About me
Hi, I’m Leanne Lin, a junior at Columbia University studying Art History and Psychology. Art history taught me that a painting is never only its image. A work’s value depends on the taste of its moment: who had the power to collect and exhibit, what the culture feared, and what it wanted to see. A painting that once defined its era can feel like a stranger within decades. As trends shift, so does what people find believable, which is why storytelling is what keeps something meaningful. Whatever I make, its meaning depends on the world it enters, so my job is to read that world honestly and tell a story that feels true within it.
I lead Pulse at Columbia Marketing Club, a student-run marketing agency, and I feel lucky to help it grow and bring more hands-on creative experience to students. As an associate in my first year, I helped develop a rebrand for an art x finance company, which showed me how much students can contribute when they’re given real work. Now I recruit and negotiate partnerships with brands for our associates, while organizing workshops on turning open-ended creativity into a structured, curated story a client can act on.
Over the past two summers, I worked in marketing at Mido Watches (The Swatch Group) and Golden Goose in Shanghai, gaining hands-on experience in brand strategy, activation, partnerships, PR, and social media. I learned that consistency and adaptation must work together, that a strong idea needs a lot of detail to become a finished piece, and that what simply gets attention is different from what builds a lasting story.
I also see the world through traditional arts, a way of looking that comes from my grandfather, a traditional Chinese artist from Taiwan. I create mixed media installations, paintings, and documentaries, often in my free time. I believe these art forms can reach people’s hearts, and I want that connection at the center of everything I make.
I’m continuing to explore how storytelling, curation, and marketing shape what people value, and how a culture’s taste changes the stories brands tell. I want to keep learning how to build stories that feel honest in every medium, from a gallery wall to a campaign.
Red became the color of this site because it carries two lessons from my grandfather’s work: the red circle that marks excellence, which I hold my own work to, and the single touch that brings a whole piece to life.
In calligraphy, a red circle drawn over or beside a character marks high excellence.
In his abstract paintings, the red pigment is what I remember most, because it is the one touch that completes the piece and makes the rest of the composition feel alive.
For me, that is what art does. It brings the inner world into focus so it can meet the viewer. The same is true of the stories I tell in marketing and film, where curation decides what stands out and what meaning people take away.
Red is my way of marking what matters most, and of inviting viewers to find both the story and the self within it.