Maya Lin Reflects on Working Toward Peace

I cannot remember a time when I was not concerned with environmental issues or when I did not feel humbled by the beauty of the natural world. A strong respect and love for the land exists throughout my work.

I take inspiration from topography and natural phenomena: water patterns, solar eclipses, mappings of the ocean floor, ice formations, undulations of the landscape. My work asks the viewer to pay closer attention to the land.

As we begin the new millennium, we have to think of peace not just as among our own species but as encompassing all species that live on this planet. We must look at how our activities affect the natural world in which we live.

We are now seeing incredible losses of other species, occurring in large part from habitat destruction as we expand and grow into more and more territory. Experts have called it the sixth largest extinction the world has seen and the only one caused by one species, humankind. I believe that peace will only come when we learn to live on this planet in a way that allows all other creatures to exist alongside us.

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