Meet Shannon Romero!
By Tavi Lorelle Carpenter
Shannon Romero (Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley & Taos Pueblo) was working as a graphic artist for a local silk screen shop when she realized a significant lack of contemporary Indigenous cultural representation. Driven by this insight, Shannon started Born of Legends, a fashion boutique that utilizes Shannon’s incredible talent in design alongside humor and pop-cultural references to uplift contemporary Indigenous culture.
“I felt like [our contemporary culture] wasn’t being represented. So I wanted to do something that was fun and funny; and made our people feel more welcome and included in the narrative that was being put into the world about our people.”
Born of Legends is not California culturally specific. Instead, as a means of thinking inclusively, Shannon shared that she works with broad cultural references that are well known across Indian country. In this way, she has been able to reflect on the shared experiences of indigenous identity.
“I do have good representation out there when I do attend different events, and they’re like, where are you from? Um, what tribe are you from? And so there’s that immediate connection. But as far as my artwork, the focus is [on] all of Native country, and I like to stay [more] general so I can appeal to a larger crowd. I feel like just talking to people, you know, when you’re out selling or making connections, and they see something that’s familiar to them that they don’t see anywhere else, [for example], I have a Billy shirt from The Predator. Um, and he was always my hero from way back when. And so I was like, I’m gonna do a shirt [featuring Billy from The Predator]. [And when] people walk by in my booth and they say, ‘Oh my God! Billy!!” because they don’t ever see that anywhere, right? Like it’s not acknowledged. Yeah, but I try to spotlight different things [within contemporary culture]. Some people say, ‘Oh, there’s that girl that sells the movie shirts!’ I’m starting to be recognized out in the community, which is really fun! I just feel a connection with our people. [People’ll] come, and they’ll laugh at things and say, ‘How do you know this?’ Well, I’m native, you know, and I am us. It’s just that kind of feeling that makes me happy, too, and helps me continue to do what I do.”
provided by the artist.
Shannon’s journey started by attending powwows as a vendor, where she immediately received extremely positive feedback.
From her first powwow to now, she has continued to build her brand and company to the point where Born of Legends is a familiar face at big conferences and events in Indian country. Another way Shannon builds the Born of Legends brand is by sharing her experiences on social media, especially TikTok, where she has 793 followers and 4,147 likes.
“I do mostly shared experiences, like when I’m traveling. I’ll try to share what’s happening, like if I go to a powwow, I’ll [show] this was what it took to travel here, and this was the set up, and these were some of the highlights of the events.”
All of which is successfully captured in 90 seconds or less! She admits she’s still working on building out her Instagram. As Shannon expressed, it can be difficult to promote yourself via social media but Shannon through it by sharing her lived experience and the joy she gets from being able to interact with her customers. It’s no wonder that her “day-in-the-life” videos are what her followers relate to.
An essential aspect of Shannon and the Born of Legends brand is how humor is utilized to promote community connection.
“Humor is important because as indigenous people, we all know that we use humor to connect with each other and to also [deal] with tragedy. We still somehow utilize humor to calm ourselves. It’s used in so many different facets of our lives. It’s just something very common amongst us and that’s why it’s easy to connect with people through humor. [And humor] that nobody else would get but us. I love that. I just think our community is funny in general. I know a ton of funny people in our community, and being amongst them and feeling free to laugh and say crazy things, that like, [as] I said nobody else gets-but we get it! So I think that’s what our connection is to all of our people throughout Turtle Island.”
Shannon’s interest in becoming a graphic designer was a dream she had for a long time. Something that always felt right to her. She admits her father, a graphic artist for Capitol Records in LA, may have had some impact, but in truth, she’s always been creatively inclined.
“I’ve always loved art! During my senior year, I had all my credits to graduate but I still went back for art class in the afternoon. [And] I’ve always had a connection with computers. So it’s been fun, there’s always something to learn!”
Having always been interested in art and having the opportunity to bring her designs into fruition for her store, I asked Shannon to share a little of her creative process. She told it helped that as a creative person, she has had to opportunity to be exposed to many things that inspires her work, allowing her to get in the zone when she needs to.
“I think of something and I’ll just let it sit in my mind. Or something will just pop into my head, and I’ll just start working on it. Then I’ll let it sit for a while [before coming] to it [to refine] it.”
She also ensures to ask for advice from friends and family to get their input.
“I’ll do like a draft and I’ll take it out to the people and kind of get feedback, and then I’ll make adjustments. That’s just kind of how I work.”
Shannon noted that the positive feedback she received from all her supporters was so important in how she keeps building Born of Legends.
“I’ve always gotten really good feedback from people. It’s always warm[s] my heart and help[s] me move forward and keep going.”
This is so important as, like with many artists, she is doing everything! Running a small business and being the sole creative certainly requires that Shannon wear quite a few hats! She admitted that’s not always easy.
“It’s kind of overwhelming. Sometimes I have to say, okay, just slow, slow down. You don’t have to, you know, take it too far and exhaust yourself. Just do what you can and that’s going to be enough!”
All of her hard work and dedication has definitely been worth it, an exciting new chapter for Shannon and Born of Legends is that one of her designs has been selected for the American Indian Cultural District of San Francisco.
“They’re doing an indigenous of San Francisco, mission Street activations [with] the crosswalks. They’re making them indigenized! I’m one of the four artists that are going to have a crosswalk in San Francisco that represents our indigenous people in California.”
Such an extremely exciting opportunity for Shannon! Particularly as she truly is someone who just absolutely loves what she does.
“I just love to create. It just makes me happy and it makes me happy to be able to, because I get to travel around and I get to meet all these indigenous people from all over. And I take advantage of when I’m out. So I go out and check out the city and, um, just really explore. And I think that that’s, that’s been kind of a highlight to everything that I do because I work hard and then I yeah, I’m able to go out and then explore.”
Which she of course shares with her followers on her social media accounts!
Through Born of Legends, she’s had some pretty incredible on-the-road experiences, including “Hollywood” moments!
“I was in LA, I think I was at one of their powwows, and this lady comes up to me and she’s like, ‘Are you the one selling the Billy shirt? I’ve been looking for you! And I was like, okay. And she’s [goes], ‘Um, that’s my dad!’ And she’s like, I want one. And I was like, ‘Oh! Oh my God, what size are you?’ So I grabbed one and I gave it to her and she said, ‘Thank you for doing this! [I’ve just seen] these and I just wanted one so bad!’ And that was like- oh my gosh! that’s pretty cool. Because she actually came to the powwow to find me!”
If you might remember, Billy from The Predator was one of Shannon’s Heroes from the past. But that was far from the only star familiar with her work. Taboo from the Blacked Eyed Peas and Jason Mamoa all own original Born of Legends pieces!
In terms of wisdom, Shannon offers to other creatives, she pulls from her own experience of staying balanced.
“It’s just realizing your limits. Don’t push yourself too much. Just taking things step by step and just continuing to move forward.”
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You can support Shannon by following Born of Legends on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook and by visiting Born of Legends website where you can get your very own Born of Legends original!
