Maya Lin

The thing that struck me the most about Maya Lin was her calm yet persistent demeanor.

I doubt that anyone could watch that documentary and not understand that Maya is clearly very devoted to her work and possesses great talent. Yet, she did not strike me as arrogant or pretentious. I was continually impressed with Maya’s skills and determined work ethic but most of all how she was able to maintain a professional yet likable demeanor throughout all of her varied and challenging undertakings.

Maya Lin clearly posses an innate talent for designing both visually pleasing and emotionally charged works. In fact, in the scene where they announce the winner of the Vietnam Memorial design contest, the guy next to her mentions how the top design firms in the country were competing for the job while Maya, only a student at the time, ended up winning. However, I think her talent is also apparent in how she was able to successfully execute such a wide variety of designs. She makes sculptures, museum shows, houses, fountains, and some other creations I cannot even label, yet all done with extraordinary skill and expertise.

However, Maya Lin doesn’t just have natural talents, she also has an intense personal devotion to her work. She obviously dedicates an enormous amount of time and care into each project. I found this particularly noticeable in the scene where she is analyzing how the water flows over the letters in the civil rights structure. She talks about filling the points with epoxy to make sure that the water flow is even and doesn’t clump together. Also, in the glass project, she stated that she had to experiment heavily with different types of glass until she eventually found a mixture that finally possessed the color she felt was best. However, she also is very emotionally invested in each of her projects. There are numerous scenes where she discusses how she goes about planning each design and she spends a considerable amount of time talking about the emotions contained and portrayed by each design. During the scene where she examines the circular portion of the civil rights design, she talks about how anxious she was while she waiting for it to be fabricated, hoping desperately that it would turn out how she imagined.

Yet, I think Maya Lin’s best quality is her calm and mature demeanor. A lot of her tasks dealt with very controversial subjects. In fact, in quite a few of the issues she had little to no first hand experience. She discusses how most of the civil rights movement occurred before she was born and she talks about how she was fairly sheltered from the Vietnam War. However, she still as able to understand the significance of these events and convey that through her designs. She was only a student when she designed the Vietnam Memorial, and throughout the litigation that ensued, she was verbally attacked by people who were much older and more powerful than her. Yet, despite her obvious nervousness, she was able to clearly and logically defend her designs amidst the onslaught of belligerence. Also, as a professional procrastinator, I can relate to the stress of a fast approaching deadline. However, even when the museum curators are installing the show hours before the museum is supposed to open, she remains calm. Determined and focused, yet calm.

Even while under enormous pressure from forces far more powerful than herself, Maya Lin manages to retain a pleasant disposition, and even considering her seemingly endless talent and will to succeed, I feel that this is her best quality. From a young age, Maya has been able to successfully showcase her abilities, both in art and in cultural understanding, even while she is under enormous societal pressures. She attributes a lot of her strength and courage to her parents, and while I am sure that they deserve thanks, Maya also deserves the credit. Her parents are not in her shoes and although they raised her, Maya is still the one who had to stand there and defend her work while people questioned and accused her, and that is why I have developed a great respect for Maya Lin.