“Being on the streets, Art from the Streets is an oasis of sanity and I'm impressed by the talent here, I mean I went to art school just because I wasn't very good at art and I wanted to learn more. The artists here are so talented - and many of them have no training."

Jesus Polanco grew up in Mexico City and has since traveled to Barcelona, Madrid, Japan (3 times), Paris (12 times), and also lived in New York City for 23 years. Due to his time spent in Japan his favorite food is Japanese food. Jesus has been coming to our open studio for about 15 months and tries to attend three times per week, depending on his work schedule. While growing up Jesus raised baby birds with his grandmother, his first bird was named Grillo. Thus Birds and nature are among his favorite subjects to create. Another source of great inspiration for Jesus is Picasso. Jesus says he admires the child-like sense of wonderment in Picasso's pieces and strives to achieve a similar thing in his own work. What greatly influences how he tackles each new work is the peace he gets from his time at the AFTS open studio. He says he finds art in everything and thinks about how to use the things that he finds all week leading up to studio time". He prefers red and gold colors in his work but states "whatever is on sale are his favorite colors''.Jesus currently sleeps on the city bus. In 2017, he was brutally attacked while sleeping on a bench and has slept on a bus since. All of the money he currently makes goes to his mother, who is ill.