by James
Maya Lin was born in Athens, Ohio, on November 5,1960. She grew up in Athens for most of her childhood. Her father was the Dean of Fine Arts at Ohio University. Her mother was also a professor of Asian and English literature at the university. She grew up around sculpture and art almost all her life. So when she was 19, in the year 1979, she went to Yale University to study architecture. She studied at Yale, for a while until she entered a contest to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Over 1,500 entries were submitted, and Lin won. In addition to the rights to design the memorial, Lin also won a $20,000 prize. She constructed her design in the National Mall in Washington D.C. She then went on to design other sculptures of her own, or for the public. This web page is on "Timetable," her most recent work. The sculpture was dedicated to Stanford University on October 20, 2000. The sculpture is made of black granite, steel, stone, and the flowing water element. It is 21 inches tall and approximately 10 1/2 feet in diameter.