Maya Lin
Maya Lin
Maya Ying Linis an American designer and artist who is known for her work in sculpture and land art. She first came to fame at the age of 21 as the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth5 October 1959
CountryUnited States of America
art character years
I probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s, and into my 30s, I began to become aware of how so much of my art and architecture has a decidedly Eastern character.
art dad school
My dad was dean of fine arts at the university. I was casting bronzes in the school foundry. I was using the university as a playground.
artist architecture function
You really can't function as a celebrity. Entertainers are celebrities. I'm an architect. I'm an artist. I make things.
war artist memorial
I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans. The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was.
artist fog groups
You couldn't put me in a social group setting. I'm probably a terrible anarchist deep down.
school thinking artist
I went through withdrawal when I got out of graduate school. It's what you learn, what you think. That's all that counts.
artist childhood fatherhood
It's only in hindsight that you realize what indeed your childhood was really like.
father artist firsts
My grandfather, on my father's side, helped to draft one of the first constitutions of China. He was a fairly well-known scholar.
art thinking serendipity
The process I go through in the art and the architecture, I actually want it to be almost childlike. Sometimes I think it's magical.
war artist memorial
I started studying what the nature of a monument is and what a monument should be. And for the World War III memorial I designed a futile, almost terrifying passage that ends nowhere.
art artist roles
The role of art in society differs for every artist.
art brain matter
You have to have conviction and completely question everything and anything you do. No matter how much you study, no matter how much you know, the side of your brain that has the smarts won't necessarily help you in making art.
art crazy rip
In art or architecture your project is only done when you say it's done. If you want to rip it apart at the eleventh hour and start all over again, you never finish. I was one of those crazy creatures.
art fields architecture
I left science, then I went into art, but I approach things very analytically. I choose to pursue both art and architecture as completely separate fields rather than merging them.