FUNKY MECHANICAL MENPeter Solly’s Imaginative Muffler Sculptures

STORY BY RON STANG

PETER SOLLY’S WORK HAS BECOME SOME ofthe most recognizable home grown art in Windsor. Foryears anyone driving by his MacDonald’s Automotive onHoward Ave., and who stops at the traffic light at thecorner of Howard and Eugenie, probably took a glanceat the four or five muffler sculptures lining the sidewalk.They may have scratched their heads while looking atthese characters, and thinking: “who did that art, is itoriginal, where did it come from, was it actually done bysomeone who works at that muffler store?”Now, the sculptures have started popping up all over thetown - in front of stores, at charity auctions, art fairs.Peter, who took over his family’s business in 1993, is

almost as busy making muffler sculptures as he is installing pipes on customers’ cars.“It’s crazy,” he says, ever full of enthusiasm. “Because you’re busy and you can only

do so much. I’m only one guy, and I’ve got to build (the sculptures) myself and thenI’ve got to run the shop too. It’s like a slow burner.”Peter, who has a website, www.petersollysculptures.com, never thought of himself

as an artist. In fact he wanted to become an actor. So there was some artistic talentthere already.But what turned him into a sculptor, making whimsical mechanical men and

beasts, is a family story.His brother, Charles or “Chuck” Solly, who owns the Windsor Art Metal shop –

and known for his intricate fabrications of gates and railings – saw muffler sculptureson a folk art course in the United States. He told Peter, “‘You can make these!’ So Istarted making them, and it took off and people liked them,” Peter says.

Above: Peter begins welding hisnext sculpture of an angel.

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Peter has sculpted all type of characters made of mufflers andother metals. There are athletes, comic book and action figures,even Windsorites such as TV anchorman Jim Crichton – with amicrophone, of course. Or there’s businessman Barry Zekelmanas Superman with a lightning bolt of kryptonite. Sports figuresinclude heroes Bob Probert and Meghan Agosta.Peter freely admits he isn’t the first to make this kind of art. He

says muffler sculpting seems to be popular in the American south-west. And no doubt one or two other folks are making it inCanada. But he’s the only person in this region who’s sculptingthese imaginative figures from old exhaust pipes.

A self-learner, Peter has been able to improve his technique as hegained experience. Rather than simply “slapping together” parts -which is the more common way of making sculptures – Peter hasput a lot of detail into them.“That’s how I started too,” he says. “Then I thought, let’s keep

going with it, let’s take it to the next level, let’s make it a little morelifelike-looking and do more detail with them.”He has come up with inventive designs like screws for eyes and

twisted wrought iron for fingers, curved pipes for animal tales orfor musical instruments like saxophones.Where does the material come from?

Clockwise from top left: Essex County chopper, purchasedfor the Tecumseh Road House; Elvis...donated to WindsorSeniors Group to be raffled off to raise money for charity;Superman...Man of Steel: a gift to Barry Zekelman; Peterand CTV’s Jim Crichton pose with Jim’s custom madesculpture; created for Herman High School to representNFL’s Oshiomogho Atogwe who attended Herman; the Me-chanical Charger Bull made from Dodge Charger mufflers;Peter with the scrap car parts used to weld together be-fore he brings his sculptures to life.

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“They’re old mufflers that are in goodshape,” he says. “So I save the muffler shell.That’s the face. There’s other car parts, allkinds of car parts on them. It just dependson the application.”Peter doesn’t go into an art store to buy

the tools of the trade. He finds them inthe back of his shop. They include welders,cutters, torches, grinders, saws.Peter also makes custom orders. He has

had a wide variety of customers. These couldbe businesses that want a mascot in theirshowrooms. Or sportsmen who want sculp-tures. Like a fly fisherman at his cottage inMuskoka. They can be gifts for kids for anyspecial occasion – graduation, a bar mitzvah.Peter especially loves dropping off his

finished creations personally. “I’ll go to aparty, I’ll drop it off and it’s great,” he says.“They’re taking pictures of me with it. It’sjust awesome, it’s so much fun.”Peter’s muffler sculptures have also been

in demand by charities. For instance, hemade a big pink ribbon sculpture for breastcancer awareness.It usually takes Peter about a day to make

a sculpture. He’ll work with a customer tofind the right look. Often this means goingon the Internet for a picture of, say, anadventure or action figure, “There’s like amillion images, right?” he says. “They pickone they like and I make it.”The sculptures can cost from a few hun-

dred to a few thousand dollars.Peter loves doing the work because it

shows off Windsor as an auto city wheremetal and iron are the raw materials thatmake the main industrial product. He sayshe also hopes his art puts the city “on themap.”Carolyne Rourke, president of theWind-

sor Endowment for the Arts, calls Peter’swork one of the best local examples of what’sknown as folk art.“Folk art relates to the parts of the com-

munity that highlights heritage, businesses,the real foundation of what the area’sabout,” she says.“For Peter’s work I think it fits in really

well. Peter’s using our history which is auto-mobiles (and) he’s taken all those parts andcombined them to make works of art whichare really another way of expression. It’s afun way of presenting who we are and Ithink he’s done it very, very well.”Carolyne, herself an artist, says Peter’s dis-

covery than he can sculpt is a lesson for usall. “I do believe everyone has that creativitywithin ourselves and it’s just a question ofhow we see and how we use it.” WL