If you’ve ever seen a man in town with orange skin, green glasses and a white wig, you’ve seen the work of a San Francisco graffiti artist called Ongo.
       Ongo is known for sticking stickers on sidewalks, electrical boxes, and even metal grills and Mooney cards—sometimes brushing them off the streets and selling them on his website, much to the displeasure of the city.
        “What he did was a crime and if he is caught he will be arrested. San Francisco does not allow individuals to vandalize, steal or destroy public property,” a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said.
        “If someone nicknamed Ongo – or anyone else – removes a metal grill from someone’s sidewalk without their permission, it would be theft. Theft is a crime,” Public Works Department spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said.
       Gordon added that removing a perforated metal grill creates a tripping hazard, and it is the responsibility of a homeowner living in front of the grill to replace it, which can cost anywhere from $10 to $30.
       The city’s transit agency told The Standard that it is working on a plan to upgrade the city’s bus stops to discourage vandalism and will only allow artwork to be created with the agency’s permission.
       ”While art is an integral part of our shelter program, it must be expressed in a legal way so as not to cause irreparable damage to the shelter itself,” said Stephen Cheung, a spokesman for the San Francisco Department of Transportation.
       Ongo, wearing camouflage Crocs sneakers, a layered jacket and a latex mitten on his left arm, sipped coffee and said he didn’t mind painting on city property too much, especially the metal grill.
        “For example, 70 percent of them are not screwed into the ground. If I see a bolt, I won’t even try because it will be [without the bolt] at the bottom of the block,” Ongo said. “If they don’t want to be taken away, they should better protect them.”
        Ongo is named after the character of the same name in a 2016 episode of the FX television show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia titled “Dee made a lewd movie” in which actor Danny DeVito poses as fictional art historian Ongo Gablogian to impress art collectors. The action pokes fun at the pretentiousness of the elitist art world.
        “This show is stupid and outrageous. The whole episode goes like this: “What is art? “Why is something worth millions just because it was drawn by a specific person, even if it’s just graffiti and nonsense?” Ongo said at Ritual Coffee Roasters on Valencia Street.
       In June 2020, Ongo completed the fictional character design with some stylistic changes including orange skin and green sunglasses.
        “A friend of mine once said, ‘Oh, Ongo would be a cool design,’” he said. “I drew this and thought, ‘Yes, this is it.
        Ongo first became interested in graffiti as a 19-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin when he saw koi on the streets of his hometown of Milwaukee. He later learned that the fish were painted by Jeremy Novy, who also painted them in San Francisco.
       According to Ongo, seeing a street artist’s business card on a flyover or in some other obscure corner was like an Easter egg, linking him to the creator.
       Ongo is also fascinated by the work of graffiti artist Shepard Fairey, creator of the Obey design, also known for Obama’s Hope poster and clothing line of the same name.
       ”His whole job was about repetition, making people see the same thing over and over and think, ‘Oh, there must be something to this,’” Ongo said.
        Two years later, in 2016, Ongo graduated with a degree in psychology and sociology and immediately moved to San Francisco to follow his then-girlfriend, who had moved to the city for work. He then bounced around hiring technicians until he was fired in early 2020, and in June of that year, he painted his first drawings of Ongo on the paneled windows of an empty Mission store due to Covid.
        Ongo began to make his mark on the city, going to Outer Richmond, Inner Sunset, Haight and Mission. One of Ongo’s drawings originally took nearly 45 minutes to draw, but he got it from another graffiti artist while visiting À.pe, an 18th street shop that sells paint, art and clothing. immediately.
       Ongo said he makes about $2,000 a month selling art through his website, where he advertises Muni bus signs, maps, and grills taken from city streets and painted with his logo.
       But renting an apartment in the city’s Mission district generates a significant portion of the profits that the artist makes.
        Ongo is committed to staying in a city where he believes people value and legitimize street art in a way that doesn’t exist in his hometown of Milwaukee. Ongo says it won’t stop people from spending more here than at home.
        “I know this can only go on in San Francisco. Artists are valued here,” Ongo said. “At home, people take it as a little hobby.”
       In the past, graffiti artists have made a name for themselves by spraying their tags all over the city and earning fame and revenue from their brands, including – perhaps infamously – street artist Fnnch, known for his strange bears.
        Expansion is not a priority for Ongo at this stage. He said he was more focused on paying the bills before trying to further monetize his ambitious label, although streetwear like Obey was already seen as a potential interest.
        “Ten years ago it was unthinkable to live here,” Ungo said. “Five years ago, being a full-time artist was incomprehensible. I believed every day in small steps and saw what it would turn into.
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