We recently connected with Leslie Martin and have shared our conversation below.

Leslie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

“Bubble” is my gallery show collection for my Master of Fine Arts degree. It is the most meaningful project I have created, and is what kickstarted my desire to share my messages through my art with a wider audience.

I was diagnosed with Bipolar 2 disorder in high school and I have struggled with major depression and manic states my entire life. I have been in therapy most of my life because of this, and I have learned a lot about how to shift my perceptions of unsettling events after the fact so they don’t affect my emotions so drastically in a negative fashion.

I started painting with watercolor soap bubbles because of their unpredictable nature. I love the ephemeral and uncontrollable nature of them, and I appreciate the parallels between bubble painting and perception. When I blow a soap bubble towards a canvas, I can sort of control what color I want it to be, what direction it starts out in, and generally what size range it will be, but that is about it. I cannot control how it lands: Will it glide into the canvas? Will it pop above the canvas and shower bits of color down upon it? Will it settle on the canvas in a dome shape, creating a darker circle as the pigment slides down the sides of the dome? Will it even hit the canvas at all? Much like life, I have very little control over the moment of creation. But much like perception, I can frame it however I want to after the fact, and create something beautiful out of the cacophony. My Master of Fine Arts Show focused on the ephemeral and changeable nature of perception, and some of my favorite pieces I have made were displayed in it.

“Absolutes” is a grayscale piece that shows no pure black or white but is presented in such a way that it looks like there are black and white swatches. This mimics perception in that everything in life is on a spectrum and there are very few absolutes if any, but often things are presented in such a way that it looks like there are binary options.
“Bipolarity” is an asymmetrical piece that mimics the crushing depths and weight of depression and the flighty nature of mania.
“Surroundings” is an installation piece with bubble paints coloring long strips of fabric that flutter around while hanging from the ceiling. One could walk through and stand in the center of the circle of fabric to behold the beautiful colors and the movement, and it would partially obscure the reality of the world outside while having it still be mostly visible. This mimics the way our perception can shift in our minds while the impact the same event has on others and the outside world can stay unchanged.
There are several more, but these are my favorites.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I mainly paint with watercolor soap bubbles. This statement alone can be confusing, so I like to share my process with people as well. I have liquid watercolor pigment that I put into a soap bubble mixture that I make, and I blow the bubbles at a flat canvas with a bubble wand and hope that it hits. When I change colors, I will wait for it to dry so the colors don’t run together and get muddy. It is a lot of fun and I highly recommend trying it, but beware that the bubbles cannot be controlled and they do get everywhere.

I like to remind people with my art that perception is malleable and what we make of it. Just as I cannot control what happens in life, I cannot control the bubbles. What I can control is how I frame it afterwards to create a finished piece that emphasizes the beauty in each moment.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I call my art business Bubble Fight Club because the first rule of Bubble Fight Club is DO talk about mental health. My mission is to break the stigma around talking about mental health and related topics, because the more we can share our experiences and find common ground, the more we can become a more cohesive and supportive community. I want to remind people with my art that we are more in control of our own reactions to life than we think, and that we can affect how we interact with the world around us at a fundamental level by changing how we view our perception of events.

The ability to adapt and change my perception into something that is just as true but less hurtful to myself is something I learned in my years of therapy for Bipolar 2 disorder. As much as I want therapy to be a universal tool that everyone has access to and can take advantage of, I know that it is a privilege for many reasons. People cannot or do not access therapy for many reasons, including issues with finances, time, location, and the very stigma I am doing my best to combat with my art. The most important thing one can do with privilege is to lift others up and share the advantages with as many people as possible, and through my art I am sharing what I have learned through therapy with as many people as I can reach.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is sharing my art with others and hearing their stories and experiences. I love selling at art markets because I can talk to people about their lives and their struggles and breakthroughs and wins on their own mental health journey, and I can put into action my mission of fighting the stigma around talking about mental health. I also often stream on Twitch.tv when I paint, so I can foster community, open opportunities for discussion, and normalize talking about mental health.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bubblefightclub.com, www.bubblefight.club
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/bubblefightclub
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/lemartin3/
• Other: Twitch: twitch.tv/bubblefightclub
  Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/bubblefightclub
  TikTok: tiktok.com/@bubblefightclub

Image Credits

Carolyn Martin, Leslie Martin