Sachi Yanari-Rizzo, Research Curator
Preston Singletary’s art synthesizes his artistic training in studio glass and cultural background. His works here at FWMoA span the timeline of his career. Born in San Francisco and raised in Seattle, Preston Singletary is a Tlingit tribal member, which is from southeastern Alaska. Singletaryโs first introduction to glass art was at age 15 in 1979 by his friend, and now accomplished glass artist, Dante Marioni, son of glass artist Paul Marioni. Through Dante, Singletary began working at Glass Eye Studio in Seattle, mainly to financially support his aspirations of being a rock musician. Over four years working at the studio, Singletary learned the basics of glass blowing and met the revered Italian master Lino Tagliapietra in 1983.
Singletaryโs long relationship with Pilchuck Glass School commenced the following year, which gave him the opportunity to study with and assist a range of glass artists, including Tagliapietra, Checco Ongaro, Pino Signoretto, Dan Dailey, Benjamin Moore, and Richard Royal. Singletary met Tony Jojola and Larry Ahvakana, who both encouraged him to explore his Tlingit ancestry in his art. Woodcarver David Svenson who studied Tlingit art also reinforced this.
Singletary furthered his education through travel to learn about glass traditions in Japan, Europe, and Sweden where he encountered the minimalistic beauty of Scandinavian design and met his future wife and designer, ร sa Sandlund.
In 1988, Singletary began explorations in glass that embraced his Tlingit heritage by following traditional Northwest Coast designs that would have been carved into wood. As his understanding of the art form, stories, and their meanings deepened, the artist felt the freedom to interpret them and create his own vocabulary. His work provides continuity, by referencing symbols and stories, while also adding to the tradition.
Sea Monster (1999) retains the essence of Northwest Coast art in content, form, and color. He explained, โThe design is inspired by a Sea-Wolf, a mythical sea creature. . . This is a story of a man who captured a whale, skinned it and would be able to secretly wear the skin, swim in the water and catch fish for his village.โ[1] Known to the Haida people as Wasgo, this figure is called Gonakadet by the Tlingit people.
Two-dimensional art of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples of southeast Alaska shares distinctive design elements. Formlines, coined by art historian Bill Holm in 1965, are contours that curve, swell, and taper, usually in black. These bold lines create ovoids and U-shapes that form the subject. Secondary lines, often in red, fill in areas and complete the shapes. Other common resulting motifs include circles, crescents, and trigons (triangles with concave sides).
Singletary chose to work on a shallow bowl, which provided an ample working surface for his sea monster subject. He used both black and orange glass, perhaps alluding to the use of black for the primary formline and red for the interior, secondary elements in Northwest Coast art. Using characteristic shapes, fish encircle the curling body of the creature, which is recognizable by the frontal eye and tail finโall part of the story.
Although wood, not glass, is part of Tlingit sculptural traditions, Singletaryโs glass works still speak to the reductive method of carving. Singletary covers the cooled, blown glass form with a rubber resist tape on which he draws the designs and then cuts away negative space areas, essentially making a stencil. The artist removes glass in the unmasked parts with a high-pressure sandblasting tool. In the case of Raven Steals the Stars (2008), sand carving removes the thin black layer to reveal reddish orange glass.
Glass is the perfect medium (and metaphor) to enhance the theme of transformation, which is important in Northwest Coast art and Singletaryโs work. His subjects are often shapeshifters or tricksters, so aptly named for their ability to take on different personas in the stories. Glass also possesses a transformative quality as it goes between molten and solid states. Just as the artist makes these stories come to life through art, Singletary animates his sculptures through the changing qualities of light.
There are various versions of stories about the trickster Raven, but Raven Steals the Stars (2008) is part of a creation story. At the beginning of time, the white-colored Raven named Yรฉil arrived to find earth and its people in darkness. He learned that the man Naas Shaak aan Kรกawu hid the lightโthe stars, moon, and sunโin boxes at his clan house. Raven morphed into a fleck of dirt first and then a hemlock needle in the river to be unnoticeable to the manโs daughter when she ladled water to drink. Once consumed, she became pregnant and Raven was born as a human. Now a mischievous boy, Raven opened the boxes and released the stars, moon, and sun, bringing daylight to earth. This sudden lifting of darkness resulted in people scattering to the woods, sea, and air and becoming the animals found there. Those remaining on the land were the Tlingit people. Reverting to his original form, Raven was held over the fire by the enraged man, turning Raven black.
In Raven Steals the Stars, Singletary focused on his head and beak, which holds a disc decorated with stars, with matching stars in his eyes. Ravenโs profile is simplified to a V shape, and the artist also simplified his palette to two colorsโblack and reddish orange.
Light and shadows engage with space in Singletaryโs glass sculptures, but he goes a step further by adding a kinetic element in Lost in the Forest (2019). In the 1930s, American sculptor Alexander Calder pioneered the mobile and stabile with balanced configurations of brightly colored, abstract shapes that are set in motion by air currents or motors. Calling to mind a Calder stabile, Singletary configured metal tree twigs that suspend a clear and a red orb (perhaps the moon and sun) that float around the animal-base. Singletary refers to this work as an example of his โโmodernistโ influence.โ[2] His streamline, reductive shapes share an affinity with early 20th century modernists, like Calder, Isamu Noguchi, and mid-century artists who looked to sources like Native American art for inspiration.
Singletaryโs interest, however, is not only exploring abstraction as a visual language. Lost in the Forest (2019) was part of the artistโs solo exhibition entitled Illuminated Forest at Traver Gallery. It included sculptures from Tlingit stories about the forest and its inhabitantsโanimals, flora, and shaman. Singletary commented, “This piece is inspired by the myth of Land otters who are known in Tlingit culture to steal the souls of drowned individuals or ones who are lost in the woods. They then transform the people they capture into land otters as well.โ[3]
Some traditional Northwest Coast art materials are growing scarce, and Singletary sees glass as an exciting alternative. Wood, cedar bark, and spruce root are used to create totem poles, baskets, and crest hats, a repeated form throughout his career. The artist refutes the idea that Indigenous art is static when he stated, โMy work challenges the notion that Native artists must only use traditional materials. By embracing glass as a storytelling medium, I seek to affirm our presence and identity, reinforcing that Indigenous cultures are dynamic, evolving, and rooted in resilience. Through my art, I strive to amplify Indigenous voices, ensuring that we are seen, heard, and recognized on our own terms.โ[4]
Singletary, often called an ambassador of glass, has encouraged more Indigenous artists to use glass. Through teaching and collaboration, he has worked withย Native American, Hawaiian, Mฤori, and Australian Aboriginal artists. A joint glass work with Santa Clara Pueblo potter, Tammy Garcia is also in the collection. Singletary recognizes master carver Joe David as an important influence and mentor. He stated, โJoe impressed upon me that once you become a keeper of cultural knowledge it becomes a responsibility.โ[5]
Likewise, Singletary continued to find time to pursue his early love of music by co-founding the band Khu.รฉexโ, a collective of members of the Tlingit, Haida, and Blackfoot tribes. Their music brings together, jazz, funk, and rock with spoken word in English, Tlingit, Haida and Yโupic languages.ย
To see glass by Singletary and other fine artists, visit the FWMoA Glass Wing!
[1] Preston Singletary Studio, email message to author, July 7, 2026.
[2] Preston Singletary Studio, email message to author, April 14, 2026.
[3] Ibid.
[4] โAristโs Statement,โ Preston Singletary, accessed July 30, 2026, https://www.prestonsingletary.com/about.
[5] Melissa G. Post, Steven Clay Brown, and Walter C. Porter, Preston Singletary: echoes, fire, and shadows (Tacoma: Museum of Glass in association with University of Washington Press, 2009), 19.