’Bot buddies burgeon Digital doyen Leslie Born conjures a cadre of distinctive droids The Creators
By: AV Kitching Posted: 2:00 AM CDT Saturday, May. 17, 2025

Leslie Born had no intention of drawing robots when she first picked up her stylus and yet here she is with nearly 200 digital portraits of them.

Born’s first robot arrived more than three years ago, announcing its presence with just one word — curious — that popped into her head, niggling away at her until she began to draw.

Today Born’s Supermurgitroid Robot Friends, all 193 of them, form the biggest branch on the artist’s robot family tree. Each arrival is heralded by a random word — tinkerer, cosy, moon, scared — prompting Born to reach out for her tablet and start sketching.

She already knows No. 194 is on its way, hovering at the edge of the “portal” to our world.

“There is no other way to describe it. The robots come from their world to our world and they try to make our world a better place,” Born explains.

She has also created a cluster of analogue cousins — eight watercolour paintings, five pencil-crayon drawings and six papier-mâché constructions — as part of the extended clan.

“These ones don’t have names. They are similar to the digital ones but not the same,” she stresses.

Born’s Supermurgitroid Robot Friends are very special; they help the artist manage her feelings.

Struggling with post-partum anxiety after the birth of her son in 2020, she focused her mind by making art.

“I felt like I was trudging through pudding. Everything was in slow motion. Nothing felt real. One of the first times I drew after my little one was born, my mind was calm. So I started to do it more often,” she says.

She dabbled in watercolours, and began sketching in earnest. But the robots weren’t the first thing she drew. They only appeared to her in February 2022.

“When Robot No. 1 came through the portal and onto the page, I didn’t know who they were, I didn’t know why they came, but once I sat with them for a minute, I realized they had a story,” she says.

The stories land fully-formed. And as she writes them down — “it sounds silly but the story is already there, it’s as if it is being told to me” — the artist learns more about herself. The robots represent aspects of her.

“My robots are a mental release, and each is a little nugget of my soul. I connect with each piece so deeply I get lost in these stories as I’m creating them. While I felt like I needed to share their stories, I felt funny sharing, because I’d realized their stories were my stories,” she says.

“If you are to read all 193 stories you will learn all about me.”

She began by posting monthly robot pictures on her Instagram account @leslie_born_art, drip-feeding the tales to her followers.

When she started to make prints, she decided to include the stories with them.

Born says she felt vulnerable at first, but has since realized the stories are there for a reason.

“I started seeing how the robots seemed to choose their own friends. I’d see someone looking trying to decide between two robots, and I’d tell them that every robot has a story, and show them the backs of the prints. After reading the stories, the person would say, ‘I had been leaning toward this one, but now reading the story, this is exactly what I needed,’” she says

Born has compiled the first 100 robot drawings into a book. And it looks like she might have Volume 2 on her hands.

“I don’t know how many more robots there are. I thought at 100 they would stop, but as long as they keep coming, I will keep drawing them and I will keep writing their stories.

“These robots are for everyone of every age, to remind us there is whimsy and magic in the world, and that being our unique selves is part of that.”

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca