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Maya Lin: Artist- Architect of Light and Lines

Author: Jeanne Harvey Walker

About

Author

About

Author

Jeanne Walker Harvey is an award-winning children’s book author. She hopes books will inspire children to realize the power and beauty of words. Ever since she was a child, Jeanne dreamed of being a children’s book author. She was quite the bookworm as a girl. She loved curling up with her family’s collie and reading, reading, reading. Every week her mom took her to the local library, and Jeanne returned home with a tower of books.

Scholastic Interview with the Author

Why are you passionate about writing kid's Books?

An Interview

When Maya Lin's vision for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was chosen as the monument's design, she faced backlash from people who thought she was "to young". But Maya didn't back down, and now her thought-provoking work is visited by three million people each year and has been described by Vanity Fair as "far and away the greatest memorial of modern times- the most beautiful, the most heart-warming, the most subtle, and the most powerful."

I hold children in such high regard, and I feel a deep sense of responsibility to try to write stories that will hopefully inspire or resonate with them. I love their insights, imagination, enthusiasm, energy, humor, and compassion. The books I read as a child meant so very much to me because they expanded my world and allowed me to share in the experiences of others. If any of my books connects with a child in some such way, I'll always be greatly honored.

Why should young people know who Maya Lin is and learn about what she did?

You first heard of Maya Lin in College. How does Maya continue to inspire you years later?

What are your thoughts on creativity and arts in schools?

Have any of Maya's creative strategies helped you create children's books?

Interview Continued

I'm a huge advocate of creativity and the arts in schools in all forms. I believe when children's natural ability to be creatived is fostered and encouraged, their lives are greately enrihed, and they will sense more connection and care for their communtiies and the world in general.I strongly believe the arts the arts classes should be as valued as any other subject.

She is a renowned sculpture and landscape artist-architect. She was 21 when she won a contest to design the Vietnam Memorial. they were shocked when they opened the ennvelope and learned that the winner wasa young asian woman in college. She stood up to the challeneges she faced after winner.

She continues to inspire me. Her memorials are beautiful and powerful. She has turned her attention to the environment and her work is fascinating.

I found it really interesting to learn about Maya Lin's creative process. She designed the memorial for a class and in a way that she thought a jury would chose it. She wrote her essay after she designed the memroial I too, always write my books in the way that calls to me dn not by tryingto second-guess the publishing pmarket.

The Memorial

Maya Lin

Maya Lin

Maya Lin is an American architect and sculptor best known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.Maya Lin was born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio. She received her bachelor's degree from Yale, where she studied architecture and sculpture. During her senior year she won a nationwide competition to create a design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Her minimalist design aroused controversy but has become very popular with the public over the years.

Inspirational

Other Monuments

Her "What is Missing?" project is fascinating that combines many media types and historical information to connect people to species, places, and natural phenomena.

It was "the first component of her international multi-sited, multimedia art project dedicated to raising awareness about the current crisis surrounding biodiversity and habitat loss."

Being Chosen

She faced personal critiscms and government hearings. It was at one point called "a black gash of shame and sorrow". She followed the 3 requirements: contain the names of the soldiers missing or killed (57,000 names), need to not be political, and needed to be harmonious with the site on the Washington Mall. She envisioned the cut would be a mirrored edge, like the surface of a geode. People can interact with the names and their

reflections would be mirrored on the names. It was not a wall, but

an edge on the earth, an opened side.

The Contest

Presidential Medal of Freedom

"Maya Lin's...controversial and unconventional V-shaped memorial design (dedicated in 1982) symbolized the gravit of war and the loss of soldiers in a politically turbulent era." -President Obama

In 1981, she was 21 years old and a senior at Yale University. Her submission was selected out of 1, 441 submissions for the memorial.

Childhood

Her Early

Years

Born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio, Maya Lin is the daughter of Chinese intellectuals who fled their homeland in 1948, not long before the 1949 Communist takeover. Lin studied architecture and sculpture at Yale University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1981.

Submitted Design

The Design

The design she submitted was in sharp contrast to traditional war memorials: It was a polished, V-shaped granite wall, with each side measuring 247 feet, simply inscribed with the names of the more than 58,000 soldiers killed or missing in action, listed in order of death or disappearance. The monument was graceful and abstract, built to be slightly below ground level, and it eschewed the usual heroic design often associated with such memorials. This, of course, made the work controversial.

As soon as the winning design was unveiled, a group of Vietnam veterans loudly objected to virtually all of its key traits, referring to it ungenerously as the "black gash of shame.” In the end, after much nationwide debate that reached citizens and politicians alike, three realistic figures of soldiers, along with an American flag mounted atop a 60-foot pole, were placed near the monument —close enough to be a part of it but far enough away to preserve Lin’s artistic vision.

After what proved to be a draining experience for Lin, the monument was dedicated and opened

to the public on November 11, 1982,

Veterans Day. It has since

become a massive, and emotional,

draw for tourists, with more than 10,000 people per day viewing the work. It has been noted that its polished surface reflects the viewer’s image, making each visitor one with the monument. Of the power of the work, Lin wrote, "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.”

For its lasting power, the American Institute of Architects granted the monument its 25-Year Award in 2007.

The Finished Product

Be an Architect

Assignment

Discussion Questions

Design Your Own Memorial

- What memorials have you seen?

- Do you think Memorials are important? Why or Why not?

- Who should get to design memorials?

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