profile of a stein artist

Published in The Post-Star (D1)
11/14/05

His parents wanted him to be a lawyer. He wanted to be Van Gogh.

Then Tom O'Brien became something no one predicted: a stein sculptor.

He's created more than 34 ceramic steins for Avon in the last two decades, with commemorative themes that range from cougars to the U.S. Postal Service. They're "tchotske," he admits, but collectors snatch them up by the tens of thousands each year.

"Am I going to argue with what sells?" he said. "My favorite artist is Van Gogh, but he never sold a painting in his life."

O'Brien got into the business through a chance encounter in the mid-1980s, after he left a job as an advertising art director to become a freelance illustrator. Then a neighbor stopped by his home to sign some real estate paperwork, and noticed "Hercules," one of O'Brien's first sculptures.

"He said, 'Would you like to work for me?'" O'Brien recalled. He took the job at a commercial studio which designed decanters and beer steins for Avon. His steins proved so successful that he soon began working with Avon on his own.

"It was more like 'Oh, great, a job!' than 'I'm so happy to make steins!'" he explained. "But it was kind of fun, and I enjoyed the fact that it made more money than most other jobs."

Making a stein takes about two months, from the drawing board to the final mold. O'Brien turns the wood for the stein's base on a lathe in his basement, then applies clay and sculpts it into a detailed relief. He sends a urethane cast of this to Ceremarti in Brazil, the world's largest stein manufacturer, which makes the final ceramic product.

Avon stopped calling on O'Brien three years ago when it decided to switch to "licensed steins," replacing his unique creations with celebrity-themed tankards made by Anheuser-Busch.

That gave O'Brien more time to pursue his true passion -- portraiture.

"I love portraiture more than any other aspect of art, because I can say what the subject feels about themselves, and what I feel about them," he said. "I try to express their personality using only their face."

He uses the skills he learned from stein-making to create "portraits in relief," in which three-dimensional faces emerge from a flat backdrop that can be hung like a painting. His subjects are typically friends, neighbors, and family members.

Currently, he's working on a terra cotta relief sculpture of a young girl named Sophie, his friends' granddaughter. He chose to depict her as a mermaid with two faces. One has a giddy grin; the other a menacing pout.

"She has such a dramatic personality, and I wanted to show that," he explained. "She can change her mood in an instant."

Avon had a change of mood this year, too. The company brought back one of O'Brien's steins in its latest holiday catalog. This one depicts animals from the African Serengeti, including lions, elephants, and zebras.

Now 70, O'Brien's life is full of art. He lives in Hadley with his wife of 36 years, Renee O'Brien, an artist best known for her work with a pinhole camera. Their small home includes one studio for Renee's paintings and photographs, and two more for Tom's portraits and steins.

The couple met in art school, and lived in Long Island until six years ago.
Their son, Aaron, is a lawyer.

"How do these things happen?" joked O'Brien.
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