
Artist Overview:	SHANE EAGLETON
	Shane has taken the ancient artform of woodcarving to new dimensions and new heights, providing his audience with an inside look at the creativity of a self-taught master in the artistry of woodcarving. A thoroughly modern artist, embracing the ancient past with tribal symbols of human, plant, and animal metamorphosing before your very eyes. Shane’s artistry unapologetically conjures up images of the duality of the ancestral goddess within everyone making them appear at once androgynous yet with the clarity of the powerful and obvious strength and energy of the feminine, emerging strong and clear. From the Fiji Islands to the Chekloslovakian acid rain forests, through the Pacific Waters of Hawaii and the demilitarized Army bases of coastal California, Shane delves into the realm of make-believe reality, brilliantly inter-weaving messages of environmental and ecological importance by rummaging through dumpsters, foraging through fallen forests and basically salvaging and making use of wood others have rendered useless. With relentless energy, Shane plods along in his ambition to promote the message of true re-cycling, at the same time resurrecting the spirit of the trees, sharing with his audience the vision of transformation and the re-kindling of his Polynesian culture. This artistry of the new century keys perfectly with a renewed interest, demonstrating that ancient traditional art forms and medians are far from being a thing of the past and have much to teach Western societies. Shane’s artistry shows that it is in fact possible to combine traditional and modern cultures without conflict or mutual exclusivity and can be complementary and a valuable source of vital knowledge and wisdom. Shane’s art truly exemplifies a message of conservation and restoration of his cultural heritage with variety and appreciation of the complexity of traditional ancient lifestyles of "Peoples of the Waters." The juxtaposition of classical and primitive forms simply attempts to show the art of a land in which the supernatural co-exists side by side with the mundane. The story board woodblock prints, healing poles and life size sculptures that Shane produces represent, in all their glory, benign spirits, protective deities, and symbolic animals which were traditionally used by many cultures in ceremony. This spiritual source of Shane’s art represents the humanistic vision while emphasizing the mystical qualities of wood. Shane, as an environment artist and educator, interprets his ideas and identity in a manner in which style as well as diversity of expression emerges. His vivid language records people’s beliefs and activities in sensitivity to an intricate and delicate subject matter. Shane’s art is a clear indication of a complex and fascinating approach to his Polynesian culture. A complement to this exhibition, the artist painstakingly forms, and works and re-works horses and men into slightly larger than life tableau with spectacular expressive characters whose powerful energy unfolds before your very eyes. Goddesses and warriors alike, ceremoniously depict animals and scenes in mythological and supernatural beings carved with extreme detail and precise lines wrapping them around the chamber of his vessels. This unusual approach reflects the desire to capture the essence of the subject or object at hand. In some, one will visualize the deities depicting a dance with an intricacy that radiates a strong representation of the ancestral female effigies conducive to fertility, accentuating a silent language of those ones who uphold the laws of our ancestors. These works are destined to be collected and studied in this century without priorities in terms of artistic value, as well as regarded as impressive works of art to be reckoned with in their own right. Shane, emerging as an environmental, eco-artist, master of his own creations, emerges with an art form and art message vital to the art movement of the next century and future generation thereafter. Yolanda Nuñez Director of Program Development The Cultural Conservancy



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