Maya Lin Vietnam Analysis

Every artist is different from how they create their artwork to what they go through to create the art.This documentary follows Maya Lin’s experience as she created some of her most well known work in addition to who she is. This was an interesting movie as she has many unique thoughts and ways to create her art while she also faced struggles as she created her monument for the Vietnam war.
To me Maya Lin is a strong woman who works hard to create art which carries a message. This woman at the young age of 21 was a student who was an artist who was in between two types of art not letting others tell her she had to be one or the other.Instead she kept going creating her own club as she followed her own passion not letting the fact she may not
make a lot of money affect her life. She does not rush the process as she travels to the location where it is to be put like when she created the Vietnam monument to get inspiration and see what it will look like in the end. Then for some she uses pastels to create sketches with few details although on the opposite side of the plain she uses not sketches and designs on location like with the glass garden on the roof. Plus she does not stick to one type of material but experiments such as with the glass and children's toys. This shows how creative she is as when looking at the glass she comes up with unique creation completely different from other.
Maya Lin does not even need some of these materials as she uses fields and landscape to mold her art into like the waves which carried a message without most realizing it. Each of her works are important to her and she puts a lot of effort into it turning into what she pictured. When asked to build a design for Yale to represent women she took time to understand what the monument was supposed to mean and even admits that she did not automatically have an idea and came to many other conclusion. like that yale was a male dominated school and used this as inspiration by using once again chronological order and placing the number of women each year to represent how things were changing. Each project she created is important and she does everything she and to make it a successful piece that is something that she is proud of.You can tell this as she goes to the site where it is to be installed to look at how it's going and follows the construction through the whole process. To her this is not just something a client asked her to make it is something she puts her heart and soul into with each carrying a specific message. To get this message across she tends to use chronological order a lot to represent so it is easier for
everyone to read and to add more meaning. This is specifically seen when she made the Vietnam monument as she wanted each name to stand out and not just be another on the list.This is why placing them in chronological order stands out as they all had a story that led to the event and she wants everyone to see the vast numbers in order as they occurred as the first death is as important as the last. In addition to using chronological order she also uses the land to her advantage by creating art which blends such as the circles which are covered by grass which can represent how even though they are not obvious the emotions and message are still there.
The controversy surprised me especially as I saw that many veterans were leading the protests as I thought they would appreciate having a place which represented their friends who died.
When I realized what they were creating I knew they would have lots of planning and that the ideas would jump back and forth so their idea of selecting the design in a contest made me believe that they would not be satisfied with whoever they chose. She had a plan which was unique from others and she stuck to her belief that death is a personal thing making sure that those that went there would be able to grieve and reflect in peace. The type of person she is stood out as she continued to stay confident as people criticized her work and tried to tear her down. The people were ruthless by insulting her and trying to force her to change her art and even get her design thrown out. For someone so young she kept her head up and did not let those against her discourage her. The design spoke for itself as she wanted it to as it was not meant to show the show the terrible times but those that lost their lives regardless of how. This did not contain anything offensive just stating the names so that people can look and reflect without distraction. Although I give her lots of credit for trying to compromise and work with the people who were against her for reasons like the fact she is a woman and not a veteran. In addition she tried to understand where the anger was coming from and I agree that any
any design would face this anger as it carried over from the war. As a relative of a Vietnam war veteran I feel that she did an amazing job putting together something that fit all people in the war who died regardless of where they came from or how they died.
Maya Lin alone is an amazing person who is a dedicated artist who did not let others affect her. This woman was only 21 years old in college but wanted to do what she loved not fitting to what was expected. She did not let what others say about her change the way she created art and continued to create various forms of art with a message. By watching Maya Lin I was able to witness some of the struggles they go through in addition to her artistic perspective which made her famous.