Interview

Jul 17

John Moran

John Moran is a politically and socially engaged hot glass sculptor, mixed media artist, co-founder of Gent Glas, and all around nice guy. He is an American currently living and working in Ghent, Belgium. Though he does not consider himself an academic, he has the accolades that say otherwise. He enjoys traveling, talking about art, good food, and pints with friends. He attained his BFA from Tyler School of Art, MFA from Illinois State University, and in 2021, his PhD from The Geppert Academy of Art and Design. Most recently, he participated in and won Blown Away Season 3, Netlfix’s competitive, glassblowing, reality tv show.

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I am a mixed media artist, who focuses mainly on working with glass. I am an American who has been living and working in Belgium for the past decade. In 2022, I competed in (and won) Netflix’s competitive glass blowing show, Blown Away Season 3. I am originally from Philadelphia. I grew up in a small row home just outside of the city. My father was a psychiatrist who worked closely with the poor and homeless in the city; my mother was a nurse who worked with premature born babies. So you can say interest in humanity and social issues runs in the family.
I remember the first time I saw the Étant Donnés by Duchamp at the Philadelphia Museum of Art when I was a child. From that moment on I wanted to be an artist. I began my artistic journey at Tyler School of Art as a painter and illustrator, but luckily I took a glass class. This class introduced me to the material for the first time and I saw the potential as a sculptural material, aside from that I was introduced to the amazing glass community.
The first thing that drew me to glass was the teamwork needed to make a piece. I came to glass from a painting background, which (for me at least) was a solo activity. The first time I walked into a glass studio, there was a community energy of people working together, talking together, and hanging out together – in and out of the studio. There is a kind of cult following for the material and I tried to distance myself from that for years, but recently have come to realize that it has been the entire focus of my adult life. The most exciting aspect of the process is the immediacy of the results. There is a lot of planning and thinking that goes into the preparation, but once you are in the process you must react to what is happening. All the planning can go perfectly or go right out the window. Besides, who can resist playing with fire all day?”

What inspires you?

“When I first started working with glass, most glass makers were focusing on traditional technique or organic glass sculptures. Then I saw a video of Pino Signoretto sculpting with glass and it opened up a world of possibilities. At that point (the late 90’s), there were very few glass artists sculpting figures, let alone realistically, because the technologies and techniques were still developing. Since it was such a ‘new’ medium or at least a new approach to the medium, the sculptors who were working were very open about their techniques and sharing their skills and developments. The most exciting part was that some of the techniques they were developing were really new to the world, things that had not been done before.
Conceptually speaking, society, pop culture, and our political structure all fascinate me. These themes run throughout my work. Typically I am inspired by a specific event or news story and that sparks a mental correlation that translates to an image. I am completely fascinated by how some themes resonate through time, with different ways of expressing similar ideas. With this in mind, I typically draw from well known (art) historical imagery, using different works as a base for expressing contemporary ideology.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“I am a very socially and politically engaged person. My work tends to question people’s ethics, behaviors and beliefs about the modern world around them. It is not necessarily meant to offer answers, but to spark conversation. I definitely see my work as a way to connect with people, but also as I get older I see a lot of personal reflection in the work. Coming from a very Catholic family, who are patriotic and conservative, I see now that a lot of my work is in conversation with them or reacting to a similar viewpoint. Most pieces begin with an event, something that has caused a media stir that devolves into ideological discussions based on moral subjectivity. So many of these discussions border on the absurd, and stray far from the real issues or a conversation about real solutions. I guess in the end, I am trying to come to terms with how we as a society, or a family for that matter, hold such oppositional viewpoints that coming to a common ground may never be possible.”

“My work tends to question people’s ethics, behaviors and beliefs about the modern world around them. It is not necessarily meant to offer answers, but to spark conversation.”

How would you describe your work?

“Pop-Political. Works of art that fall into the realm of society, politics, pop-culture, material, and craftsmanship.”

Which artists influence you most?

“It is always hard to name artists who influence me the most. It often depends heavily on the moment of my life or creative process. But I will list a few who have helped shape my way of thinking both creatively and aesthetically. Marcel Duchamp, Robert Gober, Tony Matelli, Pino Singoretto, Einar and Jamex De La Torre, Ross Richmond, William Morris, Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Mike Patton, Michaelangelo, Bernini, Madonna, Jon Clarke andWalt Disney to name a few.”

What is your creative process like?

“As I mentioned above, most pieces begin with an event, or some kind of absurd, ideological statement. Since living in Europe, my work has been called ‘very American.’ I always found it kind of funny, because most of the things that I am commenting on do not exist solely in America. A strange experience I have had in Belgium is that many people openly comment and criticize the states, but the moment I criticize Belgium, or Europe for that matter, even after having lived here for 8 years, people are defensive. America is surely not the ideal and perfect country, because that does not exist, but it was a land of dissenters or at least built on that ideology, that is of course, if you overlook the genocide and massacre of the societies that existed before the ‘discovery’ of the country. From this point, I am usually striving to draw a connection to something else, another artwork, historical fact, or pop culture relic.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“I believe that artists exist to illustrate how we see our society, in all of its glory and shortcomings. We see beauty in things that others do not and find a way to express that to those who can not see or hear it. Sometimes, I feel that we are becoming less and less connected to that role, as we are lost in the world of social media and AI. Honestly though, as these things progress, I believe that the role of the artist will become more prominent as we are able to distinguish ourselves and our vision from that artificial reality.”