Art fell into the picture by chance for Niko Sanchez, CATalyst Studios Digital Design and Fabrication Specialist, and a member of the 2025-26 JustArts Fellows cohort.

Biking through his old stomping grounds of San Diego, Sanchez stumbled across an array of murals in a Chicano park– and along with them, a muralist stood. "There was this old man standing under three levels of scaffolding in front of a 30-foot tall by 500-foot long mural," he said. "I put on my brakes and went over to go talk to him. It turns out his name was Salvador Torres. He was what they call ‘the big cheese’ of Chicano Park.”

A simple conversation turned into eight months of apprenticeship under Torres, he said, learning the ins and outs of muralism. Eventually, this led Sanchez to study the arts in higher education, which turned into years of muralism, sculpting, and eventually teaching. 

Read full story at U of A Arizona Arts.