Artist profile — Steve Marrazzo

Story by Ant Perrucci
Photo by Paige Denkin

Steve Marrazzo was hanging out in what his grandkids call “Grandpa’s house.”

“That’s ‘Grandma’s house,’” Marrazzo said, pointing across the backyard to his home. “This is ‘Grandpa’s house,’” he said on the front stoop of his studio/shed.

Marrazzo, also known as Uncle Steve-O, is the owner of Simple Gestures on Anastasia Island. He has long been known throughout the beachside community for his funky, earthy artwork, adorned with wirework and paint.

And the act of creating still brings him the greatest pleasure.

It shows throughout his backyard, which Marrazzo has decorated with large Styrofoam balls, soaked and spattered with paint.

“The most important part of that [artwork] was … I decided I wanted to break it up with that bamboo piece going through the center,” he said.

He had his ‘eureka’ moment when he decided, on a whim, to mount the Styrofoam on bamboo tripods.

“That was the ‘a-ha!’ moment, the big ‘a-ha!’ moment,” Marrazzo said.

Marrazzo – store owner, artist, local radio disc jockey – has also involved himself in various charitable causes over the years. Most recently, he has dived into his involvement with a benefit for Communities in Schools and Pie in the Sky in Hastings.

Marrazzo joined a number of other local artists to paint old church pews, which were then sold to benefit charity. The event, which was coordinated with a bake sale, was such a hit that Marrazzo decided more pies were in order.

“Now we’re going to sell pies every Art Walk,” Marrazzo said. “We had people coming back, telling us how good their pies were. People bought pies, they didn’t even know what they were!”

For Uncle Steve-O, the do-it-yourself aesthetic of art work is his driving force.

“I think it’s everything. Lots of times, people say ‘Try working with gloves.’ You can’t. You have to be touching it.”

Marrazzo’s home is full of knickknacks and artwork that reflects his own personal sense of style, and bent wire is one of his signature motifs.

“Shaping [the wire], bending it, warming it up with your hands,” Marrazzo said, his hands motioning the action of warming, bending and shaping aluminum wire. “You take your time, you go over it a couple times.”

He genuinely loves it.

“That’s everything,” Marrazzo said. “The whole tactile thing.”