MYSTIC — It's a pretty rare sight to walk into a restaurant and find Sylvester Stallone, Salvador Dali and Julia Roberts all together at one counter, but it's exactly what happened one morning last month on a visit to Go Fish, Jon Kodama's legendary sushi restaurant that moved from its 25-year home in the Olde Mistick Village to a stunning renovated space on Route One last year. The celebrities may not have been there in person, but it was their likenesses — in the form of portraits crafted from sushi — that were lined up on the counter this day, with their creator, longtime Sushi Chef Bryan "Maki Master" Sisk, standing shyly behind them. Sisk, 44, a Pawcatuck native with deep, far-reaching Stonington roots, is a lifelong artist and a self-proclaimed lefty.
"Just like my mother and grandmother," said Sisk with a warm smile. "We're all lefties and we're all self-taught." Sisk's mother, Evie Gentile, is a painter, and his grandmother, the late Evelyn Sayles Bagshaw, was an accomplished artist who specialized in oils.
While Sisk has created works of art with oils, acrylics and pastels, it's sushi, he said, that has become his new medium. He has created likenesses of dozens of celebrities, from Taylor Swift to Bob Marley, Joe Rogan to Dolly Parton and Martha Stewart to Lionel Mesi. He shares his work — and his process — on social media, and even has his own Maki Master You Tube channel ( https://www.
youtube.com/@Maki_Master ) full of short videos with names like "The Ti.