Victoria East’s Melissa Sanchez works on painting a ceiling tile during art class Tuesday at Victoria East High School.

Melissa Sanchez’s lifelong passion for making art is paying off, literally.

A graphite pencil drawing Sanchez created sold for $25,000 at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo School Art Contest Auction last month. Sanchez, 18, is a senior at Victoria East High School.

The drawing, titled “Seeking a Calm Saunter,” shows four horse-riding cowboys. Sanchez said her work was inspired by a photograph she had seen.

“I started it in October and finished it in December,” Sanchez said. “It basically took up a lot of my time.”

Sanchez said she worked on the drawing for an hour each day for two months.

“I wanted to challenge myself this year and do plenty of details in my drawing,” Sanchez said.

This summer, Sanchez said she will receive a portion of the $25,000 sale, which she will put toward her future studies in computer engineering. Some of the earnings from the sale will go to the Houston Rodeo’s educational fund, which provides scholarships and grants to students.

On March 12, Sanchez traveled up to Houston for the auction with her school art teacher, Candace Coyle.

“I was really happy because I wanted to get an award for my senior year, and I feel like I accomplished that,” Sanchez said about the moment she found out the amount her art had sold for.

Coyle said the fervor of the auction, from the bidding process to the smiling faces of students, was exciting, especially when all eyes were on Sanchez’s drawing.

“When her work sold for $25,000, it was just a jaw-dropping moment,” Coyle said. “It was great, and she was just smiling away.”

Art students at East feed off of each other’s excitement when they work on projects, Coyle said.

“I find it really wonderful that the kids will initially say ‘Oh, I don’t like Western,’” Coyle said. “Then they really get into it and they start seeing what other kids are doing, like Melissa, and they’re like, ‘Oh, I want to do that.’”

“It was really fun to going to Houston to see all the other drawings because it brings me inspiration to see how well (other student artists) draw,” Sanchez said.

Drawing and painting are activities Sanchez said she does when she needs to relieve stress.

“I also like how it all comes together toward the end and no one can see the process from start to finish, but you can,” Sanchez said.