Local artist’s mosaics tile walls in ‘Burgh

A school of mosaic fish swims across a brick tunnel in the South Side Works in a representation… A school of mosaic fish swims across a brick tunnel in the South Side Works in a representation of the ocean. Various colors splash the walls as coral, weeds and underground pebbles surround the fish.

It’s a work many have walked by quickly, but at the end of the image is the name “Stevo.”

For 52-year-old Steven Sadvary, he artist of the South Side mosaic, art has always been a vital to life. But while studying for his undergraduate degree, Stevo, thought computers were the way to go.

“Computers were just starting to have this buzz about them,” he said of his experience at Edinboro University — he graduated in 1980. “I thought if I was smart, if I wanted to make lots of money, I should major in them.”

Though he does make his own website and use computers for work, Stevo — who got his nickname from friends who called him Stevo Devo after the band — ended up majoring in weaving and textiles, after receiving encouragement from a high school teacher. He now creates mosaic art in his studio in Squirrel Hill, where his creations cost buyers anywhere from $30 for a trivet to as much as $750 for wall art.

Stevo’s currently works in an old apartment garage. When the elevator broke, there was no use for the building, and it eventually became an art studio where he and other artists spend much of their time creating.

In his studio, he has two long tables where he does the majority of his artwork. Along the walls are jars of broken glass and other supplies neatly color-coded. The opposing room holds much of Stevo’s artwork, where he occasionally shows it to prospective clients.

But getting to this workspace took time, he spent years working on a fiber line producing sweaters and scarves before he started working with mosaics in the early ’90s.

Around the same time, he moved into a house in Highland Park that had leftover tiles and coffee cans from the previous owner. From then on, he focused more on mosaic art, his most common creation.

Toni Ault, a senior designer at the Pipitone Group, a marketing firm in Pittsburgh, met Stevo shortly after he began his mosaics. Stevo was working at a South Side restaurant when the two met and she hired him to do a mural in the garden at her house.

“It went from being an art piece to a huge, creative piece,” Ault said.

The final product transformed from a smaller art piece to an 8 foot by 6 foot mosaic creation in her garden. This installation prompted her to purchase more of Stevo’s work. She now owns multiple pieces, ranging from decorative trivets to more traditional wall art.

Stevo often does in-home installations of his art, charging people about $1,200 to place mosaics along the walls of their kitchens. He photographs a client’s kitchen and makes a computer-generated representation of different tile patterns for the newly decorated space.

“I can pretty much just zero in on what it’s going to look like, and that’s a really cool process that I have a lot of success with,” he said.

Stevo also does various public installations of his mosaic art throughout the Pittsburgh area. In places such as South Side Works and Downtown, his mosaic creations decorate businesses, street signs and walls.

He has collaborated on multiple occasions with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation to help different groups of children develop their own mosaic art in public parks. Nancy Burns, the program manager of the department, said that through these public projects, Stevo works as a “teaching artist.”

“He’s able to take an exercise and break it down into easy-to-understand steps,” she said.

In these situations, Burns said that Stevo interacts well with the children. He teaches them the basics and helps to utilize that knowledge in their art. Stevo takes the time to show the process of creating art, Burns said.

“There is a sense of accomplishment. You can think about it, create it, do it and enjoy it,” she said.

And that is his goal. Stevo’s outlook on his art does not confine him to an overly structured approach but rather gives him room to try new and different artwork.

“I just like them to be colorful and fun,” he said.