Material and Dimension:
A pair of clay bookend with painting on them.
The 3 dimensions: L x H x W = 4.5 x 8 x 4.5 inches
When my son was admitted to Harvard, I was very excited. I wanted to find a meaningful gift that could both congratulate his achievement, wish him the best in the future, as well as being useful and showing my love. Finally I chose to make and paint bookends. This medium would be something tangible for him to use at school, as well as giving me ample room for expression.
There are two sides on both bookends. On one of them, I painted the Harvard logo with my son’s class year (2003-2007) on the front. On the back of it, I wrote a poem and painted an evergreen vine to accompany it. This part is to show my love that is “forever green, in the sunshine, in the rain.”
For the other bookend, The Sun is on the top, next to it there is my son’s first name-Jimmy. The “Sun” has double meaning - the day time and my son’s last name. In the middle, I painted a book and a few things he would enjoy - a Frisbee, a volleyball, and a bowl of food. I wish that my son would work hard and have fun when the Sun is up. On the bottom of that side, I painted the moon and stars, hoping that my son would sleep earlier and having many nice dreams. On the back of the same end, there is a famous Chinese Poem written in the Tang Dynasty, a poem which exhorts people to set lofty goals and to work to accomplish them.
In a family, between generations there are always some issues. Especially in the newly immigrated Chinese families, the differences of Western/Eastern cultures make the family issues more complicated. Chinese parents usually put a great deal pressure on their children for academic achievement and personal enrichment. This results in conflict between parents and children, who are more interested in having fun. Also, in Chinese culture, people are shy to say out loud: “I love you!” It seemed to me, sometimes our children might have received too much pressure and criticism without tangibly knowing the parental love and appreciation that lay behind this. This could affect the relationship between the generations. With that in mind, I tried to find some ways to show my love to my grown-up son without embarrassing him and myself. I found that art is a good vehicle to carry out self-expression and to deliver message. My bookends offered me a good platform to express myself.
In a seminar with an educational topic, I presented the bookends with some explanation of its content to my son as a surprise gift. It was well received. My son gave me a big hug in front of a big crowd. Such open expressions of love are not very common to see in the Chinese community. I saw some parents in tears...
I hope the bookends will stay on my son’s book shelf. Whenever he touches them to remove his books, they will remind him about mom’s unconditional love: “Forever green, in the sunshine, in the rain”.
SantaLucia February 2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7507087@N06/?saved=1
