Season 3 of Blown Away will premiere on Netflix on Friday, July 22, 2022. Blown Away Season 3 introduces 10 new glass-blowing contestants competing for a $60,000 cash prize and a residency at New York’s Corning Museum of Glass. Each week, the Blown Away contestants are assigned a topic and their task is to create a unique creation by blowing glass. Each week, a design that does not meet the judges’ standards is removed.
Former Big Brother contestant Nick Uhas presents Season 3 of Blown Away. Katherine Gray, a glass artist, will join Uhas as the show’s resident assessor. Each contestant is an expert in their field, and the competition is fraught with high stakes and tension. One of those participants is 53-year-old Rob Stern, who has more than 30 years of experience.
Rob Stern, a Blown Away contender with 30 years of experience
Rob Stern, the most experienced Blown Away Season 3 candidate, has worked with glass for over three decades, working with the most skilled and recognized glass artists from around the world. Rob was born in Miami but grew up in Atlanta, where his mother was an art teacher. His father worked in the film industry and was a photographer.
Rob grew up in a creative atmosphere because of his parents’ callings. He attended Northside High School of Performing Arts, where he was an active member of international singing, acting and dancing groups. Stern was also an athlete who enjoyed rock climbing, skating and surfing in addition to regular sports. His enthusiasm and daring have helped his career in the glass sector enormously. His work has been shown in Europe, Asia and the United States, among other places. Rob Stern Art Glass Inc., the Blown Away participant’s workshop, debuted in 2003 in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District, where Rob and his team create creative artworks that are commissioned, exhibited and collected around the world.
Artist Statement by Rob Stern
The Blown Away contestant said in his artist statement on his website:
“My aesthetic exists at the intersection of man and nature.” A gap between organic and angular that connects the man-made connection to the pre-existing and eternal universe. Here we begin to assess our point of view and consider our sense of our location in the world, which is always changing as space, light and time evolve.
Stern sees his artistic activities as springboards that help him better understand life. The relationship between what he perceives and what he does influences his process and daily life choices.
He stated in his statement:
“My constant attention to detail convinces me to replicate the complexity of its simplicity.”
Education
The Blown Away candidate received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from San Francisco State University in 1989 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Miami in 2003. He then spent five years as an apprentice to John Lewis Glass, a industrial foundry in Oakland, where he learned to become a metalworker and exceptional glass foundry/cold worker.
He even spent a semester in Europe exploring glass production before enrolling at the Pilchuck Glass School in 1990. He continued his adventure as an apprentice and assistant to numerous masters and artists in Pilchuck. He also worked as a TA for the Czech master Petr Novotny and in 1992 worked for two years as a designer and glassworker at the Czech glass manufacturers Huntig and Ajeto.
From beginner to master
Blown Away Season 3 contestant and glass artist, Rob Stern taught at the University of Miami from 1998 to 2004. According to his resume, he was also a studio manager at the institution. He was an interim professor at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2010. Over the past 30 years, the Blown Away Season 3 candidate has attended leading glass lectures and progressed from a glass student to a master of the medium. He has also delivered seminars and demonstrations at prestigious glass schools, including Penland School of Crafts, The Glass Furnace and Pilchuck Glass School.
Over the years, the glass artist has also collaborated with many other artists, including Libenski/Bryctova in 1997, Italo Scanga in 1995 and Bob Carlson in 2000. Dale Chihuly, William Morris, Martik Blank, Richard Royal, Richard Jolly, Dante Marioni , and many more artists he has worked with are pioneers of the modern studio glass movement.
