I was always making things. Even though art was what I did every day, it didn't even occur to me that I would be an artist. Maya Lin More Quotes by Maya Lin More Quotes From Maya Lin Nothing is ever guaranteed, and all that came before doesn't predicate what you might do next. Maya Lin next might I didn't have anyone to play with so I made up my own world. Maya Lin made play world My goal is to strip things down so that you need just the right amount of words or shape to convey what you need to convey. I like editing. I like it very tight. Maya Lin goal editing needs 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. Maya Lin architecture fields art Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture. Maya Lin tricky architecture art We were unusually brought up; there was no gender differentiation. I was never thought of as any less than my brother. Maya Lin differentiation artist brother If you don't remember history accurately, how can you learn? Maya Lin accuracy ifs remember I always give the analogy of the Earth at Night picture, of 7.3 billion of us, right? And everyone says, "Well, that's population." Well, if you took the entire world's population and you lived at the density of Manhattan proper - not a bad place to live - how much space do 7.3 billion people take up? The state of Colorado. At which point I end my lectures, because I want you to be thinking ... is this really a question of population, or is this a question of land use and resource consumption? And let's face it, the top 1.3 billion of us are doing all the damage. Sorry. Maya Lin sorry night thinking 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. Maya Lin matter brain art I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination. Maya Lin logic perfect math I'm as much interested in the form-making as well as getting you to think about what we're doing to the world around us. Maya Lin form world thinking Math, it's a puzzle to me. I love figuring out puzzles. Maya Lin puzzles math 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. Maya Lin rip crazy art Some artists want to confront. Some want to invoke thought. They're all necessary and they're all valid. Maya Lin invoke artist want Our parents decided not to teach us Chinese. It was an era when they felt we would be better off if we didn't have that complication. Maya Lin chinese parent would-be To fly, we have to have resistance. It's all about turbulence. Reacting to images of wave patterns in fluid motion. Maya Lin flight resistance patterns Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have. Maya Lin warmth architecture I loved school. I studied like crazy. I was a Class A nerd. Maya Lin crazy class school I always say I'm no different than a 19th-century landscape painter, it's just that we have these incredible tools to look at the Earth and look at the world around us differently. Maya Lin different earth world I do think the smaller-scale studio works have that incredible love of data crunching, whereas I would say the large-scale earthworks tend to be much more stripped-down. With the mappings, as connected as they are to a much more analytical idea, what's a map? And can I make a map about time? I think the first time was Hurricane Sandy, the flood plane; a moment in time, but indelibly marked on any of us who were in the city. Mapping time is something that I'm really interested in. Maya Lin incredibles moments thinking
