Artist Profile: Sarah Legault – No Stopping this Skill Set

by Beth Stewart

Sarah Legault is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist recognized for her dark aesthetic. She is an alternative art doll-maker, illustrator, set and character designer/builder, animator, practical lighting technician, motion control technician, occasional curator, and last but not least, a film director.

This skill set led her into stop-motion film, where she was fortunate enough to contribute to television series, feature and, short-length films, commercials, and music videos. Stop-motion is a process, Legault says is slow but ultimately rewarding

Legault credits her deep dive into art to health issues as a child.

She recalls, “Anytime I felt unwell, I would draw and tune out everything around me.” Eventually, she would feel better, and thus began to associate creating with comfort and healing.

As a teenager, she fell in love with the MuchMusic TV channel and the art of music video production. She became a music collector. In her early 20s, she was inspired by friends who shared the same interest in alternative arts. Together, they started The Shadowood Collective, which is still a collective 20 years later. The group has included visual artists, fashion designers, performers, and musicians. By her mid-20s, Legault was curating and managing Dollirium Art Doll Emporium, a shop that showcased artists from around the world.

(Note: A number of the Shadowood Collective visual artists are part of the Scared Stiff show at The Benz Gallery: https://www.thebenzgallery.com/current-exhibition)

(Pictured: Housing Crisis, mixed media art doll by Sarah Legault, 2021.)

It was a 2013 trip to the MoMA in New York City to see an exhibition by iconic stop-motion filmmakers, The Quay Brothers, that prompted her to build her first set and write her first film titled Dear Love. This film premiered at a group exhibition in Berlin, Germany, and then continued on to win Best Animated Short at the 2014 Toronto Independent Film Festival.

Little Star (2019), which premiered on Billboard.com and gained attention from CBC Music, NOW Magazine, earned her the 2020 Juno Award for Music Video of the Year and became a recipient of the Stingray Music: Rising Stars prize.

Watch Little Star https://youtu.be/6SudJKLrOAw?si=kqbeT-WasHSfchf8

Since then, she has been hired to work on numerous stop motion productions. Most notable is being on the camera/lighting crew for a six-episode television series for Stoopid Buddy Studios called Ultra City Smiths, which was released on AMC in 2021.

She says, “Going to work felt like being a kid playing in a sandbox with your friends.” It gave her the opportunity to work with 100 other artists, animators, and technicians, and to expand her technical skills.

(Pictured: Sarah Legault’s cover art for Kevin Hearn’s Wishbone. Still image from the Wishbone stop motion music video.)

Over the past 12 months, Legault has directed and animated Wishbone, a music video featuring Kevin Hearn (keyboardist of the Barenaked Ladies and Musical Director for the late Lou Reed), and The Inland Sea for Rheostatics (featuring Alex Lifeson of Rush). She also created the cover art for their singles.

Listen to Sarah’s video collaboration with Kevin Hearn (Keyboardist and Guitarist for the Barenaked Ladies. https://youtu.be/k7u-5mZgNlw?si=4YJjBx2ThiPX-FZ2

(Pictured: Sarah Legault’s cover art for Rheostatics’ The Inland Sea is digitally composed, primarily using a still from the music video.)

Earlier this year, she started Dark Harmony Soap Co. through which she makes sculptured soaps celebrating artists, writers, musicians, and cinema.

Sarah is currently working on an animated hybrid. She can’t say too much about this project other than it involves some talented folks from Los Angeles.

To learn more about Legault’s work, visit her main website: https://www.sarahlegault.com/

Follow Sarah on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sarah.legault.90

Visit her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_art_of_sarah_legault

Or check out her soap side gig: https://www.darkharmony.ca/

by Beth Stewart