By Tania Blanich
Like many art lovers who call Fargo-Moorhead home, I’ve known Jon Offutt for about 40 years – years before he found his calling as a glass artist. But I’ve been collecting his blown glass work from the early days. We’ve had plenty of casual conversations over the years about his work and life. But talking to Jon about his exhibit, “Another Door Opens,” at Gallery 4 (through March 29) provided the opportunity to dig a little deeper into what has motivated him as an artist all these years and how he’s evolving as an artist.
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Advocacy
Best known for his colorful blown glass, Offutt has also been a strong arts advocate and leader in our community. Awarded the 2017 North Dakota Governor’s Award for the Arts in Individual Achievement, he’s also the mind and muscle behind Fargo-Moorhead Visual Artists’ annual Studio Crawl, which has been around for decades now.
Tania: Let’s start at the beginning. You’ve been an arts advocate and a leader in the arts community. How did that start?
Jon: Years ago, I was asked by the Lake Agassiz Arts Council [now The Arts Partnership] to serve on a citizen’s advisory panel. I was assigned to one of five initiatives: creating a voice for the individual artist. That’s what I’ve been doing for 20+ years. It led in 2003 to co- founding the Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists with Bob Kurkowski. I was a past president of LAAC and am a three-term member of the City of Fargo’s Arts and Culture Commission.
Tania: And you’ll once again be producing the 2025 Studio Crawl.
Jon: Yup, the 2025 Crawl will be the 22nd one I’ve produced as Managing Director of the FMVA. I thought I had 25 in me but it turns out I have 22. I’m already working with my successor to make the transition.
Artistry
As Offutt continues his work as an arts advocate in all the community, he’s adapting to new ways of producing his own creative work. Always having referred to himself as a glassblower, Offutt now identifies as a glass artist in order to account for his new fused glass artwork.
Tania: You’re now transitioning from a glassblower to a glass artist. You were already anticipating that transition in 2021, when you applied for (and received) a grant from The Arts Partnership to learn to make fused glass artwork. Why did you want to make that change?
Jon: I’ve had my right hip replaced twice. I knew years ago that I would be physically unable to continue the stand up, sit down, heavy lifting, very physical endeavor that glass-blowing is forever. Until this fall, I was still blowing glass, but my glass furnace needed some upgrades and I just couldn’t invest that much at this point in my career [running his hands over his grey-streaked beard]. So I’m still a glass artist but I’m no longer a glass blower. Luckily, the most strenuous part of fusing glass is opening the kiln, which I can do with one finger.
Tania: Can we assume that the title of your wonderful new exhibit, “Another Door Opens,” is a nod to that transition?
Jon: Absolutely. The exhibit highlights where my blown glass work is ending (one door closing) and where my fused work is beginning (another door opening).
‘I’m no longer playing with fire’
With the evolution of his technique, Offutt is able to find ways to express himself by making art on flat surfaces.
Tania: Can you explain the difference between blown and fused glass?
Jon: Blown glass starts as a molten pool gathered onto a pipe and then blown and shaped while on the end of the pipe. Fused glass starts as sheets that I cut and put in the kiln, where they melt or fuse together. I might take that thing and cut it again and fuse it again. That’s how I build up the images and patterns that I’m using – but the end product is flat, not 3-dimensional like blown glass.
Tania: Had you ever fused glass before?
Jon: No, I’d always been a glass blower. Frankly, the pool of hot glass is much more attractive, much more intriguing to me than a kiln. I no longer get to play with fire. Instead, I now put something in the oven and walk away. Hopefully it turns out to be the thing I wanted to create.
I spent a lot of time at the beginning just cutting glass triangles and rectangles just to figure out how to cut glass so the little point on the triangle doesn’t break off. I’m still learning, still working to resolve some issues.
Tania: Tell us about the imagery in your work.
Jon: It’s very unusual to see imagery in blown glass. You see color and pattern but not imagery. And I broke that tradition by doing landscapes in my blown glass work and am continuing to create landscapes in the flat work.
Tania: You’ve also been doing more geometric designs in the fused glass work.
Jon: I’ve been giving a lot of attention to quilting techniques, taking techniques that have been developed for cloth and using them for glass. For example, I’ve done a couple of barn stars and hexes.
‘Everything I need’
With so many decades of experience and success behind him and years of creative expression ahead, we couldn’t resist the temptation to ask Offutt a couple of final questions:
Tania: What would your young self would think about your career?
Jon: I think my young self would be OK with where I am. I did pretty much what I wanted and when I wanted to do it. What more is there? Being a glass artist has always given me everything I need.
Tania: I remember your young self being pretty exacting in the early days. You were loath to sell me a small piece (dated 1987) but I loved – and still do – the fact that it was slightly imperfect. Have you figured out how to let go of “perfection?”
Jon: No. I still don’t like mistakes, but occasionally I’ll have a happy accident that I’ll learn how to control and use as a tool or technique. That’s how you grow as an artist.
Tania: You said earlier that you did pretty much what you wanted [artistically]. It seems like you were lucky that that also translated into a healthy career financially.
Jon: Yeah, I’ve been very lucky. I’ve pretty much been able to leave the consumer out of the equation. I’ve always made work that fed me artistically, and if people liked it (which they did), they bought it. That’s not saying that economics hasn’t driven me sometimes. I made gourds and ornaments because they’re saleable items and I needed to pay my mortgage.
Tania: What’s something you would like people to know about glass?
Jon: It’s an amazing, amazing material and absolutely ubiquitous. Your whole world is seen through glass [indicating my eyeglasses] from the moment you get out of bed. Eyeglasses, tv screens, computer screens, microscopes, telescopes. All glass. I’d like to write the history of technology through glass.
Offutt’s work can be found at Dakota Fine Art in Fargo and Capital Gallery in Bismarck. Contact him at mulciberglass@hotmail.com.
Tania Blanich is the executive director of The Arts Partnership, a community-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting, advocating and promoting local arts nonprofits and artists.
