February 18, 2019

Check out Sarah Thibault’s Artwork

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Thibault.

Sarah, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I always loved drawing as a kid. I was lucky to have grown up in a family that supported creative endeavors. We went to museums a fair amount and I remember seeing paintings and thinking, “I can do that.” I was definitely called to painting early on.

In high school, I spent a lot of time in the art room, but when I left for college, I felt pressured to do something that would get me a job. I decided I would major in French – not sure why I thought that was more practical! Part way through my degree I realized I was still most passionate about art, so I made a portfolio and was eventually accepted to the San Francisco Art Institute’s BFA program.

When I arrived in California, I made a promise to myself that from then on, I would do everything as if I were a ‘real’ artist. This meant prioritizing time and space for my creativity, even if there were no external signs of success to encourage me.

It has been about 15 years since then. There have been lots of ups and downs, but ultimately it has been a rewarding experience deciding to follow this path.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I work in a lot of different mediums, but right now I’m focusing primarily on painting and drawing. For the last couple of years, I have been making work about domestic spaces where people spend time alone. I am interested in how social media and our relationship to screens has affected our visual culture, as well as the quality of our ‘private time’- what we share with others and how we share it.

My paintings are intimate portraits set mostly in bedrooms, often on the bed. The compositions pull from the photographic language of Instagram posts, presented mostly from the first-person point of view, where the subject is either implied from ‘behind the camera,’ or partially obscured in some other way.

The works are all set at night when the shadows are the most dramatic. I am using household devices and electronic gadgets to light the spaces: things like laptops, dehumidifiers, salt lamps or microwaves. These objects often have colored LED lights, so the light quality can be very beautiful – almost like stage lighting.

I think nighttime, right before bed is a period of time when people are most vulnerable, but it can lead to a release if you use that time for self-care. I wanted to magnify these moments through the large scale of the canvases and bright palette as a way to call attention to the large space they take up in our cultural psyche.

Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
Art can be a great vehicle to generate excitement around an idea, challenge a social norm or bring attention to voices that might otherwise not have a place to tell their stories. I think the most effective art approaches a challenging subject from the side, rather than head-on. In my own work, I try to engage viewers through beauty and humor as a way to get to more difficult subject matter like feelings of alienation, identity issues, and our culture’s addiction to screens.

That said, I still think the most effective way to make change is to be out in the world. If you really have a bee in your bonnet about an issue or party leaders, as many of us do, it can be uplifting to spend time volunteering and working toward a new goal.

This past election I spent about 60 hours in October and November knocking on doors for Get Out The Vote in my hometown in Minnesota, because I thought it would make more of an impact than staying in California. Luckily Minnesota had a blue wave so it made me feel optimistic about the future. Plus I got to see Amy Klobuchar speak at the DFL headquarters, along with Eric Garcetti, the mayor of LA who was in town supporting Dean Phillips, a new candidate who won the House away from a long-time Republican incumbent. Even if my candidates hadn’t won, I would have felt good about participating in the democratic process. There is no excuse not to vote!

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I have a solo show up right now at Royal NoneSuch Gallery in Oakland, CA called “Starfish.” The title refers to the slang term for when you’re alone in bed and you spread out your arms and legs – each limb acting as a point of the star. In the exhibition I am showing five large-scale paintings, all inspired by the pink/orange light of salt lamps.

My Instagram is probably the most up-to-date place to see what I’m working on (@sarah_thibault), but you can also go to my website sarahthibault.com and sign up for my mailing list to get news and updates.

Also, last year I started a blog for artists looking to travel on a budget called Artists + Travel. I have been living mostly as a digital nomad since last July and have gotten a lot of questions about how I am making it work. Instead of answering the same questions over and over I decided to write it down on this blog. You can sign up for weekly emails and/or support me on Patreon to get fun gifts. https://www.patreon.com/sarahthibault

Contact Info:

Website: sarahthibault.com
Email: sarah.thibault@gmail.com
Instagram: @sarah_thibault
Other: artiststravel.space

Image Credit:
The portraits are by Myleen Hollero. I always have Graham Holoch document my work. And the top image is an installation shot from a show at Part II Gallery, taken by Brock Brake.

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