With the help of a camera on time-delay and a tripod, Aiken High School senior Melaney Mottsey created a startling self-portrait - a patterned blanket covering her head - that highlighted an Evening of the Arts program at the school on Thursday.
"I guess it represents my appreciation for different cultures," Mottsey said. "It reminds me of an Aztec pattern."
At a Bluegrass festival, she encountered a guy with a scruffy goatee and mustache, longish hair and a cheerful smile.
"I appreciated his features, and he let me take his picture," Mottsey said.
She has taken no formal lessons, but has taken every art class available at the school, said art teacher Tara Wessinger-Hanna - including graphic design, photography, Art III and IV and doubled up on that work.
"I've never seen a student this motivated," Wessinger-Hanna said. "She's so dedicated to learning it all."
Mottsey is considering an arts major at Winthrop University or the University of South Carolina. Aiken High's classes have been invaluable, she said, "pushing me to challenge myself."
She is taking Advanced Placement art. In the first semester, she had to present 15 pieces that displayed her different skills. Now she has a concentration on photography. Mottsey's work also includes striking portraits of local shelter dogs.
Senior writer Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard's education reporter.