Family is inspiration for student's chair for charity
When he was selected to paint a child-sized Louis-style chair for a fund-raiser, he turned to his mother and grandfather for inspiration.
Danial Isaac, 16, who titled his chair Heart of Freedom, said: "The gold chair frame represents my mum, because she is someone with a heart of gold.
"The heart on the seat represents myself, and I'm watched over by my mother, which is represented by the eye on the backrest."
On the rear of his chair are also song lyrics composed by his grandfather, which he found meaningful as it talks about God, said the Rainbow Centre student who has cerebral palsy.
The orange sunset on the chair also represents Danial's time with his family and seeing it always pushes him through difficult times.
Organised by Rainbow Centre, Rainbow Chairity is an exhibition where 55 child-sized Louis-style chairs decorated by their students in collaboration with artists are on display on a rotational basis.
Rainbow Centre is a voluntary welfare organisation that serves about 1,200 students at its two special needs schools in Margaret Drive and Yishun Park.
The initiative aims to raise $600,000 for a new wing at the centre's Margaret Drive campus, which will serve over 500 students when it is completed in 2017.
Two chairs painted solely by their students, Danial Isaac and Noah Tan, were put up for a silent auction on Thursday, with a starting bid of $20,000 each. Both chairs fetched nearly a total of $50,000.
Noah, 15, who has been painting since he was five, said he was not confident of using a new type of painting material.
"This is my first time using fabric paint. I'm more familiar with watercolour and acrylic paint," he said.
The boy, who has mild to moderate autism, painted a version of a portrait that previously won special mention at the 2014 Singapore Youth Festival art exhibition.
His chair, titled The Face & I, features his favourite colours and shapes.
His mother, Rosyniah Wang, 49, a housewife, said: "It took a month to complete, and he put in a lot of effort. He would wake up in the morning at 8am, break for meals and then work until evening time."
Also present at the auction was guest-of-honour and Temasek Holdings executive director and chief executive Ms Ho Ching, who helped the two students to put the finishing touches on their chairs.
Happy that the new wing would cater to more students, especially early intervention cases for preschool children aged six and under, she said: " I do hope you will support generously to give each of these chairs a loving home, because behind those chairs are people with the heart, artists with a heart and children with dreams and hope."
The chairs will be on display at ION Orchard level 3 until Dec 15. Donations and chair pledges can be made at www.rainbowchairity.sg.
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