Subject-matter jurisdiction, constitutional disputes, depositions, material facts; the day-to-day work of law school can be tiresome. For UW students, however, a new group on campus is working to interrupt the tedium by bringing beauty into the law school.

Advocates for the Arts (AFTA) is a new student organization at the UW that aims to “humanize” the law student experience and bring culture to the law school, said Colton Carothers, AFTA president and second-year law student.

“One of the things we really wanted to do was not only take students outside of the law school to experience art but to bring art within the law school for students to experience it,” he said.

To that end, AFTA has chosen artist and second-year law student Peter Boome to hold the first exhibit in the law school. The show consists of Boome’s hand-pulled screen prints, done in the Coast Salish style. Boome is a member of the Upper Skagit tribe, and his art portrays a Pacific Northwest cultural tradition.

“It’s indigenous to this area — 20–50,000 years or so, however long we’ve been here,” he said.

The exhibit includes more than 30 serigraphs. The layering process by which he creates the prints takes at least a day per color, so the work represents a significant period of time. It makes for a tough schedule when added onto the rigors of law school.

“Law school was always the dream. Art was something I did, and I didn’t really think of it as a profession,” Boome said. “It just sort of happened that way, and I got really lucky.”

While he says that “self-taught” isn’t an entirely accurate way to describe him, Boome doesn’t point to any one person as a teacher or mentor in his artwork.

“It kind of happens … when you get around a lot of artists, you kind of fine-tune your craft a little bit,” he said. “It’s more of a taught-by-everybody type deal.”

Boome shares AFTA’s goal for the exhibit and hopes that the show helps bring a fresh perspective into the law school.

“I think it’s kind of important for people to see that people in law school — there’s more to it than just law school,” he explained. “The law-school students are incredibly intelligent and talented in general, and I know they have outside influences, but nobody gets to see it because we’re in law school. I think it has that opportunity to showcase the hidden talents that law school students have.”

For a building with such beautiful architecture, Boome said, the law school was really lacking in art.

“I think it’s important to have art in public places, in general. It makes a building come alive,” he said. “It enhances things and gets people thinking about something else, and I think that’s healthy.”

Carothers feels the same way.

“It opens people’s eyes up to not only cultural diversity but also all that art is,” he said.

In regard to future shows, Carothers said, some members of the school have expressed interest in seeing artwork related to study of law.

“And that’s great,” he said, “but we learn that every day within our law classes. We want a break. We want beauty in the law school. We want something that has artistic merit.”

Boome definitely fits that description. His work has been displayed all over the country, including at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York and Washington, D.C., and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz. He’s also showing at the Steinbrueck Native Gallery in downtown Seattle.

The Coast Salish exhibit is being shown in the Brotman Galleria, in the main hallway of the first floor of the law school. Carothers doesn’t know when the next show will go up but said that Boome’s work will be there at least until spring break.

Reach reporter Molly Rosbach at news@dailyuw.com.