Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
TOM CORBIN
Carving a New Life
Tom Corbin ditched an unfulfilling career to create a new future — in bronze.
BY KATHLEEN LEIGHTON
SOME ARTISTS TRAIN AT academies from a young age; others have bohemian or vagabond origins. Tom Corbin started out doing sales in the corrugated cardboard box industry. It may not have been the most glamorous beginning for an artist, but that didn’t stop him. Today, the work of this prolific Kansas City-based sculptor, whose delicate molded figures recall Giacometti’s figures, has been shown at some 20 galleries across the country.
Corbin, who studied marketing and business in school, had moved from cardboard sales to a career in the advertising industry. On a whim, he chose to enroll in an art class. “The sculpture class was the key that opened up that part of my life,” he says.
“I would have been miserable if I hadn’t taken the chance.” He ended up studying sculpture for four years. In 1986, he quit his job to dedicate his life to art.
Of course, plush commissions didn’t fall into Corbin’s lap. One of his first commissions was crafting bronze popcorn kernels for Vic’s Corn Popper, a gourmet popcorn company. He dutifully bought a bag and dumped it onto a table, hunting for the perfect kernel to sculpt. He calls it the “weirdest commission I ever had.”
But Corbin soon grew into his own. Inspired by the graceful, elongated figures of African art and attracted by the elegance of bronze, he developed his signature style. “A good friend of mine who is an artist told me that if someone is standing 100 feet away from one of your pieces, they should be able to say, ‘That’s a Tom Corbin,’” he says. “I think that’s true. An artist’s work should be distinctive.”
Hollywood has come knocking, too. Corbin’s sculptures have been featured in films including True Lies and A Perfect Murder and on television programs like “Top Design” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”
“They rent the sculptures for films and television shows,” Corbin says. “It’s always an out-of-body experience to watch a movie and see a famous actor walking past one of my sculptures.” Celebrity collectors include Tom Hanks, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ellen DeGeneres and Jack Nicholson, who purchased a glass-topped coffee table set in a bronze frame.
“I was surprised when I got that check, because his real name is John J. Nicholson,” Corbin says. “One of my friends told me to frame it, but I needed the money, so I cashed it.”
It looks like Corbin’s past career in sales and marketing isn’t that far behind him.
