Chosen as the “Valley Vote” winner for California’s 10th District Congressional Art Competition was Riverbank High School senior Angelo Sanchez. The ceremony to announce the winners of the competition was held earlier this month at the Mistlin Art Gallery in Modesto. Artwork was submitted by artists throughout the 10th district and voting ended on May 8.

U.S. Representative Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) announced the winners at the ceremony. The 10th congressional district includes Stanislaus County and parts of San Joaquin County.

Sanchez won this honor after receiving the most votes for his piece, “Architecture” in an online gallery where individuals were only allowed to vote once for only one drawing. His artwork will be displayed in Denham’s office in Washington D.C.

“It is a funny story because we were working on a finger print drawing and then Gianelli (Riverbank graphic design teacher Jon Gianelli) told us about this contest,” said Sanchez. “He said whoever wants to enter you won’t have to do the finger print drawing. I was being a little bit lazy and thought I will do the art competition.”

The drawing was inspired from a picture that Sanchez had taken.

“I have been drawing since I was little,” added Sanchez. “I like to express my thoughts in it and the creativity and put it all into art.”

With an interest in architecture it is no wonder that one his favorite things to draw are buildings.

“I had a thing for architecture but there is a lot of math and I am not a big fan of math,” explained Sanchez. “My plans are to go to film school and draw on my free time.”

This annual competition is open to high schools nationwide and was established in 1982. The following type of art was allowed – paintings: oil, acrylic, watercolor; drawings: colored pencil, pencil, ink, marker, pastels, charcoal, and collages. All entries had to be two-dimensional, prints: lithographs, silkscreen, block prints; mixed media: use of more than two mediums such as pencil, ink, watercolor, etc., computer-generated Art, and photographs. All entries also had to meet specific height and weight requirements, had to be original in concept, design and execution, according to information on denham.house.gov.

The overall winner for his artwork “Ramephant” that was selected by a panel of judges was Pitman High School senior Skye Ocaranza from Turlock.

“It was surprising,” expressed Sanchez about the win, which will get his artwork seen by countless visitors to Washington, D.C. “I wanted to know the estimate of votes and they told me that it was outstanding. It is fun once you put your artwork out there and others see it. I was happy about that, that everyone liked my artwork and I got the valley vote.”