P E R S O N A L P A T H S
W olves in the Forest,
2011; blown and
sand-carved glass
12.25 x 12 x 11.5 in.
The Raven, 2011
blown and
sand-carved glass
19 x13.5 x5 m.
ever since, diverging but peri-
odically meeting up again along
the way. After high school,
Marioni went straight into
glassmaking and quickly earned
an international reputation
for his sophisticated, classical
vessels and technical mastery.
Singletary focused at first on a
music career, working in glass
studios by day and playing in
rock bands at night, before
deciding in 1995 to “fall back
on my art” and make glass full
time. A descendant of the Alas-
kan native Tlingit tribe, he
began exploring that heritage
in his work, reinterpreting tra-
ditional symbols and imagery in
a contemporary, personal way,
a direction that has brought him
creative satisfaction as well as
critical acclaim.
Now both seasoned artists
in their late 40s, Marioni and
Singletary are still close friends
and live less than a mile from
each other in the Seattle area.
Throughout the 1980s and early
’90s, they worked side by side
on glassblowing teams count-
less times. (At one point, Sin-
gletary was Marioni’s assistant.)
But they never collaborated
artistically, other than making
what Marioni calls “goofy gob-
lets” during the holidays, just
for fun. As of 2011, it had been
close to 20 years since they had
worked together at all. “Once
you have kids, everything chang-
es,” Marioni observes; the two
mostly saw each other at their
sons’ Little League games.
So when Leroy Garcia,
who represents both artists at
his Blue Rain Gallery in Santa
Fe and in Scottsdale, Arizona,
invited them to create a shared
body of work for the first time,
they jumped at the challenge.
“It seemed like it would be
an organic process, nothing too
forced,” Marioni says. “We
both come from similar enough
places - in fact, the exact-same
place when it comes to our
glassblowing culture - that it
was a no-brainer to figure out
something we could do.” Plus,
he adds, “it was a great excuse
to go hang out with Pres.”
The resulting 20 basket-like
forms, shown by Blue Rain in
November at SOFA Chicago
in “Primitive-Elegant,” blend
two strong visions. The signa-
ture bold silhouettes and intri-
cate canework patterns of
the vessels are recognizably
Marioni, yet are beautifully
complemented by Singletary’s
distinctive carved and sand-
blasted surface designs and
sculpted elements - wolves,
a whale, a tree, lightning, rain,
and other beguiling images
from nature, inspired by the
indigenous art of the Pacific
Northwest.
Before focusing on
glass, Singletary (right,
both photos) satisfied
his creative itch by
playing guitar and bass
in a couple of Seattle
bands. He likens collab-
oration in the hot shop
to jazz improvisation.
032 american craft feb/maris
Then photo: Courtesy of Preston Singletary /N o w photo: Robbie McClaran / Object photos (5): Russell Johnson
