Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Martin

Hi Leslie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

When I was little, my dream was to drive the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile and build fireworks. Then, when I realized that someone had to actually make the animated movies I love to watch, I pivoted to wanting to work in animation. I grew up in a very creative family. My Mom is an artist and has a degree in set design, and my sister has always been very interested in art and photography as well. My dad is a vascular surgeon. When I first started studying animation and fell in love with rigging, which is the stage of animation where someone puts controls on the models so the animators can move them around nicely, it made sense because rigging is basically artistic anatomy. It’s a perfect blend of my parents’ interests, with more computers and technology thrown into the mix.
After graduating with my MFA, I started working in VFX and on 3D animated feature films and tv shows. I have worked on a variety of projects ranging from Detective Pikachu to Over The Moon to Barbie animated movies to Spidey And His Amazing Friends and several LEGO animated shows.
During my time in graduate school, I started painting with watercolor soap bubbles and talking about mental health and perception with my art. I found that to be a very important calling, so I continued to create art with soap bubbles while I worked in animation. Now, I am trying to reach a wider audience with my message, talking about mental health and fighting the stigma surrounding the topic. When people can feel comfortable sharing their struggles as well as their successes, we can become a more cohesive and supportive community for one another.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

Bipolar Disorder has created many obstacles in my life, but none of them have proven insurmountable so far. Looking back now, I would definitely consider myself a problem child. I used to become overwhelmed and act out a lot because I didn’t know how to cope with my feelings.
I would run away from my class in elementary school and hide underneath the desks in a storage area in the hallway. To combat this, my second grade teacher designated an area underneath one of the tables in the back of the room that was curtained off and nobody was allowed to acknowledge someone when they went under there to have some chill time. It wasn’t used as a punishment, but an elective way to go somewhere close-by and convenient to calm down a bit privately. Looking back, it was one of the most kind and forward-thinking accommodations I have ever received in education, because I was still in the room and hearing the teaching, and being less disruptive than if they had to send a search party out for me. This was also before I knew how to advocate for myself, or what I even needed to help me through rough patches.
In fourth grade, my teacher told my parents that I reminded her of herself at a young age, in the context that she is bipolar. My youth choir mentor had to track me down several times, once in the organ room that housed all the pipes for the church organ, because I was having a hard time. I don’t remember the exact reasons, but I got overwhelmed a lot and I felt that getting away was the best thing to do in those situations. Unfortunately, as I now know in hindsight, it’s a little scary for adults when a child suddenly runs off or goes missing.
I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder in middle school, and we started trying medication in high school. I was first put on stimulants to treat the ADD, and that sent me into manic depressive cycles and the doctors realized I am bipolar. They were just beginning to diagnose bi-polar in children at that time.
High school was especially rough. The road to get accommodations was long and hard and I probably wouldn’t be where I am today if my guidance counselor hadn’t fought for me. I could not wake up in the mornings due to depression and the state mandated that I go to Alternative School after the school day to get enough hours to qualify for graduation. Alternative School was an after school session usually offered as an alternative to suspension or expulsion for students with disciplinary infractions, sort of like detention but longer and more strict. It got so that I was too depressed to even get out of bed for these afternoon sessions.
I ended up going to a residential treatment facility in my junior year of high school to figure out what was going on and to find the right medication to help me be a functioning member of society. This was a really rough period of time, but it quite literally saved my life. I learned Cognitive Behavioral Therapy there, which is a method of reframing the way you think about things to be more factual and less victimizing, which has allowed me to understand that it’s not all about me all the time and become okay with change.
After that I transferred to The Leelanau School, a boarding school in Michigan that specializes in hands-on learning, for my senior year of high school. This was great because the teachers were understanding and fantastic at adapting teaching styles to help people learn, but I still struggled to fit in with my peers.
In my first year at the Savannah College of Art and Design, I attended Jump Start Orientation, which is a week-long college orientation that introduces students to the counseling center and the support network that the college has to offer. This was incredibly helpful knowledge that served me well throughout my undergraduate career, and I became an orientation assistant for the program in my next four years at SCAD. I took fewer classes for credit at the same time than most of my peers due to accommodations I received through the self-advocacy practices I learned at Jump Start, and I had an extra year of credits I needed to take before graduation compared to my classmates who started at the same time.
In graduate school at Texas A&M University, I became a lot better at managing my time and regulating my emotions. I learned after graduating with my MFA that my parents were worried I might not finish high school at some points. Looking back, that’s a fair concern, but I’m really glad nobody told me back then because I might have taken it to heart. It was interesting to learn this after graduating with honors from SCAD and Texas A&M, and it makes me proud of how far I have come. Now that I am out on my own, I still have some rough patches but I have built a support network of friends and family that are there to help me through hard times.
Depression and manic states have been struggles for my entire adult life, but now that I know how to identify them and what I need to support myself I am able to work through them more smoothly than before and I am determined to share what I have learned with others who may be struggling.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I paint with watercolor soap bubbles, and I also make laser-cut keychains and embroidered patches with affirmations and relatable sayings. I use positive things I need to remember or phrases that make me smile, and people tend to resonate with them. My latest design is a patch that says “my brain chemicals suck” which sold out at the last show where I sold my work. At some point it’s just like, “I’m glad I’m not alone but I’m sorry you’re here with me,” which is kind of exactly the community building I am trying to do. It encourages conversation. None of us are truly alone in our experiences, but everyone still experiences things differently. It’s nice to have a community when celebrating joys or healing from hardships.
I like to open conversations about perception and mental health with my art, and help foster the creation of a supportive, caring, and helpful community. I call my art practice Bubble Fight Club because I am fighting the stigma around talking about mental health with my bubble art. The first rule of Bubble Fight Club is DO talk about mental health.
I am proud of my ability to make unique and meaningful art while still sharing my technique with others. I do not want to gatekeep the making of bubble art; when someone comes by my booth at a craft fair or similar event and remarks, “That looks like a lot of fun, I could do that” or “my kids would love doing that” my response is always “It is a lot of fun! I highly recommend it, but be aware that the bubbles get everywhere.” That is honestly the hardest part of bubble painting, it makes such a mess because you can’t control where the bubbles are going to land. If you want to try making art by blowing soap bubbles with paint in them, be sure to do it outside or in an area that’s easily cleaned, and wear clothing that you don’t mind getting stained.
I also share my artistic process on Twitch.tv, a website that is known for sharing streams of gaming but has a surprisingly large and supportive community of artists, makers, and musicians in addition to the gamers. I try to livestream every Tuesday around 10am Pacific Time, so come on by and say hello!

What were you like growing up?

I was (and still am) a goofy kid, always wanting to make faces and stick my tongue out in pictures. I have always loved art and science; when I was very little I went to Pond Camp at the local nature center and learned about tadpoles and it was the coolest thing ever. At a slightly older age, I attended other nature camps as well as a science camp that taught me the basics of electricity and circuitry. I invented a solar-powered hat that would power a personal fan in the brim when the wearer went into the sun, so they would stay cool, which I then wore to church camp and got a lot of compliments. I am still very proud of that hat.
I have always loved animation. I grew up on Rocky and Bullwinkle, Wallace and Gromit, and every Disney animated movie I could get my hands on. I also have always loved Star Wars and Jurassic Park, though I didn’t get started on Star Trek and Avatar: The Last Airbender until college.
My family travelled together a lot when I was younger, and I got to experience Mexico, Italy, Costa Rica, The Galapagos Islands, France, England, Scotland, Antarctica, The Virgin Islands, and Belize as I grew up, as well as most of the 50 United States. In college I studied abroad at SCAD’s Hong Kong campus, and was part of a team that designed and animated the intro for Shaw Active Sound at the Grand Cinema in 2011.
I also was a big fan of Neopets when I was younger, so much so that my parents put a password restriction on our computer so I couldn’t access the website. This resulted in me learning how to do a destructive reboot on the computer, which erased the password along with every important file that wasn’t backed up somewhere else. Later, when I was teaching animation, coding, and robotics at iD Tech Camps, this was an amusing anecdote, but at the time my parents were flabbergasted!
I have always loved cats. I had several cats in my childhood, and I fostered litters of kittens for the Aggieland Humane Society when I was at Texas A&M. Dogs are cool too, but I feel that I would not be able to give a dog the attention it deserves when I am in a depressive state, and that wouldn’t be fair to anyone involved. I have a void cat (black cat) named VB, or Vantablack, who is very chatty and perfect in every way.
I still love all of these things. I love the color purple and sparkles, I have a pet T-Rex named Sir Rawr who lives in my purse and goes on adventures, and I still judge a dress by how spinny-out the skirt is and how big the pockets are. My goal is to retain the sense of wonder at the world that a 5-year-old has, no matter what my actual age may be.

Pricing:

• Keychains – $5-$15
• Patches – $10
• Prints – $10+
• Originals – $25+
• Custom Originals – $50+

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bubblefightclub.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bubblefightclub
• Other: https://twitch.tv/bubblefightclub