Eagle Hat, Preston Singletary

Exhibition Label:
"Roots and Journeys: Encountering Global Arts and Cultures," Jul-2011, Nancy Mahaney
The eagle image, seen on this contemporary rendering of a traditional hat (which is inverted here), demonstrates the artist’s clan heritage.
Among the Tlingit, the right to depict a clan totem is exclusive to members of that clan. By making, or wearing, such an image, members convey information about their family history
through time. Family lore is shared through generations in stories pertaining to each clan totem.

Exhibition Label:
"American Indian Art at the Spencer Museum," 6-Sep-2003 to 19-Oct-2003, Andrea Norris
Urged by his friend the glass artist Dante Marioni, Preston Singletary went directly from high school to study at the Pilchuck Glass School outside Seattle. Inspired by another glass artist, Tony Jojola, Singletary searched in his own background for inspiration and found the art of Alaska and the Northwest Coast. He uses Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimtsian objects and styles as sources for his glass objects. Singletary shaped the traditional form of a Tlingit hat in blown glass, then etched it with the forms of a Tlingit Eagle. Turning the hat upside down makes it possible to create a shadow image of the eagle on the surface below. The Eagle is one of the clan signs for Singletary’s family and is thus one of the images he has the right to use in his work. Others are the Killer Whale, Brown Bear, and Wolf.

Exhibition Label:
"Time/Frame," Jun-2008, Robert Fucci, Shuyun Ho, Lauren Kernes, Lara Kuykendall, Ellen C. Raimond, and Stephanie Teasley
The eagle image, seen on this contemporary rendering of a traditional hat (which is inverted here), demonstrates the artist’s clan heritage. Among the Tlingit, the right to depict a clan totem is exclusive to members of that clan. By making, or wearing, such an image, members convey information about their family history through time. Family lore is shared through generations in stories pertaining to each clan totem.