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Jason Mack Interview
by bnstyle staff
How long have you been blowing glass?
8 years
How’d you get into it?
My mom got me into it. It was a Saturday afternoon and she asked me if I wanted to go to a bead making class with 7 of her friends. I was in high school at the time, 17 years old. 6 months later I set up a studio in the basement.
Are you self-taught?
I was self taught the first few years then took classes. I came to ISU and took the glass blowing program for year and a half. I recently graduated ISU with a B.S. in studio arts. I also went to Italy for a short time to study with master glass blowers there.
Describe your work in a sentence.
“do what you can with what you have”
What do you make?
Large installations mostly using hot glass.
What is hot glass?
Hot glass is when you create an installation in front of an audience. I use a combination of materials like wood, steel, plastic and other things. I do live installations because I like people to see how its made, it adds meaning to work and helps people understand how it works.
What materials do you use?
75 lb pot furnace to melt the glass. We collect glass bottles around Bloomington Normal bars. Then we crush those bottles down and melt them in the furnace. We need to collect 400 pounds of bottles before a performance
You had an art show recently, tell me about some of the more popular exhibits.
It’s called “storm clouds”. I suspended 3 shopping carts from the ceiling and poured hot glass in shopping carts. The glass went through the shopping carts and then rained down on the floor. This was done while the band “Ohtis” was playing live. Music is large part of installations.
What is the biggest piece of art you’ve made?
Recently a land mass of glass of 1200 pounds. We spent 7 days on it. It’s made out of 900 pounds of insulator caps which we collected around Bloomington and then melted down.
Where can we see your work?
Mackglass.com., check out our webpage for more details.
Any advice for other glass artists?
It’s cheaper to melt bottles.
How long have you been blowing glass?
8 years
How’d you get into it?
My mom got me into it. It was a Saturday afternoon and she asked me if I wanted to go to a bead making class with 7 of her friends. I was in high school at the time, 17 years old. 6 months later I set up a studio in the basement.
Are you self-taught?
I was self taught the first few years then took classes. I came to ISU and took the glass blowing program for year and a half. I recently graduated ISU with a B.S. in studio arts. I also went to Italy for a short time to study with master glass blowers there.
Describe your work in a sentence.
“do what you can with what you have”
What do you make?
Large installations mostly using hot glass.
What is hot glass?
Hot glass is when you create an installation in front of an audience. I use a combination of materials like wood, steel, plastic and other things. I do live installations because I like people to see how its made, it adds meaning to work and helps people understand how it works.
What materials do you use?
75 lb pot furnace to melt the glass. We collect glass bottles around Bloomington Normal bars. Then we crush those bottles down and melt them in the furnace. We need to collect 400 pounds of bottles before a performance
You had an art show recently, tell me about some of the more popular exhibits.
It’s called “storm clouds”. I suspended 3 shopping carts from the ceiling and poured hot glass in shopping carts. The glass went through the shopping carts and then rained down on the floor. This was done while the band “Ohtis” was playing live. Music is large part of installations.
What is the biggest piece of art you’ve made?
Recently a land mass of glass of 1200 pounds. We spent 7 days on it. It’s made out of 900 pounds of insulator caps which we collected around Bloomington and then melted down.
Where can we see your work?
Mackglass.com., check out our webpage for more details.
Any advice for other glass artists?
It’s cheaper to melt bottles.
