For residents South of Market, piles of feces, used syringes and broken glass are common sights.

But rather than stepping over them and continuing on his way, one local artist recently decided to get down on his hands and knees and turn the refuse into art—which he debuted on Medium today.

The artist—who prefers to go by Soma Chef—says that as an 11-year resident of the neighborhood, it's "never the case that I don't see broken glass on the way home from work."

However, he knows how easy it is for locals to become blind to all the grime, so he decided to bring attention to it through this "whimsical art project."

As for why he chose a culinary theme, Soma Chef said that one day, it just clicked: the poop, syringes and glass all looked like the makings of a corn dog. An accomplice agreed to lend a hand, and they donned rubber gloves and got down to work. 

Was making art from human feces a difficult task? Not so much. Of his creative process, Soma Chef says he enters a "state of flow."

"The spirit takes over you. You don't exactly know what you're doing," he added.

Soma Chef says he wishes he could do more to quell the larger problems that lead to such grime on the streets. But he also understands that these issues are systemic.

For example, it's difficult for the police to catch car burglars in action, he said. But when police fail to respond to calls, victims often feel defeated and give up on logging incidents—resulting in less reliable data for the city.

And then, of course, there's money to be had when cars are broken into, Soma Chef said. Tow trucks, glass repair shops and other local businesses all profit from car burglaries.

While Soma Chef doesn't have the answers to fix all of these larger problems, he does have rubber gloves and a passion for art. So will we see more of his work on South of Market sidewalks and Medium? It's possible, he said. "There's lots of opportunities; so much raw material out there."

But Soma Chef did say he has one regret: He didn't think to send photos of his masterpieces to 311 before walking away.

For more samples of Soma Chef's work, head over to his post on Medium.