♪♪
-Hi there and welcome to the show.
I'm Nancy Guppy, coming to you from Winston Wachter Gallery,
where Susan Dory, one of my favorite artists,
has a glorious show of new paintings.
Now, the exhibit is called "Spontaneous Sights,"
and it's a continuation of Susan's interest and exploration
about how all things are interconnected.
As you can see, Susan has a deep grasp of color and composition,
and this is what she says about the new work --
"I map out contrasting colors as granular,
integral specks of a greater whole.
The vivid patchwork quality to the overall palette mirrors
the intricately woven relationships
that make up our inner lives."
"Spontaneous Sights" is a beautiful show
and runs now through March 11th.
Gallery hours and location
are at seattle.winstonwachter.com.
We've got a great line-up for you, including --
a new one-woman show from Lauren Weedman...
-So it's about, like, surviving, about single-mother stuff,
little tad -- little sprinkling of bankruptcy in there.
-...a visit to the studio of Brian Sanchez...
-I am a painter, abstract painter.
I work with color theory and color relationships.
-...and a brand-new song from Alessandra Rose.
And we'll begin with the dynamic
multi-talented singer-songwriter Shaina Shepherd.
♪♪
-♪ You got me ♪
♪ Feeling curled up like I got a good book ♪
♪ On a Sunday dream near a sunbathe nook ♪
♪ In the rolling stream ♪
♪ That's mean ♪
I'm Shaina Shepherd.
I am a human,
making music and living in the music arts community
and just surviving and thriving.
♪ Every time we talk ♪
♪ I feel inspired ♪
♪ Every time we move, yeah ♪
♪ It feels like fire ♪
♪ Honey, that's mean ♪
I grew up in Tacoma, Washington. I was a church girl.
I grew up a church girl. We went to service every Sunday.
My dad is a deacon in the church.
My mom was a Sunday school teacher and educator,
so that was really where I was when I was growing up.
Music itself was like the home for me before I could figure out
how to communicate my feelings.
I was very shy, so being able to watch the amazing musicians
that I got to grow up around,
even though I was quiet, I absorbed all of that
and have brought that into the way I communicate.
Everything that I -- everything that I do,
it's like the background music to my life is gospel music.
♪ Waterworks, let me drown ♪
♪ Let the gates flood, let my frown hang down ♪
I started to sing in choir,
and within that audition process,
I started to get recognition.
I was suddenly like, "Oh, that girl can sing."
♪ But now I just got to be okay ♪
♪ I just got to be okay ♪
♪ Someday ♪
I had a really challenging couple of years
between when I left college
and I moved to Seattle with nothing.
I was just trying to rebuild my life,
and I just went to Craigslist
because that's where I found my apartment
and that's where I found my job.
And I opened up the music tab and started looking for gigs,
looking for opportunities to audition for things.
I did meet my guitar player, Matt Williams.
He was like, "Yo, so you want to come
hang out in this warehouse?
Me and my friends, we're gonna start a band.
We used to be in this band."
I was like, "Yeah, dude, that sounds great."
And within one night, we were a band. We just jammed.
♪ In the final... ♪
♪♪
And then all of a sudden,
not only was my world filled with amazing friends,
but, also, it was just constant inspiration
and exploration of sound.
♪ Yeah ♪
When everything came to a halt during the shutdown,
I think that there was just kind of like an empty,
vacant space of a lot of questions,
like a big bag of, like, "What the 'F' are we gonna do?"
I was teaching, I got laid off three times,
and I had nothing to do and no income.
And then all of a sudden, my life was nothing
but this piano right there and me.
♪ I try to sleep through the daytime ♪
♪ Keeping your shadow close ♪
♪ But all I can see is ♪
♪ Your moving memory ♪
♪ Picture perfect poise ♪
I think that it was really a great opportunity
to hit that restart button for myself
and say, "What can be?"
And I made a decision at the beginning of the pandemic
that no matter what, I was gonna get through this,
these challenges,
and that I would be open and willing to work with anybody
that saw the world the way that I do.
♪ All I want is for you to be with me ♪
We went into London Bridge
with the goal of recording three tunes,
three songs that I wrote in my apartment at the piano.
And over the course of that week, we came out
with three beautifully arranged, wonderful tunes.
♪ Oh ♪
I'm really excited to use this record
as an opportunity to be on people's shelves for a long time
because that's how the music has come to me.
It's in my library of who I am as a person.
♪ Oh, look at that broken heart ♪
♪ How are you gonna manage when they tear you apart? ♪
♪ Oh, look at that broken heart ♪
♪ How are you gonna manage when they tear you ♪
♪ Apart ♪
There's this thing.
It's like when you open up a box,
like one of those cardboard boxes,
you can never close it again.
That was an experience I had during
the George Floyd protests.
What I would really love for people to get
is that the world has changed so fast for somebody like me.
You know, I'm 30 years old, and 15 years ago,
I was -- I was fat and I was dark and I was useless.
That's the narrative in my mind. That's what I grew up in.
And the world changed really fast.
All of a sudden, my body type, my bone structure,
my color, my hair texture were all things that were desirable.
But then the protests happened and people were looking at me,
asking me what to do.
And I -- like, I don't know what to do.
Apparently, you need my feelings.
I have been forced to actually evolve.
I've been forced to actually become the change
that I wish to see in the world.
And it's really hard because it's happening really fast.
And I hate it. And I hate it.
'Cause I'm tired and I'm sad a lot.
But I'm really motivated to make this work really meaningful.
Music is activism, just like Nina Simone said.
I want to learn how to step into my purpose
because I do feel, truly, that it is my purpose
to make music that feels real
and reminds people of a sense of the present,
which means I have to make sure that I stay whole
and that I stay balanced and I stay working.
And when I'm working and I'm balanced
and I'm whole, I'm good.
♪♪
-Shaina performs with Crowdsource Choir
on Wednesday, March 8th, at the KEXP Gathering Space
on the Seattle Center Grounds,
and watch for Shaina's new record
slated for release on Juneteenth, 2023.
Lauren Weedman is one of the funniest people I know.
An award-winning comedic actress,
Lauren made her mark in TV with "The Daily Show,"
"Looking," "Arrested Development,"
and more recently, "Abbott Elementary" and "Hacks."
But Lauren began her career in theater, writing
and performing hilarious and brutally honest
one-woman shows.
And she is returning to her theatrical roots
with the world premiere of "BLOWS."
Here's Lauren with the lowdown.
-"BLOWS" is about...
my life, generally and specifically.
I was trying to write this musical --
It started about four years ago -- about bankruptcy.
'Cause it felt like there's not enough
musicals about bankruptcy.
And when you see that hole, you run to fill it.
And so I was starting to write that.
And then the last four years,
it's been completely impossible to finish anything
because of just this constant survival mode I'm in
and the single-mother survival mode.
And any time I even start to get creative,
if my son has any needs at all, like,
"Oh, I'm choking," or, you know, "Oh, feed me,"
I'm like, "Oh, there go my dreams again."
So it's taken me a long time to try to finish this musical.
So this is another attempt at trying to finish it.
It's called "BLOWS"?
Oh, God, how awful. That sounds kind of --
That sounds gross.
It's called "BLOWS" because of this line
in this movie "Blue Jasmine,"
where Cate Blanchett's character, who's losing it,
is like, "How many blows can a woman take
before she starts screaming in the street?"
When I heard it in the movie, I started clapping,
and I didn't realize I was clapping.
Like, it's so -- I was like, "How many blows
can a woman take before she starts screaming?"
Yes, that's exactly how I...
And then, you know, I like a one-word title.
And we're like, "Oh, 'BLOWS.' How fun.
It says all sorts of things."
[ Laughs ] I don't know.
No, I've had some polished, finished shows.
I was like, "Polished and finished?"
No, I...
No it's a -- "workshop" seems too loose
and "polished" seems too tidy.
It's a little of both 'cause it's going to be some stuff
that is material I've been working on that is rehearsed,
but I also want to try out new stuff.
It's always a process, right, with the live performance.
That's like another added step to getting the show
where I want it to get is the audience reaction.
Yes, "BLOWS" is 100% based on true stories
from my own life, completely.
In fact, I say that and then I realize there's one --
there's one part of the show where I did research,
where I live in Santa Monica, and that's a part of the show.
And I looked up to see who Santa Monica was
and, you know, what the city was founded on, that kind of stuff.
That's -- That's the only part that's not completely about me.
And I think that part's getting cut out of the show
'cause I got bored even trying to tell you about it.
Totally.
They're very small people, I hope.
What is with that? There's a band.
I'm playing with this guy, Tim Young,
and he is a Seattle person who now works
with Reggie Watts' band on "The Late Late Show,"
and he's helping me with the music.
So they're gonna be stage with me, which is great.
Broadway.
I do hope that. I hope that we can do a little tour.
Get out and just go, you know?
I would love to just tour a bit, you know, for a year or so.
And then it'd be great to do --
to sort of take that show and develop --
take the information, whatever I've learned
from performing and go back, re-rehearse it,
and then put it in a more sort of staged,
sort of classic solo theater show.
I'd love to do that and do a short run of that.
And then turn it into a big comedy special.
And then all these women over 50
will start wanting to get into solo theater
and be stand-up comics and stuff.
So get ready for that nightmare.
Catch "BLOWS" at The Triple Door February 25th and 26th,
Saturday and Sunday, two shows a night at 5:00 and 9:00.
Ticket information is at thetripledoor.net.
Our band this week is Alessandra Rose,
featuring the one and only Alessandra Rose
on lead vocals and acoustic guitar,
Christopher Jones on keys,
Garrett Lunceford on electric guitar,
Noah Wilson on bass, and Josh LaBelle on drums,
performing her new single, "Panic at Sunrise."
-♪ Fade into the edge ♪
♪ Words scattered on the black ♪
♪ He climbs up the staircase ♪
♪ I'm waiting for a look back ♪
♪ Purpose lost to us ♪
♪ There's a perfect darling ♪
♪ Don't know why, but who cares now? ♪
♪ Let's go back to bed, the day's not over ♪
♪ I would rather be wrong ♪
♪ And make things right ♪
♪ I would rather be so wrong ♪
♪ How didn't I? ♪
♪ How to die, sunrise ♪
♪ Rake me with your eyes ♪
♪ Wrap me up, I cry for you ♪
♪ Your head is speaking our truths ♪
♪ I would rather wrong ♪
♪ And make things right ♪
♪ I would rather be so wrong ♪
♪ How didn't I? ♪
♪ Roving satellite, no, whoa ♪
♪ Don't stop being mine ♪
♪ Whoa ♪
♪ Roving satellite, no, whoa ♪
♪ Don't stop being mine ♪
♪ Roving satellite, no, whoa ♪
♪ Don't stop being mine ♪
♪ Whoa ♪
♪ Roving satellite, no, whoa ♪
♪ Don't stop being mine ♪
♪ I would rather be wrong ♪
♪ And make things right ♪
♪♪
-"Panic at Sunrise" will be available
to purchase and stream on Friday, March 3rd.
A music video will drop that day, as well.
Alessandra Rose opens for Ron Artis II
at the Neptune Theater on Friday, March 11.
She opens for Rainbow Girls at the Vashon Theatre
on Sunday, April 2nd, and she's booked to perform
at this year's Fisherman's Village Festival,
running May 18 to 20 in Everett.
♪♪
-Art is life, and I'm constantly collecting information
and basically putting it in my knapsack.
And then when I come in the studio,
I just empty that knapsack and this is everything that's there.
I am a painter, abstract painter.
I work with color theory and color relationships
in abstraction, yeah.
This one has a reaction with the blue
as well as this one -- more subdued.
A little subdued. Comes forward. Comes forward.
Very forward.
Typically, a painting will start from an idea,
maybe something that I've seen in life,
maybe something that I photographed
and catalogued on my phone.
There's so many different ways where the spatial aspect
of a painting can develop.
I'm constantly thinking of how to freeze time
in a rectangle, essentially,
and have that information that activates that space.
Usually, each painting starts with a study on paper.
Then I'll just start to experiment with color.
Mixing colors is a very intuitive thing for me.
It's not something that I plan or map out.
One of these paintings,
it may look like there's six colors involved.
Typically, there's between 20 and 30 colors in each painting
that you can't even really see unless you're up on it
and you're experiencing it and you're living it
and you're welcoming that curiosity
to investigate and explore.
I know that it's working when I'm on it and I'm working on it,
and I am fully engulfed in color.
That's when I know.
♪♪
I'm not really thinking at all.
I'm really just appreciating the flow of the brush.
I'm trying to land in one area,
and by the time I think I've figured out that area,
my eye has caught another
and I've drifted off into another place,
and that motion is continuous.
I'm really just kind of moving with the painting.
I mean, it's kind of like your hair is in the wind,
to be honest.
♪♪
Something that I care about
is kind of erasing the brush stroke
so that there's no conflict
with the information that's being seen.
It's all about the push-pull dynamic.
There's this saying that sign painters use,
is "Slip, slide, grip, glide."
[ Laughs ]
My process is actually a very painterly process.
The way that I paint is very aggressive and kind of erratic.
But at the end, the paintings are seen flat.
And that's really important to me, that they're --
that they're flat and legible and there's no glare
so that you can really experience
all the transitions of color
that are happening in the piece
and you're constantly navigating and exploring the work.
♪♪
Winston Wachter, Brian's Seattle gallery,
will showcase his paintings at Seattle Art Fair this summer
and will exhibit his work in a solo gallery show
in early 2024.
Omni, Brian's London gallery,
will feature him at Untitled Art Fair in Miami
at the end of this year and at London Art Fair
in January 2024.
Between now and then,
Follow Brian on Instagram and check out his website --
2eyes10fingers.com.
And that's a wrap.
Big thanks to Winston Wachter Gallery for hosting us.
And Susan Dory's paintings will be up through March 11th,
as will the artworks of two other gallery artists,
Barry Johnson and Jessica Lichtenstein.
So plan your visit soon, and thanks to you for tuning in.
Have a great week, and we'll see you soon.
-They came to me yesterday, where I was like,
"Oh, I'm gonna use that as a bit in the shows,
that every time -- that I'm gonna --
if I'm looking to see what I'm gonna do next,
I'll be like, "Okay, let's" -- like, start a song
and then stop the band and be like,
"Actually, can we wait on that one?
Just because it's such a -- it takes so much.
Let's do that -- the bigger one for tonight's show.
Let's save it."
Like, it's all about as if the first show,
they're missing everything. [ Laughs ]
And, like, a trapeze comes down or, like, a silk thing,
you know, like the things that, you know,
the burlesque people like to do.
A lot of people like to do to stay fit.
They grab on to silk and spin around all sexy.
I was gonna have one of those come down
and look like I'm about to do it.
And then I'm like, "You know what?
I do -- I'm nervous I'm gonna hurt my back again.
So could we not do this for the first show?
Let's save that for the second show."
And so people think there's all these things.
Then I guess would be so ridiculous,
you'd understand it.
There's no way that I was getting up on that silk,
not those corduroys.
[ Laughs ]