Renowned bronze sculptor has roots in the Miami Valley

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To learn more about this famous Dayton native buy “Tom Corbin the Inevitable Artist” at amazon.com or go online to www.corbinbronze.com.

Bronze sculptor Tom Corbin was celebrated in KC Magazine this past June as one of Kansas City’s “famous, handsome” men, along with the likes of Paul Rudd, Brad Pitt and Tom Watson. But his roots lie in Dayton.

He is a 1972 Centerville High School graduate, and he majored in marketing at Miami University-Oxford.

“My first job out of college was selling corrugated boxes for a company called Owens Illinois out of Toledo,” said Corbin, who had to move to Kansas City to take that job. “Then in the late ’80s I began designing bronze furniture, and I actually used two of those boxes to take the pieces up to Chicago.”

That first job became just a memory after his newfound passion for working with bronze took off in a new direction with sculpted figures. Now, celebrities who collect his work include Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman and Jack Nicholson. Corbin and his wife, Susie, recently moved his Kansas City studio to a repurposed fire station, complete with a working pole.

“We’ve been really fortunate,” Corbin said. “We found this firehouse that was 100 years old, and moved there after refurbishing it for a year in November of 2009.

They created a beautiful outdoor sculpture garden there that shows off Corbin’s creations in a gated yard. The bronze sculptor is known for his figural work of women with long, elegant legs.

“I was initially influenced by African art and Alberto Giacometti’s work. He had a piece within the last five years up for auction that sold for 110 million dollars,” Corbin said.

He has been so successful with his art that he now employs an office manager, a production manager and a marketing director.

“Tom is one the nicest people I could ever imagine working for,” said marketing manager Julia Velasquez, who’s been working for him for the past 10 years. “This is my dream job; I’m incredibly lucky to be part of this company.”

I guess you can take a Midwest boy out of Ohio, but you can’t take away his hometown charm. Corbin remembers his art teacher Donna Clark at Hithergreen when he was in seventh grade.

“She gave me my first one-man show,” he said. “It just shows if you follow your passion, you can achieve success and actually look forward to going to work every day.”