On Friday March 15, Hunt was awarded a Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Medal Award for his photograph “Ashen.” This national recognition came less than two months after Hunt won a statewide award, the Scholastic Gold Key Award, on January 25.

Hunt, an art student at WHS, was one of six WHS students to win the Scholastic Gold Key Award in art and the only Wayland student to win a Gold Medal Award.

Hunt’s “Ashen” is a portrait of himself in dim lighting with ash smeared across his face in a manner resembling messy eyeblack. Hunt credits the idea to the summer day spent with his cousins drawing ash moustaches on each other.

“I thought back to when my cousins and I were messing around with ash, drawing moustaches while up on the Cape,” Hunt said. “I took that experience and put an artistic spin on it.”

Hunt has done portraits, light photography and many different types of still art with a camera but had never won an award for his art before this winter.

“I didn’t believe it when a friend told me I had won,” Hunt said. “When I found out I had actually won and that the award was a big deal, I got excited. It was cool to be recognized.”

Hunt especially enjoys using lighting in his photography and plans to continue with his art in the future.

“I’m driven by creativity, and I try to do something that has never been done before,” Hunt said.

It’s also important to Hunt that his artwork affects its viewers.

“I want to do new, original things that make people stop and think,” Hunt said. “I want each viewer to perceive [my art] differently.”