We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maxine Leu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maxine below.

Alright, Maxine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Art is always part of my life just like an organ in a body since coming into this world, for me, working in art is to solve problems in life. It can be an individual’s spiritual level, a community environmental issue, etc. Art is a powerful tool for cross-cultural nonverbal communication because art connects to people’s profound emotions. Cross-cultural language touches our super-sensory perception and can make people see things from another angle. It takes us to see the world differently, making us associate, resonate, ask questions, and rethink.

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’m Maxine Leu, an interdisciplinary artist, art educator, and environmentalist from Taiwan. I received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Tainan University of Technology (TUT), Tainan, Taiwan and Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at the State University of New York at New Paltz. My work focuses on the environment, communication, and identity. In 2015, I came to New York from Taiwan and became interested in the cultural differences between Western and Eastern cultures. My work series after the 2015, “Made in the USA”, focuses on the environment, communication, and identity. Using critical humor along with dark playfulness, I open doors to difficult conversations relating to issues of overconsumption and the culture of waste in America, through the lens of my own awareness of cultural differences. The works are based on my experience of being a foreign person in America. I choose familiar, everyday objects and commonly considered waste materials as the raw materials for my work and for their potential to initiate cross-cultural, nonverbal communication. Then I transform those materials into situational, humorous, and metaphorical artworks that double back and question our relationship to the commonplace things I started with. One of my popular works, Plady made up of 300 woven plastic bags and resembles a mummy, has participated in cooperative performances such as The Bags, The Earth Action- Two Hour Collection, Global Climate Strike,The Story of Water and EarthFest since 2019. I have also been promoting workshops about upcycling and recycling that have been inspired by concerns over global warming, waste production, and other environmental issues. Starting in 2022, I’m the initiator and producer of The Annual Eco Arts Week at The D.R.A.W, her goal is to bring the community together through art and raise public environmental awareness.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I have worked in community engagement and environmental education through art for years. Many people asked me why I never give up on working on art that raises environmental awareness, they were curious about what reason caused me to do a zero payment work, as they thought that artworks made of garbage or bio-degradable material are not collectible for galleries and collectors. Also, artworks that address environmental concerns are easily read as political props, not a piece of fine art in a traditional art museum.

To me, any kind of education can’t be measured in money. People have the right to decide how to live their lives, and the purpose of environmental education is not to force people to change what they want to live, but to provide people with more options to think about.

Starting in 2014, I have continued to arouse people through various art forms looking at our living environment from a different perspective. It’s free to work I don’t ask for money because as more people are concerned about our planet, that matters. I have witnessed my roommates change their habits of using plastic bags to reusable bags after participating a couple of street cleaning-up art performances I host. In 2019, I had an idea to push my recycling art workshop further as a community annual event, it was not easy for an emerging artist who had just started at that time, as most platforms couldn’t commit to the cost of hosting a free community engagement even if they appreciate the concept. DRAW Kingston is one of the specials that support my idea, and we had 12 environmental artists, and we hosted our first Eco-Arts Week, a week of Arts-driven exploration into sustainability, ecology, and upcycling practices through workshops, lectures, and exhibits for the community in 2022. Our hard-working was awarded the Challenge America grant from NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) for $10,000 and became an annual Eco-Art Week in Kingston, New York.

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

The most rewarding part is self-healing and sharing experiences with others, artists occasionally connecting with unexpected friends who understand us through our art. No matter what concept our art is, is about ourselves or others, we’re using our lens to tell a story, and firstly the work has to move as the author/artist/ creator. Happiness is the only thing that would increase more and more by sharing with others. Even though I am excited by personal success in big and small awards, but the reaction of the viewer is always unforgettable. There’s an interactive project my partner and I created to recall the temperature of connecting with people they loved by sending a physical message, letting people pause from their busy lives through creative activities, and giving people an experience of illustration works to imagine the world. As part of the installation we had, we asked people to contribute their gratitude and care through drawing or writing to people who did not stop working during the Covid pandemic. The project took place at a small local comic store, but the result melts my heart, it’s absolutely beautiful and healing. A woman tear-up said her passed son who worked in the medical field would be very happy and honored to see these gratitude messages from community members. We are very glad that our work can provide, connect, resonate with people with a safe place to express themselves, and let them know that no one is isolated in difficult times.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.maxineleu.com/
• Instagram: @maxineleu
• Facebook: Maxine Leu
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxine-leu-3626311b3/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCba9E9nnlrKseI2aoMJqjxw

Image Credits
Maxine Leu Art Studio