P E R S O N A L , P A T H S
Good
Chemistry
S T O R Y B Y
Joyce Lovelace
P O R T R A IT B Y
R obbie M cC laran
PRESTON SINGLETARY REMEMBERS
when that new kid showed up at
his high school in Seattle back in
1979, the one who’d just moved
from Oakland.
“He was quite a character,”
recalls Singletary, then 15. “He
had kind of a California vibe,
this hip lingo. A very charismatic
person.” Singletary would see
him riding his bike around the
neighborhood, and they would
exchange waves. Finally they
struck up a friendship.
The kid’s name was Dante
Marioni, and he lived in a loft-
like building (once the tele-
phone company) that his dad,
glass artist Paul Marioni, had
converted to a residential work-
space. A t 15, Dante had just
begun blowing glass himself and
worked after school at a local
studio, the Glass Eye. He got
some of his pals jobs there, too,
including Singletary. Soon they
were all part of the lively com-
munity of glass artists that con-
verged around nearby Pilchuck
Glass School and turned Seattle
into today’s capital of glass art.
Marioni and Singletary
have traveled the glass path
030 american craft feb/mari2
O rca
photo: Russell Johnson
