Tom Mosser
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Tom Mosser’s earliest recollection of drawing as a child was sketching football players in first grade - “I remember kids crowding around me and asking me to draw their favorite Pittsburgh Steeler. I’m still drawing Steelers.”

It was a natural pairing of two of Tom’s favorite passions, sports and art. Growing up in sports-crazed central Pennsylvania, he couldn’t help but to be attracted to it - he played sports, followed sports and, ultimately, drew sports. As a teenager, he created cover art for several of the local newspaper’s annual football preview issues.

Later, Tom attended Penn State University, where he immediately began doing freelance work for Penn State’s Sports Information office, completing twelve publication covers for Penn State’s SID office before he graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts. During this time, Pennsylvania’s teams provided plenty of material for private commissioned work. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies fielded great squads (and seemed to trade division titles yearly), the football rivalry between Penn State and Pitt Universities was raging, and it seemed like the Pittsburgh Steelers were in the Super Bowl every year.

Tom moved to Pittsburgh in the late ‘80’s, a time when the Pittsburgh Steelers were incredibly popular, and both the Pirates and Penguins were building championship teams with Barry Bonds and Mario Lemieux. Turning down a job with the Sporting News, Tom instead chose to work for the Pittsburgh Pirates as their team mascot, the Pirate Parrot, from 1987 through 1996. This unusual occupation afforded him numerous contacts in the baseball world, as well as time to continue honing his artistic skills.

In the mid ‘90’s, portraits of Roberto Clemente, Honus Wagner, Mario Lemieux and Mark MacGuire won Tom four national sports art awards sponsored by Beckett Publications. He had two sports-related one-man shows, including 1994's "The Art of Sport", at the prestigious Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. He also produced numerous limited edition Pittsburgh Penguin prints through Maser Galleries of Pittsburgh, and his artwork was featured on media guide covers for both the Pirates and Baltimore Orioles.

In 2000, Tom was commissioned by the Pirates and HOK Sport to create a 75 ft. x 4½ ft., three-panel mural that is currently on display in the lobby of the Pirates’ administration offices at PNC Park. In 2005 Tom, along with artist Sarah Zeffiro, was commissioned by The Sprout Fund to complete a 30 ft. x 30 ft. mural in downtown Pittsburgh, entitled “The Two Andy’s.”

Tom, who draws and paints with both hands, hasn’t limited himself to sports art alone. He is an accomplished landscape painter, portrait painter, cartoonist and caricaturist, and was awarded Harvard Magazine’s Illustrator of the Year award in 2005.

But Tom’s first art love is still sports, and his knowledge of the subject is vital to his work. “It’s reassuring to sport art clients not to have to do a lot of explaining to me when discussing a commissioned sports-related piece. We can go straight to talking about the piece’s composition and style. And they’ll be collaborating with someone who loves his work.”

COLLECTIONS
Athlete Commissions include:
Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Paul Coffey, Mark Recchi, Ulf Samuelsson, Kevin Stevens, Joe Paterno, JackHam, Bubby Brister, Mel Blount, Rocky Blier, Mike Zordich, Jason Kendall, Bobby Bonilla, John Smiley, Andy Van Slyke, Mike LeValliere, Doug Drabek, Jay Bell, and Jose Lind.

Corporate Works & Commissions include:
Baltimore Orioles, Bio Tech, Beckett Publications, Butler Institute of American Art, Czarnowski Display, Dapper Dan, Fox 53, FreeMarkets, Heinz Corporation., HOK Sport, Invesmart Corporation, Maser Publications, Mellon Bank, New York Giants, NFL Alumni Association, Paradiso Group, Pennsylvania State University Sports Information Office, PMI, Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Penguins, Reed Smith Law, SMG Corporation, Sprout Fund, Thrift Drug Corporation, and USX.

EDUCATION
B.F.A. in Fine Art, Pennsylvania State University, 1982