A working artist and alumnus of Illinois State University has found some recent celebrity status by participating in a Netflix reality TV show. John Moran, MFA ’13, struck out the first time he applied to be part of the cast for season two of Blown Away, a reality glassblowing competition television series produced in Canada. Producers encouraged him to reapply for the following season. Spoiler alert: He won the top prize.
Moran, who has lived and worked in Belgium since 2013, said the experience was fun and a game changer for his work.
“I loved it,” he said. “It was a great time. It’s had a real positive impact.”
For example, Moran said, he’s been accustomed to doing whatever it took to pay the bills. That’s changed.
“It was pretty much me doing a bunch of jobs on the side while running a studio,” he said. “But doing the show gave my work a boost and propelled it from a third of my income to being most of my income now. I put a lot more effort into social media now, I’ve sold more of my work, and there are more interviews to do.”
This fall he’ll be back in the U.S. for artist residencies, which he said, even though they were previously scheduled, have gained some traction in the level of interest since he won the show. His reality TV adventure came about in a straightforward way.
“There’s chatter in the glass world when they do a call for a show like this, so we all find out about it,” Moran said. “They have casting scouts, and it’s reality TV, so they want an interesting cast.”
The genre thrives on some tension between contestants, but Moran said the collaborative nature of the art form of glass blowing makes that difficult to find.
“The producers didn’t know much about the glass community before,” he said. “There’s no conflict among us. I’m still in touch with the other nine contestants in a message group. We hung out every night and had dinner. It was sad to see friends go when they were voted off.”
Moran said even though cast members stayed in a nice hotel and were paid per episode, they faced a challenging shooting schedule near Toronto. It took about nine weeks to complete with only two days off during that time. And once he had won, he couldn’t tell anyone, not even family.
“Yeah, you win and then go radio silent for months and months,” he said. “There’s about three months where nothing happened, and you start to wonder, ‘What if the show doesn’t get picked up?’”
Eventually, the show aired in Canada before it went to Netflix, and Moran’s prize package worth $60,000 arrived. But until then it was hard to keep the news of his win to himself. Among the contestants, only the top three finishers knew who had won.
Moran, 42, is a native of the Philadelphia area. He came to Illinois State because he was a fan of the work of Associate Professor John Miller of the Wonsook Kim School of Art.
“John Miller is a big glass name. I went to ISU for him mainly. He has a great work ethic, is always showing his work, and is involved in the international community. He takes part in exhibitions and workshops while teaching full time. He brings a lot of energy.”
John Moran
“John Miller is a big glass name,” Moran said. “I went to ISU for him mainly. He has a great work ethic, is always showing his work, and is involved in the international community. He takes part in exhibitions and workshops while teaching full time. He brings a lot of energy.”
Moran had been a painter and illustrator when friends recommended that he take a glass class. It changed everything.
“I fell in love with it almost immediately,” he said. “I love the teamwork and the collaborative nature of it. ISU is a heavy program, over three years, but it was nice to have that time to focus. Finding my aesthetic took a while.”
Moran is fearless in incorporating social and political commentary in his work, which seems natural to him.
“People think my work is controversial, but I’m really just commenting on what’s happening, just being observational,” he said. “There’s a lot of craziness in the world right now.”
He’s looking forward to a residency he’s been invited to at the Pittsburgh Glass Center in his home state beginning this October. It will include the top three finishers from Blown Away Season 3, and they plan to work to work together on some projects.
“There will be an exhibition of what we create together and individually that will follow in the spring of 2023,” he said.
Moran remains proud of his fellow artists, the close-knit bonds that tie them together, and the civility and decency viewers saw watching them interact on television.
“It’s just a great community,” he said. “It wasn’t a competition at all. We were working together.”
