In celebration of Women’s History Month, Pick Up Sticks Jewelry Company is featuring prominent women throughout the month and highlighting the impact they had on the world. And to add a little more fun to the history lesson, we are selecting jewelry charms that embody each woman’s unique personality and accomplishments. Today we are celebrating Maya Lin.
Monumental Maya
In 1981 Maya Lin, a 21-year old undergrad at Yale University, entered the consciousness of America when her design for the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial was selected from a competition totalling 1,420 entries. Her visionary design encourages interaction between the viewers and the memorial. Making no political statement, it commemorates the sacrifice and heroism of the 58,318 fallen soldiers through engraving their names in chronological order of loss on highly polished, black granite walls. The walls intersect like two V-shaped wings, one pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument. At the time of her design selection, it stirred reflection, debate, opposition, and intense controversy. Since officially opening to the public in November 1982, the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial has become the most visited monument in Washington, DC, and one of the most well-known memorials in the world.
By 1989, when Maya’s design for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, was completed, she was established as a preeminent architectural designer. Other notable monuments and sculptures followed throughout the decades and across the country that embrace the themes of nature, landscape, and the environment, while utilizing technological elements.
Embracing Diversity
Lin draws inspiration from widely diverse sources: her Chinese-American heritage, Japanese gardens, European multi-use parks, Hopewell Indian earthen mounds, and American earthworks artists of the 1960s and 1970s. Weaving an American fabric from differing threads, Maya Lin broke open new avenues and expanded public understanding. Focusing on “how humanity deals with mortality in the built form,” she connects the viewer, through immediate sensory experience, with major historic events. Inspiring thoughtful examination, emotional bonding, and the reconciliation of oppositions, Maya Lin’s work has promoted human rights and changed the way people view the world and the events of their times.
Charming Maya
As Maya is an expert at diverse design and mediums, the first charm we selected that captures her spirit is “Artful,” which states, “She is an artist and life is her canvas.” And because Lin’s monuments and sculptures are destinations for thousands of visitors “You Are Here” is another fitting charm. The reverse side of the charm bears the words, “Take the road less traveled,” as she is certainly a visionary in her designs, creating works both controversial and unique. Our Pearl Rosary necklace is a beautiful compliment to these charms and also to Maya and her Asian roots.
Sources
“Lin, Maya Y.” National Women’s Hall of Fame, [online] Available at: www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/maya-y-lin/ [Accessed 05 Mar. 2019].
“Maya Lin.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, [online] Available at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Lin.