Sonya Stockton, a visual artist, finds inspiration from books, thrift stores, and sometimes in the edgiest corners of emotion.  She’s showing a series of figure drawings at The Vera Project this month [Opening reception Feb. 8 @6p].  Loose and wildly expressive, her series “Instinctual” offers a peek at the unyielding energy underlying Sonya’s art.

Vera recently caught up with Sonya to learn about her days as an art student and what projects she’s focusing on lately.  Her show is on view at The Vera Project Gallery from Feb 7-Mar 7 2012.

GALLERY INTERN:  What kind of art student were you, what were you like?
SONYA:  I was always very diligent.  In high school you would always find me working in the art room.  My teacher would write me notes to get me out of other classes, and I would stay late too.  In college some friends brought a couch into our senior studios and would always joke about how it was where they sat to watch me work because I was always there.

GALLERY INTERN:  What have you been working on recently? 
SONYA:  This is a difficult question for me to answer satisfactorily because I am always working on multiple things that take me eight different directions.  They do not all come to fruition, but trial and error is a good method of discovery.  The most time consuming piece that I am working on is a seven foot tall painting of a woman sitting on a small wooden chair.  She is wearing men’s work boots, men’s underwear, and she is shirtless.  On her chest a sentence is written, it says “IGNORE THIS PAINTING”.  The painting is a part of a body of work that I am creating for a show I will be hanging in November at Gallery 110 in Pioneer Square.  In addition to painting, the show will include screen prints, sculpture, and some photography.

GALLERY INTERN:  Where do you find inspiration for your work?
SONYA:  Sometimes this is a question that I wish someone else could answer for me.  I suppose that I find a lot of inspiration at thrift stores, and in humor.  Also, I read a lot of existential philosophy and artistic theory.  Then there is always raw, unadulterated frustration.

GALLERY INTERN:  Do you have a preferred medium/why?
SONYA:  I would say no.  Every medium brings something unique to the content of the work, and content is my primary concern.  Sometimes I will even force myself to work in a certain medium because it is best for the piece.  I have learned many new things that way. Though, as people who come to the show will see, I am the most prolific in drawing and painting.  This is only because they are the most readily available methods of creative endeavors.  Convenience can be a breeding ground for inspiration.

FRIDAY, APRIL 6TH, 2012 • 8:30am-3:30pm

EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT AND THE VERA PROJECT

The Pacific Northwest Chapter of The Recording Academy is holding a free, one-day music intensive exclusively for qualified high school musicians who are serious about professional careers in the music industry. Accepted students will have their choice of attending three 90 minute classes that will focus on the many different aspects of professional music careers and will be taught by GRAMMY nominated and winning musicians, producers, engineers, and local music professionals. Candidates must submit two applications, one to be filled out by them, and one to be filled out by a music teacher or mentor. Both applications are below.

Students will be chosen by members of the Recording Academy, and GRAMMY-nominated and winning recording artists and musicians.

Classes to choose from will include Promotions, Music Business, Recording and Mixing in the Studio, Sound Checking for Live Performance, Singing/Songwriting, Music for Film/TV/Games, Honing Your Audition Skills, Electronic Music, Home Recording, and many more. All students will have the opportunity to audition for one-on-one critiques with GRAMMY-nominated and winning musicians and songwriters.

Return both applications via email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or mail directly to The Recording Academy, Pacific Northwest Chapter, 159 Western Ave. W #485, Seattle, WA. 98119, Attn. Caroline Dodge.

DUE DATE FOR APPLICATIONS IS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 2012
Questions? Contact Caroline Dodge at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 206.834.1000.

Long Island, New York-based indie pop quintet Twin Sister make music that is dreamy, yet danceable. The five members of the group—vocalist Andrea Estella, bassist Gabe D’Amico, drummer Bryan Ujueta, keyboardist Dev “Udbhav” Gupta, and guitarist (sometimes vocalist) Eric Cardona—crossed paths while playing in their respective bands, ultimately befriending each other and forming Twin Sister in 2008.

February 7, 2012 7:30 PM Tuesday February 7 | 7:30 PM
Twin SisterAva Luna
Lemolo

$11 ($10 w. club card)

Doldrums is a musical venture produced by Canadian artist Eric Woodhead. As a part of a larger community reacting to overhype, the plasticity of modern youth culture and it’s ultimately alienating nature, his music deals with the loss of the individual in an increasingly altruistic society. Doldrums’ music reflects this societal change on a personal level, as a member of the last generation to remember life pre-internet and 24 hour status updates. His androgynous voice comes across mid-panic attack, floating in a sea of chopped up samples, disembodied vocals and tribal percussion. Spearing between electro-hallucinogenic freak outs and languid nostalgia, his tracks somehow manage to elevate classic pop melodies above a sample saturated sound collage.

The project began in 2010 by posting videos and designing websites by fictional bands under a variety of different band pseudonyms, ‘Doldrums’ being one of them, the name taken from a favorite children’s book, Norton Juster ‘s ‘The Phantom Tollbooth”. He gained notoriety in his native Toronto through performances at Everlasting Super Joy, his studio and DIY venue, as well as involvement in flash parties in abandoned spaces. The year also saw the release of a number of 7"s including a split with DD/MM/YYYY and a VHS mixtape of his own music videos. Though now based out of Montreal his sound and attitude screams Toronto, where artists like Skrillax, Crystal Castles and Fucked Up are known for challenging existing ideologies about format and genre.

In 2011, after hearing his interpretation of their song ‘Chase the Tear’, Portishead announced they would release his song as the b-side to their single. At the same time, new tracks fell into the hands of cult London indie label No Pain In Pop, and were quickly confirmed for release as ‘Empire Sound’, his debut EP. The tracks are varied: combining the beautiful boudoir pop of contemporaries Atlas Sound, Panda Bear or How To Dress Well with Doldrums’ own enthralling post-punk magpie tendencies, ‘Endless Winter’ hangs a widescreen chorus over a dewy eyed, sample-heavy backing; ‘Tantrum’, frazzled and scattered yet perfectly in tune with itself, is the perfect foil for Woodhead’s tenor voice, and ‘Lost In My Head’, with its prominent use of Eric’s ‘voice organ’, stands as a frighteningly accurate self-diagnosis of his work as a whole—chaotic and yet inherently spectacular, a whole world for listeners to explore.

Doldrums’ music is mostly influenced by friends such as DD/MM/YYYY and recent tourmate Grimes, and the references he makes to pop culture have a placed artificiality and unfamiliarity to them. Doldrums is emotionally vindicating sonic exploration—a fractured mirror image of what our post-internet culture has become.

Tickets 9$ (8$ with club car)

When: Saturday, January 28th from 12:30 to 3:30pm. Career in the Arts will also feature booths from various organizations and educational institutions with an emphasis in music. The panel will begin at 1:00pm. Group conversations afterwards, speakers will break off into groups where attendees can ask questions and more specific information can be addressed.

Why: To address the severe lack of information available to high school and college students and other interested young adults about careers in the arts, to provide information about the wide variety of careers in the arts that are not limited to conventionally thought of careers like music and dance performance.

Where: The Vera Project (located on Seattle Center on the corner of Warren & Republican)

Panelists Include :

Ashley Graham founded music website The Wig Fits All Heads in college and later Wig PR, where she managed publicity for dozens of local bands. She has a bad habit of turning hobbies into careers and is currently Marketing Coordinator at Live Nation and knows a thing or two about Sasquatch. In her free time, she writes TV and gum reviews at tvandgumareawesome.com.

Ben London, former board member of the Vera Project, is the Media Rights Manager Hewlitt-Packard. He has been all around the local music scene, serving executive roles at the Recording Academy, EMP Museum, KEXP, and Seattle Music Commission.

Greg Williamson is the owner of Greedtone Pedals and Kill Room Recording Studio, where he recorded albums by Sunny Day Real Estate. He is a former Vera sound engineer and is responsible for creating our sound program. He has over twenty years experience performing music, recording, and building sound pedals. In 1996, he founded Williamson Management and then started selling guitar pedals in 2000 under the name Greedtone. He currently has 6 pedals and a tube guitar amp out and all the gear that Greg builds is handmade. Last year, he opened Kill Room in a studio in Georgetown.

Monica Martinez, as Sup Pop Records first ever A&R Intern, brings 5 years of experience booking all ages shows. She started Black Mamba Productions, a promotion company and monthly sample of unsigned bands, and supplies fresh talent to record labels and radio stations. She knows her way around 107.7’s local music show and Mt. Fuji Records and has a finely tuned ear to finding new talent.

Natalie Walker spent some time after graduating from the University of Washington with a BS in Psychology working as an intern for acclaimed music journalists who she helped with interviews, transcription, and took copious notes on how to become a rock star. She later attended Ladies Rock Camp in Portland, where she came to realize her own musical potential, and also the potential of social change via music education and personal empowerment. She co-founded Girls Rock! Seattle (now Rain City Rock Camp for Girls) and has been serving as Executive Director since 2008. She is also active in the Seattle music community as the bassist and vocalist for the all-female band, Another Perfect Crime.

And your host Jeffrey McNulty!