Season 3 of Blown Away will premiere on Netflix on Friday, July 22, 2022. Blown Away Season 3 will introduce 10 new glassblowing participants who will compete for a $60,000 cash prize and a residence at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. Each week, the Blown Away participants will be assigned a subject, and their task will be to produce a one-of-a-kind creation by blowing glass. Each week, one design that does not meet up to the judges’ standards is removed.
Former Big Brother participant Nick Uhas will host 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 such contestant 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 spent more than three decades working with glass and has worked with the most skilled and recognized glass artists from throughout the globe. Rob was born in Miami but reared in Atlanta, where his mother was an art teacher. His father worked in the film business and was a photographer.
Rob grew raised in a creative atmosphere because of his parents’ vocations. 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 spirit aided his career in the glass sector greatly. His work has been shown throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States, among other places. Rob Stern Art Glass Inc., the Blown Away contestant’s workshop, debuted in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami in 2003, where Rob and his crew produce creative artworks that are commissioned, exhibited, and collected all over the globe.
Artist Statement by Rob Stern
The Blown Away participant said in his artist statement on his website:
“My aesthetic exists at the intersection of people and nature.” A gap between organic and angular that links the man-made to the pre-existing and everlasting universe. Here we begin to assess our viewpoint 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 stepping stones that help him better grasp life. The relationship between what he perceives and what he does influences his process and everyday life choices.
He stated in his statement:
“My continual attention to minutiae persuades me to replicate the intricacy of its simplicity.”
Education
The Blown Away candidate earned 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 at John Lewis Glass, an industrial casting company in Oakland, where he learned to be a metal fabricator and exceptional glass caster/cold worker.
He even spent a semester in Europe exploring glass manufacturing before enrolling at the Pilchuck Glass School in 1990. He continued his adventure as an apprentice and assistant to numerous masters and artists at Pilchuck. He also worked as a TA for Czech master Petr Novotny and spent two years as a designer and glass worker at the Czech glass manufacturers Huntig and Ajeto in 1992.
From novice to master
Rob Stern, a Blown Away Season 3 participant and glass artist, worked as a lecturer at the University of Miami from 1998 until 2004. He was also a studio manager at the institution, according to his résumé. He served as an interim professor at the University of Texas in Arlington in 2010. Over the previous 30 years, the Blown Away Season 3 candidate has visited leading glass colleges and progressed from a glass student to a master of the medium. He has also given 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 worked 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 with whom he has worked include pioneers of the modern studio glass movement.
