Artist Spotlight: Maya Lin

Sculptor

Notable work: Vietnam Memorial

"Many of her projects have a surface simplicity, shaped by an underlying intellectual and emotional complexity. "

Just because something looks simple, it doesn't mean that it cannot carry a deep intent and message.

How does she get started? Research!

Lin does a lot of research for the foundations of her work and enlists experts to make sure she gets it right. "The last thing I would want to do," she explains, "is something that, from an academic or historic point of view, is not just inaccurate but wrongheaded." Maya Lin has maintained a careful balance between art and architecture throughout her career, creating a remarkable body of work that includes large-scale site-specific installations, intimate studio artworks, architectural works and memorials.

Lin focuses on the landscape specifically as she works. She strives to tie in her work the the landscape.

VIDEO: http://www.art21.org/videos/short-maya-lin-disappearing-bodies-of-water

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