Sausalito’s Own: VanBo

By Steefenie Wicks - Sausalito Historical Society

The history of Sausalito is full of very interesting characters who have left their marks on the city. None, however, fit that description better than local street artist VanBo, who leaves his mark just about every place he goes.

 Courtesy of Steefenie Wicks/Sausalito Historical Society

VanBo is a painter – one who uses Sausalito as his canvas, the residents and tourists as his patrons. Some love him, others don’t; yet, he is part of Sausalito and has been for the last 49 years of his life.

VanBo’s real name is Robert Conley Jr., and he was born in North Carolina. He said it was the U.S. Job Corps program that was responsible for him moving to California. It was then he attended dance programs and was introduced to Anna Halprin, known as the “breaker” of post-modern dance. VanBo would become part of her company of dancers and perform with her company for almost 18 years. It was at this time he also became involved in the pornography industry for a number of years, while living in San Francisco.

VanBo came to Sausalito in 1969 and became part of the waterfront scene. He tells stories of living with Michael Woodstock on board the dredge that was located off Dunphy Park. He can tell you stories of Dredgetown, the life on this floating community before the city condemned it.

When I asked if he had stories about people in Sausalito, he told me one about Jack Tracy, the founder of the Sausalito Historical Society. It seems that VanBo had been arrested and was given the option of performing community service. He chose to do the community service with Jack at the historical society and spent his time cleaning bottles and dusting the displays while Jack was working on his book, “Moments in Time.”

“I never knew that bottles could get that dusty, but then the whole place needed to be cleaned all the time,” VanBo said. “There was so much stuff’.”

When asked about knowing or working with other people here in town, he compiled a broad list of residents in Sausalito, both on the hill and on the waterfront.

VanBo also claims to have worked for Michael Rex. “I helped him get the Ice House cleaned out after he first got it,” he said.

He also claims he once worked for Sally Stanford, doing some rather interesting projects for her, personally, as well as working around the restaurant. He says he spent time living with Alan Watts, entertaining tourists at the No Name Bar, “and being invited to parties that no one knows about to see what everyone wants to see.”

After many years of moving from one aspect of his life to the other, VanBo has now taken up painting and become rather well-known. He has a Facebook page, a listing on the Internet and a 45-minute film, “Outsider: The Art of Van Bo.” His work was part of the collection in the Las Vegas Sexual Heritage Museum, which closed last March, and he sells a good number of his paintings to Sausalito residents.

VanBo was also a subject of cartoonist Phil Frank.

“Phil thought that I had a great thing going and liked my philosophy on life, so he had a character in his cartoon strip that was kinda like me,” he said. “That’s the best, being liked because I love this place.

“Sausalito has changed. There used to be a time when you could leave your bike and come back for it. Now, you better lock it up. But now things have gotten so bad that, when you come back, they have taken the bike and the lock.”

VanBo said he feels Sausalito is being fitted to the lives of the new people who have come here to live. He’s starting to see that his time here is slipping by.

I asked him what he would do if he leaves this place. “I’ll go on and paint somewhere else,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “My painting is something I do that no one can take away from me. I’m a black man and I have the right to live my life the way I want and paint on whatever I want.

“Things are moving in different directions now. I’m being pushed and moved about, but through it all I can paint. A piece of board, using my fingers, using a brush, I paint. This will live on like all great works of art. My art.”

I asked him about what he’ll remember most about Sausalito. He looked at me and then off into the distance and said, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s being interviewed.”