I saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial not as an object placed into the earth but as a cut in the earth that has then been polished, like a geode. Interest in the land and concern about how we are polluting the air and water of the planet are what make me want to travel back in geologic time-to witness the shaping of the earth before man.

Maya Lin

Categorized in : Men Land Cutting

I try to give people a different way of looking at their surround... by Maya Lin

I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.

bad-ass badass art

Sometimes I think creativity is magic; it's not a matter of finding an idea, but allowing the idea to find you.

creativity writing art

I though about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar. The idea occurred to me there on the site. Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it. As if you cut open the rock and polished it.

cutting pain loss

A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time. I don't see anything that I do as a static object in space. It has to exist as a journey in time.

space artist journey

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.

bad-ass badass architecture

If we forget what used to be, then we’ve lost an ability to really be sensitive to our surroundings.

sensitive used forget

To fly we have to have resistance. by Maya Lin

To fly we have to have resistance.

encouragement wisdom inspirational

Our lives are given meaning by our actions-accomplishments made while we are "here" that extend beyond our own time.

our-actions accomplishment made

An artist fights to retain the integrity of a work so that it remains a strong, clear vision. Art is and should be the act of an individual willing to say something new, something not quite familiar.

strong integrity art

I also wanted remembering the past relevant to the present. Some people wanted me to put the names in alphabetical order. I wanted them in chronological order so that a veteran could find his time within the panel. It's like a thread of life.

names order past

To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.

dream positive life

I like to think of my work as creating a private conversation with each person, no matter how public each work is and no matter how many people are present

creating people thinking

You have to let the viewers come away with their own conclusions. If you dictate what they should think, you've lost it.

artist lost thinking

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.

tiny artist want

When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of view, you don't pry into other people's business.

artist views war

OK, it was black, it was below grade, I was female, Asian American, young, too young to have served. Yet I think none of the opposition in that sense hurt me.

artist hurt thinking

If we can't face death, we'll never overcome it. You have to look it straight in the eye. Then you can turn around and walk back out into the light.

light eye overcoming

All my work is much more peaceful than I am. by Maya Lin

All my work is much more peaceful than I am.

peaceful love peace

Sometimes you have to stop thinking. Sometimes you shut down completely. I think that's true in any creative field.

creativity creative thinking

Nothing is ever guaranteed, and all that came before doesn't pred... by Maya Lin

Nothing is ever guaranteed, and all that came before doesn't predicate what you might do next.

next might