ARTIST

The past thirty years Tom Torrens has strived to produce quality designed functional works of art from recycled and industrial materials, which are pleasing to the senses.

Mr. Torrens comes from a family of successful artists and educators:  his mother, an art instructor; his father, a professor of world history; his uncle, a graphic designer; and his sister, an illustrator of wild flowers.   Mr. Torrens’ son has studied sculpture, photo video, design and animation and has followed a career in the arts as well.

Mr. Torrens received his masters degree in sculpture from Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri In 1986 he and his wife founded Tom Torrens Sculpture Design lnc.® to create functional art accessories for the home and garden. Today the designs of Tom Torrens can be found all over the world.   “I want my sculpture to address as many of the viewer’s senses and emotions as possible. The design elements in my work are reduced to their simplest most direct and refined form. Only in this way can the beauty, sound and visual integrity of the design be fully experienced.”

Mr. Torrens work developed from his desire to use recycled material and found objects and wanting to add various elements of sound and touch to the viewer’s senses.  His fountains and birdbaths, impressive in their static state, take on an added dimension with the sounds of splashing, rippling water. The wistful expressive tones of his bells and gongs play homage to some distant land.  His most recent works have lead to the design of contemporary world globe stands and liturgical appointments.

Works Iron, The Torrens Collection have been sold in fine craft galleries, elegant nurseries, catalogues and major retail stores in the United States such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Nature Company, Discovery Channel Stores, Rand NcNally Map and Travel Stores, Pier I, National Geographic, Sundance Catalogue, Museum Collection Catalogue, Gumps, Horschow and Gardeners Eden Catalogues. Mr. Torrens’ works are also sold in France, The United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Mexico.

Mr. Torrens’ patrons use his works to enhance their homes and gardens to provide a peaceful, artistic, as well as a functional element to their immediate surroundings.  Mr. Torrens’ bells and gongs are found in American homes used as entry gongs or doorbells to announce the arrival of guests.  Bells have always been part of American history, as well as world history, to signal important events and arrival of guests. Bells are also used in important religious ceremonies.  The Torrens bells can he found in many churches and temples throughout the United States.  The Torrens Collections currently include various wall and free standing bells, gongs, birdbaths, re-circulating fountains, and world globes. The primary materials are formed steel and hand spun copper.

Mr. Torrens most popular world globe designs are licensed to Replogle Globes, Inc. of Chicago, Illinois. CJ V Associates of Schaumburg, Illinois distributes three of the Tom Torrens designs co-branded under National Geographic for the mass market.  Mr. Torrens continues to play an active role in the hand-made techniques used by their craftsmen.   Mr. Torrens maintains an active production studio that focuses on product design for his major clients.  He also produces limited production designs, custom work, liturgical and corporate commissions handcrafted from his Pacific Northwest Studio. The quality of the Torrens Collections speaks for itself.