For one Montreal restauranteur, heroes are a passion – and we aren’t talking about the sandwich.
Since high school, Danny Sodano has spent his spare hours making sculpting. After taking a six-year break when he was 32 to raise a family, he returned to his hobby, spending two hours each morning working on his creations.
Since picking sculpting back up two years ago, he has focused on making recreations of Spider-Man, Superman, Venom and all their friends and foes.
“I took out all my tools and it just came out of me,” he said. “It was pretty interesting. I couldn’t stop, it became an obsession, a passion and a necessity. I need to do this at this point.”
Sodano said his hobby helps him escape the grind of everyday life and returns him to his childhood passion of reading comics.
“When you’re allowed to use your imagination to create, the sky’s the limit,” he said. “It’s non-stop, your head is just going, going, going, but it’s actually something you enjoy doing.”
Sodano uses wire armature to establish a figure’s pose and clay for the rest. He creates a base layer first, then adding muscle on top. Once finished, a sculpture will be baked in an oven to harden.
So far, he’s sold about six of his pieces, mostly to friends. He said his larger pieces can go for $500 and can take up to 15 hours to make.
But with all that effort, he didn’t know how to display his work until a visit to Montreal’s Comicon last year.
“I left there and I looked at my wife,” he said. “’Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ and she goes, ‘Yeah, this is the place for you.’”
At this year’s Comiccon, Sodano has rented out a space to showcase his art. Great power might bring great responsibility, but super talent should also have super appreciation.
