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
way architecture built
For the most part things never get built the way they were drawn.
artist levels rebel
I probably have fundamentally antisocial tendencies. I never took one extracurricular activity. I just failed utterly at that level. Part of me still rebels against that.
math perfect logic
I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.
math puzzles
Math, it's a puzzle to me. I love figuring out puzzles.
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.
bad-ass architecture fantastic
Architecture is like a mythical fantastic. It has to be experienced. It can't be described. We can draw it up and we can make models of it, but it can only be experienced as a complete whole.
forget sensitive used
If we forget what used to be, then we’ve lost an ability to really be sensitive to our surroundings.
ideas mind audience
It terrified me to have an idea that was solely mine to be no longer a part of my mind, but totally public.
chinese letters littles
When I was very little, we would get letters from China, in Chinese, and they' be censored. We were a very insular little family.
writing giving trying
I begin by imagining an artwork verbally. I try to describe in writing what the project is, what it is trying to do. I need to understand the artwork without giving it a specific materiality or solid form.
growing-up white littles
Growing up, I thought I was white. It didn't occur to me I was Asian-American until I was studying abroad in Denmark and there was a little bit of prejudice.
creativity thinking creative
Sometimes you have to stop thinking. Sometimes you shut down completely. I think that's true in any creative field.
pregnancy parent want
I had very few friends. We always ate dinner with our parents. We didn't want to go out. American adolescence was a lot wilder than I would have felt comfortable with.
college parent want
My parents are both college professors, and it made me want to question authority, standards and traditions.