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Accession #	2004.2
Artist	Preston Singletary
Title	Guardian of the Sea
Date	2004
Medium	Glass
Dimensions	18 x 6 x 18 in. (45.7 x 15.2 x 45.7 cm)
Credit Line	Gift of Fairfield-Maxwell, Ltd., by exchange
Location	Visible Storage: Case 39, Shelf I (Native American Art)
Description	Sculpture of blown and sand-carved glass is red and black, the two signature colors for Northwest Coast art. It represents a killer whale, one of the crest designs of Tlingit artist Preston Singletary. It is made using traditional form-line designs with black forming the positive, primary spaces and red forming the negative, secondary spaces. The whale is arched, with flippers and tail fins down and dorsal fin up. Condition: excellent.

Curatorial Remarks: Corporations and even our current government are rolling back environmental regulations, defunding scientific research, building oil pipelines which endanger our clean water, and a whole host of other issues that endanger our health as a nation. In my opinion, this is due to the lack of a true spiritual connection in relation to nature. . . . It is driven by a blind and misguided capitalist perspective that is not balanced by a respect for our environment.
—Preston Singletary, 2019

This work embodies the connection between tradition and artistic innovation. The artist Preston Singletary employs the medium of glass both to counter the stereotype that Native artists must use traditional materials and to preserve cultural symbols of his tribe that are tied to the local environment. Here, Singletary depicts the southern resident killer whale (or orca), a hereditary crest figure of his clan. Habitat contamination and the rapid decline of the Chinook salmon, this whale’s main food source, have brought it to the brink of extinction.