What a wonderful chair!

Chair can be very, very big!

Chair can simply mean a seat where you can sit on and take a good rest. Also, chair can stand for an important position title like department chairperson, conference chairman, or committee chairwoman.

What else can chair mean?

Here I want to introduce a very special chair, which, artistically, symbolically, and environmentally speaking, is meaningful. This artwork was created by Mrs. Chen (郭麗容), whom we met at a Herbal-related healthy breakfast shop next to Tainan city park.

Environmentally speaking, this artwork was made of reclaimable PET water bottles (see the close-up photos at the necks of husband and wife), marbles (inlaid at chair base), sands (paved at chair base), paper clay (heads, hands, and feet) and etc., and color paint as well. These are materials readily available from our daily life environment.

Artistically speaking, it's smart and creative that Mrs. Chen put those reclaimed things together and formed a chair, with a couple of husband and wife (with necklace), hand in hand in the back and arms lifted in the front. Within these two arms, there're three kids, hand in hand, under the housetop.

Symbolically speaking, according to Mrs. Chen, these three kids are older sister and younger brothers. They were well-protected by father and mother in a different way. It's quite clear to see that father is in black face and mother in white face. And what does this mean? Obviously, the father took the role of discipline performer whenever kids go wild, and the mother the role of comforter. If you look closely at the two arms in the front, father's bigger arm is in falling gesture, while mother's thinner arm is in lifted position. To this, Mrs. Chen said, "it's because father became exhausted

after disciplining kids and mother had to hold the tearing kids gently."

What about the big and small hearts? Some may be curious to ask, "Why father's red heart is smaller and mother's bigger?" "Well, most of times, mother suffered more when kids were punished severely, and she needed more heart capacity to endure. So, that's why mother has a bigger heart.", Mrs. Chen explained.

Mrs. Chen asked us, "Do you know why the thenar looks like a hoe?" she herself answered,"We all know the hoe is used in gardening or in the field for soil loosening. Soil loosening is a hard and tough work before seeds spreading. With this hoe-like thenar, this means these three kids were supported firmly and strongly by hard and diligent work of father and mother." Yes, that makes a lot of sense.

Let's come back to the two pairs of hands of father and mother. There's one more meaning I think I have left out. I remember Mrs. Chen said, "in the front, one father's disciplining hand and one mother's comforting hand seem to be in different state of mind, knowing the meaning of face color; yet in the back, still they are mind of one accord."

Children discipline is always an issue of great concern. No matter what opposite opinions may exist among parents, children are the most precious diamond in the eye of parents and they are provided with the best. Like the sparkling diamond-like marbles inlaid on this chair base, these three children were surrounded by those precious beads. Such essence is what Mrs. Chen has tried to demonstrate.

Well, chair can be a heart-touched and heart-beaten story about a family under the housetop.