
Artist Biography:		SHANE EAGLETON
		Shane Eagleton is a Polynesian artist, wood sculptor, and activist. His mother is from the island of Rotuma. Shane is originally from New Zealand and has traveled throughout the world doing his environmental artwork and educating people about the need to protect the Earth. Shane is the co-founder of Protect All Life (PAL) Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to recycling wood for its highest end use (www.recycletrees.org). Shane has been a director of the Bay Area Arborist Coop, Inc. specializing in the care of live trees in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been working with live trees for over sixteen years.
		Shane is also artistic advisor to The Cultural Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and restoring indigenous cultures and their ancestral lands (www.nativeland.org). We preserve sustainable indigenous art traditions and use environmental art to educate people about the beauty and preciousness of Mother Earth. Through Shane’s ecologically-based sculptures, wood block prints, furniture, and healing, we communicate the importance of using natural products from the Earth that have been abandoned as waste. All of Shane’s wood is salvaged from parks, dumps, and landfills.
		Over the past decade, Shane has worked on numerous projects around the world. He has contributed recycled interactive artwork for Earth Day Festivals around the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 90s. Some of his other key projects include:
	In 1992:
		Shane carved a “Rock for Life Healing Pole,” in Czechoslovakia. This pole was carved for a rock concert benefit for cancer research for children.
		Bill Graham Presents commissioned Shane to carve a Healing Pole to dedicate to the indigenous peoples of America. The pole stands at Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, California and is viewed by thousands each week.
	In 1993:
		Shane carved a 33 foot redwood tree as a tribute to endangered and extinct species for Peter Gabriel’s World of Music and Dance (WOMAD) concert in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The tree carving was a large interactive wood block. The event was attended by over 100,000 people and an estimated 15,000 people made rubbings from the pole during this one-day event.
	In 1996:
		Shane collaborated with the poet Laureate Robert Haas for the Watershed Festival to create the installation “River of Word” which toured around the country. The purpose of this art project was to have people interact with poetry carved into recycled wood and learn about the interface of nature and poetry.
		Shane has been based out of the new Presidio national park in San Francisco for the past four years. He has worked on a variety of environmental art projects to help transform the former military base to a new type of national park dedicated to peaceful, creative use. Some of his San Francisco-based projects include:
	In 1997:
		Through The Cultural Conservancy and other nonprofit organizations, we organized a public ceremony on Crissy Field to honor the local indigenous peoples, the Ohlone, by gifting them with a 35 foot salvaged yellow cedar Healing pole carved by Shane Eagleton. In attendance at this special ceremony was the Presidio Trust board member Amy Meyer, Presidio National Park General Manager B.J. Griffin, and Golden Gate National Recreational Area (GGNRA) Superintendant Brian O’Neil.
	In 1998:
		GGNRA Superintendant Brian O’Neil presented Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, a wooden sculpture from a piece of cedar recycled from a Presidio barrack as a gift from Golden Gate National Parks.
		San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown presented a gift, a wood-block print of a buffalo made by Shane to the last African-American Buffalo Soldiers.
		Shane worked with the Ohlone Youth Camp at Pinole State Park, where he built a replica of a tule canoe with a special eagle head. Ohlone youth learned how to work with wood in a way similar to how their ancestors honored trees and plants.
		Out of an old growth recycled redwood tree, Shane carved a sculpture of the continent of Africa with a Lion emerging from it. This special sculpture was presented by the Head of the South African Summit at the Fairmont Hotel in San to the Mayor of Swuato who would bring it back to African to give to Nelson Mandela. This redwood sculpture is located in a special place in Nelson Mandela’s home.
	In 1999:
		PAL brought a life-size humpback whale and other marine animal sculptors to the first Presidio Trust sponsored Earth Day. Jim Meadows, Presidio Trust Executive Director, gave a welcoming talk from the Whale stage.
		Shane worked with a group of English youth-at-risk in northern England to teach them how to use wood and tools and to create a special community place resembling Stonehedge (a “Woodhenge”) using recycled English hardwoods.
		PAL created four park benches out of recycled wood from the Presidio for the Presidio Trust to install in upper Fort Scott.	back to top