Ryan Thompson: From Blown Away 4 to Huron Street Studio

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Those who watched to completion the hit Netflix competition series Blown Away 4, will no doubt remember Ryan Thompson’s final gallery installation, Where You Are is Where You Need to Be. In all black glass, he created large vessel forms that served as sentinels to the recording of time. A blown glass pendulum in the center of the room recorded each moment in a footed reliquary of white sand below it. Its existential message spoke to the viewer silently. Permanently.

Thompson states: “This installation was created to satisfy a need to slow down, contemplate, and analyze my artistic path and my creative process. The unnatural pace at which Blown Away required its competitors to conceptualize and create caused a mental fatigue unlike anything I had ever felt. As difficult as this experience was, my journey as an artist has never been a straight line, and whether an experience has been positive or negative in the moment, in the end, it was exactly what it was supposed to be. Where You Are is Where You Need to Be is a space created to meditate and reflect on my trajectory both as a person and as an artist.”

Hailing from Sandusky, Ohio, near the shores of Lake Erie, Thompson and his sister Leah grew up with a love of the outdoors, sports, and all things creative. These interests were endlessly nurtured by their parents Jim and Kathy Thompson. Ryan’s passion for music began in the 5th grade when a group of friends with a band needed a drummer. His love for music and percussion remains today.

After completing high school, Thompson attended Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Bowling Green, Ohio, to study Visual Communication Technology, a degree program he found to be lacking in creative freedom and excitement. In his third year, he enrolled in an Intro to Glass Blowing course on the recommendation of a friend, and the trajectory of his life was altered forever.

For the next 3 years, Thompson poured every ounce of his energy into learning to control his molten material. The example of excellence in this craft demonstrated by his peers and instructors such as Scott Darlington set the bar of achievement high. He focused on fundamental skills in the form of vessel and goblet making, utilizing the Venetian processes and techniques he found most exciting and inspirational.

After graduation, Thompson began working at the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion as a studio artist and workshop instructor, as well as a production glassblower at many local glass shops in the birthplace of the Studio Glass Art movement. During his time in Toledo, the artist was fortunate to work with many world-renowned glass artists, honing his skills and expanding his network of colleagues in this community-orientated profession.

In 2018, Thompson accepted a production glassblowing position at Greenfield Village (The Henry Ford Museum) in Dearborn, Michigan. The job allowed Ryan to continue to broaden his skill set and expand on his experience as a production glassmaker. In 2021, he was promoted to shop lead and began coordinating the team’s production efforts, designing new product and maintaining the equipment that makes glass blowing possible.

After participating in Blown Away 4, on May 1, Thompson relocated back to Toledo, Ohio, and became the new owner and operator of Gathered Glass, a public glass studio that offers hand-made glass, glassblowing workshops, and public events in the heart of The Glass City. This opportunity is something he has dreamt about for the last decade and is hard at work making the business his own. Thompson’s partner, Kayla Kirk of Charmed Ceramics, is in the process of building a pottery studio on the second floor that will offer similar programming as well as hand crafted pottery for the home. The studio will be renamed Huron Street Studio and will celebrate its Grand Opening at 23 N. Huron St. in downtown Toledo, September 14, 2024.

Thompson will also participate in an Artist Residency at the Museum of Glass Tacoma from October 9 – 13, 2024.