Celebrating themes of transformation, heritage, and nature, glass artist Preston Singletary (Tlingit) has become a national figure within the Northwest Native glass art movement.
Ravens. Eagles. Totem poles. Think Northwest Native glass art and his name springs to mind. With his global reputation, glass artist Preston Singletary (Tlingit) stands front and center in Seattle’s celebrated studio glass movement. His pieces range from blown and sand-carved glass tabletop sculptures to massive multisensory installations — and you’ll find them in museums from Seattle to Alaska, Massachusetts to France, Sweden to Scotland.
Inspired by his Tlingit roots, Singletary reinterprets Native American art in glass sculptures carved with the curving arcs of the Northwest coastal Indigenous formline design. Transformation is inherent in the work. When light hits the luminous glass, it can seem alive, as if with a spirit inside. “Glass changes when the sun hits it and makes it very dynamic,” he says. “It’s also transforming the cultural art.”
Stillness, blown and sand-carved glass, 19" x 9.5" x 8".
Singletary grew up in Seattle, learning about his heritage from his Tlingit great-grandmother, who passed on her culture to her family in the traditional matrilineal way, relocated the family from Alaska to Seattle, and kept a pet grizzly bear in the late 1800s. “She lived to be 100. She died in 1981,” he recalls. His bohemian-inclined parents played folk music, and Singletary plays in a mostly Native band. Glass art drew him in as a teenager in this city near where blown-glass sculptor Dale Chihuly took the world by storm and co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School, where Singletary maintains continuing ties.
Dominant themes in Singletary’s art tend toward transformation, animal spirits, and shamanism. Ravens appear frequently. “The raven is the basis of a lot of the stories. How Raven brought order to the world. Not only did he steal the sun from this old man who was hoarding it, and give it as a gift to the world, but he also did several other actions. He essentially brought order to the world. He stole the spring water from Petrel and tried to swallow it up, and the water dripping out of his mouth became the rivers and streams,” Singletary explains. Eagle is the other Tlingit tribal moiety. “There was this boy playing on the beach and there was famine, so the eagle dropped salmon down for the boy. So that’s Eagle as a spirit helper in the context of the story. He provides food to the boy, who shares it with his village and becomes a leader because of his special connection with Eagle,” Singletary says.
Killer Whale Totem (reverse), lead crystal, 106" x 33.5" x 22".
Influenced by both modernism and primitivism, Singletary, 59, often works with amulet forms. “There are a lot of shaman amulets, like pieces of bone or tooth. I make them larger as sculptural objects. Then I’ll put themes of transformation—animals morphing into humans. So it alludes to the spirituality of humankind,” he says. Recently he’s been delving deeper into symbolism and metaphors. “I’ve been working with elders, with people who help me understand the stories from different perspectives, so more of a Joseph Campbell type of approach,” he says. “You can create an art piece from any action within the story.”
His monumental Killer Whale Totem standing over eight feet tall was created with woodcarver David Svenson then cast in lead crystal in the Czech Republic. “It’s talking about the killer whale as the main crest symbol representing my family and the eagle moiety on the top, and the bottom is a wolf design, which is a more archaic crest symbol,” Singletary says. There’s also a thunderbird representing the clan that adopted Svenson.
Golden Eagle, blown and sand-carved glass, 20.5" x 14" x 11".
The Two Ravens totem explores cross-cultural mythology. “Odin is there because my wife is Swedish,” Singletary says. “He’s a Norse god and kind of a shaman figure. The two birds on his shoulder are ravens. Odin is always associated with ravens. The other characters are my daughter and my son and a wolf representing our cockapoo. And my wife on top.”
Raven in the Beginning of Time is a stand-alone raven covered with formline designs. “Raven is originally a white bird. Most albino animals in Indigenous culture are thought of as supernatural beings, so the raven has transformational capabilities,” Singletary says. The regal Golden Eagle has a curved beak. “It’s a newer form with the extended wings. Eagles are a symbol of power. And they’re hunters and pretty special. They have powers in their own right.”
The Place Where You Go to Listen, blown and sand carved glass, 22.75" x 24" x 7".
The untitled oystercatcher rattle in black and amber portrays an oystercatcher on the top with a mountain goat on the bottom. Lying across it is a reclining shaman figure. “The shaman is emaciated and fasting, or potentially dying, based on a real traditional image of a shaman I’ve seen in carved style,” Singletary says. “Those rattles were originally made to connect a shaman to his spirit helpers and for healing rituals.”
A poignant egg-shaped sculpture titled Unassimilated depicts a raven in front of a cityscape. “It was based on a song my band does. It’s a spoken-word piece about Raven coming back from a long journey. He comes back to his homeland and instead of tall trees, he sees these tall buildings. He finds this tree that’s been washed out to sea, and it’s all heavy with salt water. So he’s sitting on this log and sort of crying because his homeland is transformed to where he can’t even recognize it.”
Unassimilated, blown and sand-carved glass, 18.5" x 12.5" x 3.5".
Standing outdoors in Portland, Oregon, the abstracted Tlingit Dancing Staff sculpture was a collaboration between Singletary and David Franklin. “That’s a steel and glass construction for public art. We were looking for durable materials that could be made and installed outside,” Singletary says. The red dot on the top represents the sun, with a raven’s beak holding it up.
Taken as a whole, Singletary believes his work is “a connection to ancient tradition, but now it’s very modern. Now the culture has a new medium.”
Raven in the Beginning of Time, blown and sand-carved glass, 20.75" x 9" x 16".
Preston Singletary’s traveling exhibition Raven and the Box of Daylight is on view at Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, through July 2, 2023, then at Oklahoma City Museum of Art in Oklahoma City November 11, 2023 – April 28, 2024. He is represented by Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, Sandra Ainsley Gallery in Toronto, and Traver Gallery in Seattle. Smaller works may be found at additional galleries and museum stores. Visit the artist online at prestonsingletary.com.
