Meet Luc Martineau

We recently connected with Luc Martineau and have shared our conversation below.

Luc, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Finding my purpose has been a lifelong journey.
I was a sensitive kid, a dreamer, an intellectual, raised by two remarkable individuals. I lost my father in 2010 ;
he was 82 years old . He taught me to be true and honest , and encouraged me to pursue university studies before making any final choice .My mother, now 93 years , has Alzheimer’s
disease and is the last surviving member of this courageous generation .My mother a passionate cinema lover with a beautiful coloratura voice , and my grandmother a painter, both passed me down their love for the arts. So encouraged ,at 9, I wrote short poems to express my inner self. I drew a lot and created comic strips. In my teenage years, I thought about becoming an artist ,a writer or filmmaker.
Yet, life’s challenges brought an equal dedication to justice—something that grew from my experiences with bullying in primary and high school. It was a very difficult time. Many of my classmates taunted me daily, not to mention their physical assaults in the locker room and the schoolyard. “The poet, the poet is here!” Even though I lacked the physical strength to defend myself properly, I believed that academic success would eventually give me other tools in life. The impunity my bullies enjoyed and the leniency of the authorities outraged me. While painful, these experiences strengthened my sense of fairness ,compassion, and resilience, ultimately leading me toward a career in law.
For over four decades, I served in the legal field, first as a lawyer and then as a judge on the Federal Court of Canada. These roles demanded resilience, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to justice. At the same time, my love for the arts grew stronger, becoming a source of expression and balance. Painting provided a therapeutic refuge from the weighty responsibilities of judgment making. In 2022, after retiring from the Court, I made a full transition to a professional artist, allowing me to combine my passion for creativity with my dedication to exploring the human experience through a different lens.
This journey—moving between law and art—has shown me that purpose is rarely a single path. Rather, it’s about understanding the values that guide you and finding ways to bring those values to life. True, we are products of our upbringing, but not only that. It’s hard to change one’s nature. I am highly sensitive to beauty, impalpable, sacred, and timeless. Imagination has become an instrument of self projection in the Universe. At 69, it’s still my child’s heart—the heart of a seven-year-old poet—that serves as my guiding light in life. Yes , I know better now . Conscience is the essence of being ; we create all possibles. So I want to tell to all readers : create the magic about the Self ; you are the Magician!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am based in Montréal, where I have my professional artist studio. In 2022, I had my first solo exhibition “Final Judgment” , and have since participated in numerous group exhibitions .While I see myself as an abstract and expressionist painter , my work,both traditional and digital, often explores themes of consciousness, identity, and the interplay between light and shadow, inviting viewers to reflect on their own inner landscapes.
What sets me apart is my ability to blend tangible and ethereal elements, creating unique pieces with deep emotional resonance. I’m particularly proud of my recent collaborations with designers, merging art and fashion to create hand-painted couture. This fusion of art forms excites me and represents the innovative direction of my work. Additionally, I am a regular contributor to Musetouch, an international art magazine . This has been a remarkable experience, connecting me with a broader audience and a global community of artists.One of my most recent projects, Family Constellations, delves into ancestral legacies and how these inherited connections shape who we are today. This series represents my deep interest in the ways personal and collective histories converge to form our identities.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to keep exploring the intersections of various art forms, pushing creative boundaries while engaging with themes that resonate universally. I believe that art can transcend boundaries, offering connection and insight, and I’m committed to contributing to that evolving conversation. I only wish for each viewer, upon seeing one of my works, to feel an undefined emotion that leads them to reconstruct, from their own imagination, a repressed memory or a forgotten world, and to see things they perhaps hadn’t noticed at first glance.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Reflecting on my path, three qualities stand out as essential: resilience, courage and dialogue with the self and the world. Each has been a guiding force, helping me through both personal and professional challenges. Resilience is something I learned early on through the challenges of childhood bullying. It taught me the strength to keep moving forward, no matter the obstacles, a quality that has been invaluable. My passion for justice emerged from those same experiences, ultimately guiding my career in law and shaping my values as a judge and artist. Finally, my love for the arts triggered an uninterrupted dialogue with the self and the world. It has been a source of balance, helping me appreciate harmony and beauty in life.
For those just beginning their journey, I’d advise focusing on what political philosopher Anna Arendt once stated : “[t]he courageous [person] is not one whose soul lacks this
emotion or who can overcome it once and for all, but one who has decided that fear is
not what [she] wants to show. Courage can then become second nature or a habit but not
in the sense that fearlessness replaces fear, as though it, too, could become an
emotion.” So , I say , embrace the challenges you encounter, let your passions guide you, and remain open to learning. These foundations have a way of grounding you, no matter where your journey takes you.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

Books have been a constant presence in my life, guiding me at every stage. As a child, I found myself inspired by adventure tales, identifying with characters like Tintin and d’Artagnan. Later, I delved into the Existentialists—Sartre, Camus—and Herman Hesse, whose novels like Demian and Steppenwolf felt like reflections of my own journey. These books led me on a voyage of self-discovery, traveling through Europe at 19 to uncover both the world and myself.
In my thirties, two books deeply shaped my life: Carl Jung’s The Undiscovered Self: The Dilemma of the Individual in Modern Society and Ira Progoff’s At a Journal Workshop. Jung’s exploration of individual and collective consciousness challenged me to look beyond the visible and Progoff’s method of journaling encouraged me to explore my inner life fully. This introspective work ultimately convinced me to leave a successful yet unfulfilling law partnership and, later, to embrace my role as a judge with a renewed sense of purpose.
This journey of self-discovery extended into my art, as I kept dream journals and other reflections to nurture my creative side. This work led me to question the deeper role of judges in society, eventually inspiring me to write an article, “Does Judicial Courage Exist, and if so, is it Necessary in a Democracy?” published in the Western Journal of Legal Studies in 2018. Each of these books encouraged me to balance my legal and artistic passions, blending courage and creativity in both spheres of my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lucmartineau.ca/en/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martineau6458/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078182802397
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luc-martineau/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/martineau3287/

Image Credits

Richard Tardif

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