Starts with a kiss

Dan Corbin was 10 years old when he was first kissed by the art gods. It was 1956, and he was sitting in a room in his family’s newly rebuilt farmhouse as he surveyed the brand-new set of Encylopedia Brittanica when he was struck by an entry in the “S” volume. The sculpture section was illustrated with images from different eras throughout history, and when he first saw the works of the classical, something took hold that has yet to let go.

It was a most fortunate ephiphany for the young country boy. Nine months earlier, his family’s home and the many orchards of plum and peach trees they farmed in Sutter County were devastated in the Christmas Eve flood of 1955. It not only destroyed their way of life, but also tore his parents and their family apart. As Corbin puts it in the first chapter of his new memoir, Kiss of the Art Gods, “the creative and destructive forces that came to pass in that room would ultimately join within me and propel me.”

Corbin has had a 20-plus year run of making a living as an artist whose works have shown in galleries all over the country. His sculptures can fetch anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 and many have landed in the homes of celebrity chefs, NBA stars and even Sir Elton John.

This month, nine of Corbin’s sculptures (plus 14 paintings) will be on display at the Butte College Art Gallery, and in conjunction with the reception on Oct. 18, there will also be a book-signing for Kiss of the Art Gods. The title is, of course, a reference to what Corbin sees as the intervention of outside forces that have guided his artistic life.

In a recent interview in advance of the show/signing, Corbin told the CN&R that his main impetus for writing the book was to try and offer a “complete view of the artist.” The book tells his winding story—childhood, a stint in the Army, college, traveling the world, and returning to the North State—that led to the beginning of his professional art career in the mid-1990s.

It was in Chico in the early 1990s that Corbin developed the style that eventually led to his breakthrough into the art world. His life-size sculptures feature various industrial and natural materials—junkyard metal, twigs, perfume bottles, doll parts, etc.—placed in molds with cement to create uniquely textured, often post-apocalyptic-looking female and male bodies and torsos that are much more compelling than your average nudes.

“I deal with humans—their feelings and emotions” was Corbin’s simple explanation for what become his winning approach … that, and “rejection didn’t bother me.”

One of the main themes of the book is how the many lean years following the flood helped him deal with other difficulties that would arise. The hard times of being a starving artist making labor-intensive sculptures during Chico summers, and filling up his studio with works that wouldn’t sell, was nothing compared with what his family had gone through.

Thanks to a string of successful solo exhibits in Sacramento, Redding and New York between 1993 and 1997, Corbin eventually made it onto the radar of the art world and secured representation from various dealers that have kept him busy ever since.

These days, he’s living in orchards again, up in Los Molinos, where he makes art. Corbin has a sprawling group of studios on his property filled with the detritus of his trade, and while he still builds sculptures, he’s also painting more these days, putting in the work to keep the art gods happy and holding out hope that art can make the world a better place.

“I do believe that art is the super epoxy that holds the world together,” Corbin said. “It helps us get over barriers …. Once you feel the humanity of another culture, you let them in.”