We recently connected with Sonja Bales and have shared our conversation below.
Sonja, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
My parents encouraged my sister and I’s creative skills and ideas from the get go. We had a dedicated art room, and the culture they created for us is one which values craftsmanship, education, and hard work. Despite financial disadvantage, they prioritized showing us museums, exploring the world, and being capable of creating things rather than buying them. Perhaps the greatest gift they could have given me and my sister is their unconditional love and sacrifice; they always prioritize our opportunities and well being before themselves and, as I grow older, I realize how truly rare and lucky we are to have been raised by such proud and selfless people. I think they achieved cultivating us as well rounded people without forcing us into things and supporting the things we cared about. Long story short, they did a lot of things right and I am forever indebted to them for the family they created for us.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My background is rooted in visual arts, but I chose to study Film production and animation in college to build upon my artistic skills. I freelanced as an animator and producer after graduation, eventually finding work in VFX and now games! My strengths are a combination of creative thinking but also logistic coordination and team management.
Have you ever had to pivot?
During the pandemic, job searching was difficult and I got to a point where I needed to really be open to whatever work I could get. By doing so, it challenged me to utilize every skill I’d learned over the years and look more for equivalent experience rather than exact title matches. Being open to other parts of the film and animation industry like VFX and games has been one of the best things to happen to me, not only by broadening my experience, but teaching me how to adapt skills from one media to the next.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
INVEST IN NEW IDEAS!!!!! Our generation is hyper aware of the spin offs, sequels, over-done franchises and I think we will continue to see audiences favor ideas or styles that are different, new, and supporting unknowns. But, we are in a tricky spot- the industry is suffering in very tangible ways due to the risk averse corporate ownership of most media we see. If our society and culture desire a thriving creative ecosystem, the path to that is actually providing funding to small studios, independent writers, artists, and animators, and I think the amount of novel concepts will boom as a natural result. Especially with AI, the need to support artistic careers is more important than ever and make it a feasible career path for the coming generations.
Image Credits
Sonja Bales