Editing Maya Lin (section)

==Design methodology==

Maya Lin calls herself a "designer," rather than an "architect".<ref>In a 2008 interview, she said, "I'm not licensed as an architect, so I technically cannot label myself as an architect, although I would say that we pretty much produce with architects of record supervising. I love architecture and I love building architecture, but technically, legally, I'm not licensed, so I'm a designer." {{cite web|url=http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/mayalin.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915223311/http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/mayalin.cfm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2008-09-15|title=Between Art and Architecture: The Memory Works of Maya Lin|publisher=[[American Association of Museums]]|date=July–August 2008|access-date=October 27, 2011}}</ref> Her vision and her focus are always on how space needs to be in the future, the balance and relationship with the nature and what it means to people. She has tried to focus less on how politics influences design and more on what emotions the space would create and what it would symbolize to the user. Her belief in a space being connected and the transition from inside to outside being fluid, coupled with what a space means, has led her to create some very memorable designs. She has also worked on sculptures and landscape installations, such as “Input” artwork at Ohio University. In doing so, Lin focuses on memorializing concepts of time periods instead of direct representations of figures, creating an abstract sculptures and installations.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}

Lin believes that art should be an act of any individual who is willing to say something that is new and not quite familiar.<ref name="Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision"/> In her own words, Lin's work "originates from a simple desire to make people aware of their surroundings, not just the physical world but also the psychological world we live in."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Boundaries|last=Lin|first=Maya Ying|date=2000|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0684834170|location=New York|oclc=43591075|url=https://archive.org/details/boundaries00linm}}</ref> Lin describes her creative process as having a very important writing and verbal component. She first imagines an artwork verbally to understand its concepts and meanings. She believes that gathering ideas and information is especially vital in architecture, which focuses on humanity and life and requires a well-rounded mind.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Campbell|first1=Robert|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8625723.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924201534/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8625723.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 24, 2015|title=Rock, Paper, Vision Artist and Architect Maya Lin Goes Beyond her Powerful Vietnam Veterans Memorial|access-date=March 7, 2015|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=November 30, 2000}}</ref> When a project comes her way, she tries to "understand the definition (of the site) in a verbal before finding the form to understand what a piece is conceptually and what its nature should be even before visiting the site".<ref name="Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision" /> After she completely understands the definition of the site, Lin finalizes her designs by creating numerous renditions of her project in model form.<ref name=":0" /> In her historical memorials, such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the ''[[Women's Table]]'', and the [[Civil Rights Memorial]], Lin tries to focus on the chronological aspect of what she is memorializing. That theme is shown in her art memorializing the changing environment and in charting the depletion of bodies of water.<ref>{{cite web | last=TenBrink | first=Marisa | title=Maya Lin's Environmental Installations: Bringing the Outside In | url=https://publications.kon.org/urc/v9/Interconnected-Through-Art/tenbrink.pdf | location=South Dakota State University | page=2 | access-date=2025-05-25}}</ref> Lin also explores themes of juxtaposing materials and a fusion of opposites: "I feel I exist on the boundaries. Somewhere between science and art, art and architecture, public and private, east and west.... I am always trying to find a balance between these opposing forces, finding the place where opposites meet... existing not on either side but on the line that divides."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Deitsch|first=Dina|title=Maya Lin's Perpetual Landscapes and Storm King Wavefield|magazine=Woman's Art Journal|volume=30|issue=1|year=2009|page=4}}</ref>