BEING ARTSEA
36 H x 24 W Off the Beach / Mixed Media / 2012
24 H x 36 W Hooked on Bucktail / Concept Sketch / 2021
rtist Savio Mizzi confesses, “I get very bored very easily.” Perhaps this is what drove him to become a virtuoso of so many trades. As a surrealist painter, Mizzi incorporates stunning skill with a gorgeous, untamed imagination to produce remarkable works that could come from no one else. A master carpenter, he builds exquisite craftsman furniture. And as captain of Fishooker Charters, he helps anglers land massive catches including 60-pound striped bass and fluke the size of serving platters. His connection to the sea began in his childhood in Gozo, sister island of Malta, where fishing is a way of life. He first visited the East End from Manhattan, where he had an immensely successful career in illustration and special effects, working in advertising and designing book covers for St. Martin’s Press. So what lured him from the glamour of New York City’s high life? The teeming sea life beneath the shimmering waters of Montauk. “So I go to Montauk fishing, and the fishing was insane. I mean, like you've never seen in your life: fish between my legs under the surf—It's crazy... I remember I called my wife I told her listen, I think A
I died and went to fish heaven.” And that was it. Although he continued to do freelance illustration work and started a profitable handyman business, the siren call of the ocean had ensnared him, and he could not stay off the water. “If it wasn't for fishing, I’d be a multimillionaire because I was doing well,” he says. Although it’s clear as he spends his days
52 • AFLOAT USA Hamptons September 2022
AFLOAT USA Hamptons September 2022 • 53
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