Maya Lin Vietnam Memorial

Maya Lin

Maya Lin is an architect, sculptor, educator, and artist from the United States. Lin and her art feature across the United States. She became famous at the young age of 21 when she was chosen as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer. U.S. President Barack Obama awarded Maya Lin the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her design.

==Youth and Family==

Maya Ying Lin was born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio.O’Connell, 2016 Julia Chang Lin, her mother, was born in Shanghai, China, emigrating to the U.S. in 1949 during the bombing of Shanghai Harbor when she won a scholarship to Smith College.The Art Story Foundation, 2016Lin, 2003Maya Ying Lin’s intelligent and creative parents paved the foundation for her extensive artistic career.

The wound healed, but the scar in the earth remained to remind of the similar psychological impact of the war. Some veterans thought the memorial being underground disrespectful and that the black granite symbolized destruction and death. She claimed, “The Memorial is composed not as an unchanging monument, but as a moving composition to be understood as we move into and out of it.” On Veteran’s Day in 1982, the dedication of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial took place with an American flag and statue added against Lin’s suggestion.Hochman, M. (2006). Maya Lin, Vietnam Memorial. Green Museum, http://www.greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Issues/lin.php Lin began graduate school at Harvard University prior to the installation and she was forced to testify against the addition and for her design in general so many times that she withdrew from the college after one semester. Lin enrolled in Yale again to receive a Masters degree in 1986.The Art Story Foundation, 2016 ==Later

Lin’s architechtural skills also helped build the Manhattan Federal Courthouse, New York University’s Asian Pacific American Studies Institute, and a several buildings for the Rockefeller Foundation. Much of Maya Lin’s art and architectural work seeks to blend with the land rather than overpowering the natural landscape. The film Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision highlighted the artist’s life and work, including the Vietnam and other memorials. It won an Academy Award for documentary filmmaking in 1995. O’Connell, 2016 Lin continued to work and lecture while raising her girls. By the end of the 90s, her work involved two of her favorite things, nature and science. She formed a new style using satellite and aerial mapping and advanced sonar resonance