Amy Lin never abandoned her love of art. And as the chemical engineer sat drawing a scene for a children’s book she intended to write later, she found herself inspired by the three red apples her fictional girl was carrying. The apples did not resemble the traditional red delicious; they were simply red circles. Mesmerized by the fruit, Lin doused a large sheet of paper in red dots. So began her trademark, which recently caught the attention of Washingtonian Magazine, which named her one of “40 People Under 40 to Watch.” It’s an interesting recognition for someone who got her degree in chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon.
Lin was torn when choosing a path after high school. She’s always loved both the arts and sciences. Choosing the more practical degree in chemical engineering, she vowed to use her engineering skills to support herself as an artist. Since earning her degree in 2001, she has done just that and has been rewarded by participating in more than 40 exhibitions, including five solo ones.
For her chemical engineering job, Lin compares herself to Dilbert in that she spends her week in a cube. “It’s like a boiled-down version of my apartment. It’s a huge, huge mess.” There is no chaos in her art, however. Her dots ebb and flow in patterns that she says create themselves—dots she doesn’t plan to abandon anytime soon.
