Amy Lin
The artist’s constructive obsession comes full circle with her abstract drawings
By Mirah Kang
Published: February 13th, 2007 | 2:38pm
Artist and chemical engineer Amy Lin is known for making abstract drawings using colorful dots (some barely visible) or open circles dance in all directions on paper. “My drawings explore the interactions among little circular dots,” Lin says. “The dots can represent many different things, but I usually think of them as being people.” Lin drew her first dot drawing in August 2004, but says she has been drawing since she was a child.
Last summer, Lin teamed up with Dr. Anne Collins Goodyear, an assistant curator at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., after Dr. Collins Goodyear selected Lin’s pieces at Touchstone Gallery. Dr. Collins Goodyear first saw Lin's "Arrival" drawing (a part of Lin's "Purple" series) at the Touchstone Gallery. "One of the things that impressed me was the simplicity and at the same time, the complexity of her drawings," Dr. Collins Goodyear says. "Her use of color and strong graphic quality by using circular elements made me want to look at the drawing more and look at what it was portraying." Apart from Lin's aesthetic statements in her drawings, Dr. Collins Goodyear was also intrigued by the drawings because they had a very strong sense of human dynamics and the sense of interaction between them. In winter 2006, Lin was offered her first solo show, Obsession, which was curated by Dr. Goodyear and held at the District of Columbia Arts Center. One of her drawings, “Separate Worlds,” sold within minutes at the opening reception.
Despite her busy schedule, Lin had a chance to talk about her obsessive personality and obsession with dots from her Virginia home.
One of the first questions that ran through my mind when I saw your work was ‘what triggers or inspires your art’?
From July 2003 to July 2004, I was dabbling in illustration. The last illustration I did was of a girl and a bear falling down a hill with three red apples. When I drew the apples, they were literally three big red spherical dots with no stems or leaves. After I finished that drawing, I realized that the most fun I had all year long was when I drew those three big red dots, so I created my first drawing consisting of nothing but red dots.
How much of being a chemical engineer influenced your art?
I don’t think there’s much direct influence between my engineering work and my art, but I think that art and engineering are very similar in that they both involve problem-solving. In both fields, you have a problem you're trying to solve and you have an infinite number of media and processes to use in solving it. Figuring out the best solution and implementing it is the fun part.
Are the drawings spontaneous or do they require extensive planning?
At the beginning of a drawing, sometimes I’ll have an idea of what the first few dots will look like, but sometimes I’ll just draw the first dot and decide where to go from there. At most, I'm thinking five or six dots out into the future as I’m drawing. On the rare occasions that I’ve started with a plan, I’ll usually change it once I get started.
Is the whole process therapeutic?
Sometimes it can be therapeutic and the dots will just flow out, but other times it’s distressing trying to figure out where the dots will go, and sometimes my head will hurt from the indecision.
How do you decide which colors to use?
It depends on my mood when I start a new drawing — I’ll pick the colors that look the most appealing at the time. But sometimes after I start a drawing, the colors might start to bother me and I’ll leave it and start a new drawing with different colors.
How long does it take you to finish one? And how much time do you spend working on your art?
The recent drawings have taken 30 to 120 hours each. The longest amount of time I spent on a drawing was over 300 hours each for two drawings I did in 2005 (“Affinity 3.6” and “Affinity 3.7”). The amount of time I spend drawing varies from week to week, but it’s typically around 35 hours per week.
How would you describe your personality?
I’m very obsessive. I think my mind is happiest when it has something to focus on; otherwise, it gets very frantic. Drawing dots is probably the first constructive obsession I’ve ever had. Usually when I fixate, it’s not good.
What were some of your aspirations growing up?
I spent a lot of time daydreaming and playing make-believe when I was a kid. Usually my little worlds didn’t have much bearing on reality, so I don’t think I spent too much time thinking about aspirations in the real world. I tried to avoid thinking about reality as much as possible.
Are you working on anything else besides your current drawings?
I’m working on a few things that involve other shapes and media, but they’re still in the experimental stage.
Check out Lin’s work at www.amylinart.com
Issue #35
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