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
artist want tiny
Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist. I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don't want to be an architectural firm. I want to remain an artist.
landscape saying translate
You just want to translate what you see. I keep saying I am no different from a 19th-century landscape artist.
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.
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.
math puzzles
Math, it's a puzzle to me. I love figuring out puzzles.
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.
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.
remember accuracy ifs
If you don't remember history accurately, how can you learn?
forget sensitive used
If we forget what used to be, then we’ve lost an ability to really be sensitive to our surroundings.
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.
college parent want
My parents are both college professors, and it made me want to question authority, standards and traditions.
resistance
To fly, we must have resistance.
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.
teaching
The only thing that mattered was what you were to do in life, and it wasn't about money. It was about teaching, or learning.