Maya Lin; Artist-Architect of Light and Lines

by Jeanne Walker Harvey
Illustrated by Dow Phumiruk
2018-19 Star of the North Nominee

Maya Lin has always loved to explore.  As a child, she explored the outside world starting with the forest in her backyard.  Her father was an artist who worked with clay while her mother was a poet who wrote poems.  Maya watched the two of the create art in different ways and knew that someday, when she grew up, she would want to create too.  Maya traveled all over the world to learn about art and to think about what it was she most wanted to create.  In her last year of college, she entered a contest to design a memorial to honor the soldiers who had died in the Vietnam War.  There were 1,421 entries and many were designed by world famous architects.  Maya wasn't sure her entry would even have a chance, but she was young and brave and believed in her dreams.