Hello friends and followers, Welcome to the #UrbanShaman blog!
Over the past couple of years I've felt this "persona", "character", "alter ego"—this Truer Version of Myself—bubbling up inside of me. For some time, I, the #UrbanShaman, have tried to resist touching the Internet. Using various tools, like Instagram and Facebook, I've tried to send smoke signals to communicate with the world, leaving breadcrumbs that might help one find their way out of the forest.
I've tried to diversify the media I use to describe the reality I see in my mind's eye. This has resulted in confusion by all parties, including myself, and an unhealthy (as far as the #UrbanShaman is concerned) level of exposure to technology and the Internet.
My relationship with modern advances in the 21st century is bitter sweet. On the one hand I am able to casually package this seemingly discordant message into a thoughtfully considered product—a website that runs equally well across more than one platform, capable of streaming information into your phones, computers, T.V.'s and headphones, permeating the viewer's life experience completely. It's a chance to undo some of the negative and self-destructive programming that comes from mainstream cultural trends, disguising counter-culture as something desirable and consumable, hiding the antidote in a bottle labeled "the same old shit."
On the other hand, as a person, as an individual, as the #UrbanShaman, I desire a life different than one possible in this world full of cities with asphalt arteries drawing cancerous scars across the natural beauty of the land. A life unburned by superfluous commercial consumption, untarnished by fragments of plastic and other unnatural materials scattered throughout the space the human animal inhabits, and unsullied by the hazardous and evolutionarily detrimental poisons that are spilled into massive bodies of water and evaporated into the atmosphere shared by all beings experiencing life on this spinning rock we call Earth.
I wish to distance myself from the worlds mentioned above so desperately I could die...
Alas, further I plummet into the realm of digital reality in an attempt to share my life, my work, and my greatest work of Art—My Life. I have gained many allies and used many new tools in this pursuit to document a reality yet untold. This collaboration with people, spirit, and the network of wires and magnets that hold our lives together has culminated in these magical fingers plugging away at an aluminum case, covered in plastic keys, and filled with electrical circuits made from rare-metals and human ingenuity, to bring you this: a portrait of the vision in my mind's eye.
While I get my shit figured out on the REAL, I am thankful that all of these digital tools have made it easier and easier to see, organize, and curate my own content. I've been uploading much of my collection to google photos and as I'm sure many of you know, they make cute little creations from your pictures. For now, I give you Google's version of the lesser known story: "Journey for the American Dream," A collaborative performance I completed with Dang, an amazingly talented illustrator from China.
Thanks for your time and attention.
Stay tuned...
the #UrbanShaman
Link to Story:
https://goo.gl/photos/URuVTwHvwuKUWz5a8
Keep checking back for more of the #UrbanShaman Chronicles!
Header image taken and edited by Robin Funkhouser Shahan of www.funkhousephotography.com