meangirlsartexhibit.com.