Megan Gordon’s family may be in doubt about where her art talent comes from, but the recent Newberry High student is sure about where her gift is going.

Gordon, 16, headed to Greenville this month to live at the exclusive residential state Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities this school year.

It’s there she’ll hone her painting talent despite its thin ancestral backup.

“It came up on it’s own,” says Beth Gordon, Megan’s mother of Megan’s talent. “She just kept drawing and drawing at a young age all kinds of stuff. Nobody in the family really has that talent at all.”

However, her mother does mention an aunt who painted.

“That’s all I could think of where she got it from,” she says.

Megan Gordon is a constant doodler who keeps a mini sketchpad in her purse for art on the run.

She catches ideas everywhere, even Wal-Mart, and pens them for later.

In her sketchbook now is a drawing of a crescent moon, a pretty lady and cartoon ball player among others.

“I’m always doodling,” she says.

For Gordon, Governor’s School caps three years of anticipation following a watershed award in eighth grade.

She drew two yellow lilies that placed first in an art contest sponsored by a bank.

Before the win, as far as artistic talent, Gordon knew she was “kind of good, but nothing great.”

Afterwards, she was thinking governor’s school.

Her middle school art teacher, Marguerite Palmer, at Newberry Middle School encouraged her and let her talk with a representative from the Governor’s School.

Gordon applied for the school’s summer program as a freshman, but was chosen as an alternate. She later applied for the school-year program and was accepted during spring break.

While Gordon was on the phone, her mother brought her the letter still sealed.

“I don’t even know if she read the entire letter,” says Beth Gordon. “She just read ’Congratulations’—I think it says ’Congratulations, you have been accepted...’—and she started screaming and crying.”

“I was so excited,” says Megan Gordon, who remained on the phone with a friend throughout the experience.

In calmer times, you’ll find Megan on her floor in her bedroom eluding the world around her with brush in hand over a canvas on the floor.

“It’s kind of an escape for me. It’s very relaxing and calms me down,” she says. “Working on (a painting) just kind of distracts me from everything else going on.”

Worries go as she stays focused on her work and soft music plays in the background.

But she will leave her work for while if it’s not going well.

“You just kind of have to stop and walk away from it for a while,” she says.

In the end, she’s “usually pretty happy about how they come out.”

As far as her future, Gordon plans to attend art college, and hopes her time at Governor’s School will guide her toward a specific career.

But leaving Newberry to expand her talent means leaving another behind.

The softball catcher has played on Newberry High’s junior varsity team since middle school and bats at the top of the lineup.

With hands in both art and softball, the rising junior sits silently for nearly a minute when asked which hobby she likes better, unable to give preference.

“They’re like right there at each other,” she says.

And now that Newberry High’s star varsity catcher, Larissa Shannon, graduated in May, there’s an opening for Gordon.

But she’s willing to forego a near sure spot as varsity catcher for Governor’s School.

“I’ve been playing softball since I was four, and I’ve been playing for the high school since I was like in seventh grade and now I can’t play anymore,” Gordon says.

It’s a bit of a sacrifice to leave the high school team, she says, “but that’s OK.”

“I’m sure it’ll be worth it,” Gordon says.