Maya Lin, Rain & Birdsongs
Hi! Welcome back to my blog!
While studying art history at Ohio University, it was brought to my attention that famed artist/architect Maya Lin grew up in the town that OU calls home, Athens, Ohio. If you aren’t familiar with Lin’s work, I suggest you look her up! She’s the mastermind behind some really important memorial projects, like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and also specializes in architecture (mostly requests from non-profits) and large-scale environmental works. The Oscar winning documentary about her, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994), is really interesting and worth a watch, too.
Lin came to my attention again recently because of an article written by Sarah Medford in WSJ. Magazine. (If you’re interested, see Issue 132, p.128) Her past accomplishments with public works and private projects are highlighted, and of course they’re amazing, but what is really interesting to me is her newest project, What Is Missing? which is a website that documents loss. Loss related to nature; loss of species, loss of habitat, loss of experience. The site (whatismissing.org) is complex with charts and facts, and even offers an option to share your own memories related to nature changing around you. Personally, thinking of loss or changes in the nature around me (mostly Southeast Ohio and Western West Virginia) brings to mind the seasons changing, bees, and lightning bugs (aka fireflies). During my lifetime, I’ve seen winter come later and stay longer, more rain and humidity in the spring, a hotter summer, and a later fall. I’ve also seen changes in the amount of bees and lightning bugs during summer time.
Lin’s ongoing project seems like a platform to showcase and share a lot of gloom and doom, which we all have plenty of these days, but there’s a "solutions” section that has examples and options for getting involved and shares what is being done to help out! Overall, it’s a worthwhile site to visit and interact with, plus an example of how a digital project can be both artistically attractive with crisp and appealing design elements and also serve a larger purpose of education and information sharing. * If you want to check it out & have any memories/info to share, visit the site at whatismissing.org
As for me today… I’m working on illustrations for the upcoming children’s book. It’s such a fun project! And I’m so excited to see it coming together. It’s raining softly outside with a slight breeze and I have a view from my desk of rolling green leaf covered hills. Birds swirl around the bird feeders I filled right before the rain. I love hearing their pretty songs. Sometimes a gloomy day is the best to cozy up with a cup of coffee and create. Right!?
Thanks for stopping by :) Until next time, happy creating…