Mary Leu has made a name for herselfwhere traditionally men have been the center of attention.
Woodcarver Mary Leu is an exception to the rule. Not only did she break into a craft long dominated by men, she also turned her passion for art into a paying job and saved her family from financial ruin.
The turning point for Leu was the Asian financial crisis of 1997, which forced her husband's design company into closure. Leu insisted that she would not sell any of her woodcarvings, which she wanted to preserve for public viewing. Her husband, however, recognized her talent and pushed her to find a money-making channel for her art. She turned to glass, gold, and amber.
Leu designs amber sculptures that are carved by other craftsmen, but for the gold and glass creations, Leu draws on her woodcarving skills to make the molds. The result is a lucrative, and award-winning, business that not only keeps the family afloat but also allows her to exhibit the woodcarvings that she loves so dearly.
Born and raised in Ilan, on the northeast coast of Taiwan, the 39-year-old Leu worked as an art designer in her hometown after she graduated from a local vocational school with a major in commerce. Leu had been keen on woodcarving for a long time, but always found herself admiring pieces in galleries, rather than working from the bench.
"There weren't any woodcarving artists teaching in Ilan, nor could I just move somewhere else to study," she says. "Even if I could, woodcarving is traditionally a man's craft and few masters will take on a female apprentice."
Most of Taiwan's venerated woodcarving artists come from a long tradition of apprenticeship, whereby they train under a master who accepts students based on talent. But talent alone was not sufficient, as Taiwan's woodcarving traditions have long been a man's realm.
It was not until 1989, when Leu learned that the Taipei Fine Arts Museum would hold a short-term woodcarving camp, that she got hands-on experience. Although none of the classes were being taught by big-name masters, Leu said she realized that she was not going to be rejected on the basis of her gender, so she quit her job and started attending classes. "Two months wasn't enough time to learn carving well," Leu says. "It was, however, more than enough time for me to recognize that woodcarving would be something I'd be willing to devote all my time and energy to."
Returning to Ilan, Leu started hewing shapes of fruit from blocks of wood. "Perhaps because I'm a woman, I pay close attention to the details," says Leu. Between 1990 and 1998, Leu completed more than 30 pieces. Each piece is carved from a single piece of boxwood, which may depict a fruit, an insect, or--for a more modern touch--a lunchbox or a pair of sneakers. Depending on the size, each piece takes between three months to a year to carve. Yet it is Leu's attention to detail that makes her pieces unique. A look through a magnifying glass will reveal the small hairs on the stem of a plant or the legs of a dragonfly, all of which are created by Leu's painstaking efforts.
While honing her skills, Leu also began experimenting with different materials and found that boxwood suited her style to a tee. The locally grown box tree is often used to make musical instruments and chops. The wood is very hard and dense, making it ideal for carving intricate details onto very thin pieces without cracking. In some of Leu's works, for example, the wooden leaves are so thin that they are almost transparent. Box trees, however, are hard to find nowadays because they grow very slowly--so slowly they are called the "thousand-year-dwarf." Leu met a merchant many years ago and bought his entire stock to stave off future shortages.
Since her first exhibition in 1999, Leu has won a number of national awards in woodcarving and gold sculpture. She has exhibited her work in Taiwan as well as abroad. One of her woodcarvings is now part of the National Museum of China in Beijing's permanent collection. Because Leu is essentially self-taught, her works do not belong to any "school," yet her steadfast passion for carving has placed her among the nation's best.
Word got out about Leu's work, and it sold so well that she had to find a place to put it on display. Established in 2000, the Mary Leu Fine Carving Art Gallery is a 300-ping (10,800 square feet), one-story house that is divided into three sections: a showroom, a workshop, and a coffee/tea house that doubles as a souvenir shop.
The gallery is in Sanhsing Hsiang, an agricultural township with a population of 22,000, some 40 kilometers south of Ilan City. Gallery director Chuang Han-chung notes that the gallery brings in about 1,500 visitors a month. "Most visitors are surprised to see a gallery in Ilan," he says. "People expect to see woodcarvings in Sanyi [Miaoli County] because the town has long been known for the craft, but Ilan is not usually associated with the fine arts."
For most Taiwanese, Sanhsing is just a name on the map, an insignificant stopover along Taiwan's northeast coast. But for the nation's woodcarving aficionados, Sanhsing is a hidden gem.
Mary Leu Fine Carving Art Gallery opens every day from 9am to 6pm.
Contact information and map can be found at http://www.lml.com.tw