A native of rural northern Minnesota, John Olesen is a glassblower who has a special talent for combining form and color to create pieces of glass that are functional as well as beautiful.

John has been interested in art as long as he can remember.  In childhood, he loved spending time creating ice and snow sculptures and painting on the walls and pipes in his basement.  Influenced by colorful summers working in carnivals, he discovered exciting subject matter for photography and drawing.  When he began college, he found that a wonderfully equipped art department brought his creative interests together and here revealed his natural gift for glassblowing.  This new interest led him to an apprenticeship at a glass studio located in the Catskill Mountains of New York state.  After that he switched coasts, moving to Santa Barbara to share the operation of a glass studio and gallery.  He returned to Minnesota to study art at the University of Minnesota and to marry his wife, Kathy.  During this time he worked in the healthcare industry and while he was very successful in this field, it did not fulfill his desire to create.  After exploring a few ideas, he and his wife decided to form White Pine Studio and move back into the country.  John and Kathy now reside in the hills of beautiful Otter Tail County where John has built his studio and he can pursue his creative interests full-time.  Here he has found an active and vibrant arts community where he has served on the Board of Directors at the New York Mills Cultural Center and is an active member of Art of the Lakes.  His studio is open to the public, and John can often be found doing glassblowing demonstrations for the community as well as the numerous tourists that stop by. 

His work can be found in both public and private collections.