Austin residents are often greeted by a giant Adirondack chair outside Violet Crown City Church, located in the Crestview neighborhood. This oversized piece of furniture, which sometimes features vibrant rainbows or messages advocating for gun reform, has become a local fixture, intriguing many passersby.
Colin Cooper, a longtime resident of the area, expressed curiosity about the chair he frequently encounters. He shared his inexplicable connection to it, saying, “I want to know who paints it, where do the ideas come from, and why is it a chair?”
To uncover the story behind the chair, I visited the church and met Pastor Jay Cooper, an individual uniquely tied to its creation. Despite sharing a last name, Jay and Colin are not related.
Having served as the church’s pastor for over six years, Jay revealed that the chair has been around for nearly a decade. Its origin dates back to a night when he stumbled upon a pile of discarded wood during a walk while undergoing a divorce. “I’ve always been a bit of a dumpster diver,” Jay admitted, explaining his tendency to reclaim furniture and wood. “In the carpentry world, it’s called upcycling. I guess in the Christian world, it’d be called resurrection.”
With little foresight, Jay fashioned the wood into a chair, which initially sat in front of his home in Clarksville before it found its permanent spot on the church lawn. “How the church said yes to putting that chair there is still a mystery to me,” Jay remarked. “They were just like, ‘Sure, he’s excited; let him do it.’
Over time, Jay has decorated the chair with over 125 unique designs, each crafted by his own hand. He expressed amazement at how the chair has taken on a life of its own, noting that while he originally painted it monthly, the rapid pace of current events has inspired more frequent updates. “Ideas just come to me in my sleep,” he said.
When we met, the chair sported a design referencing the sitcom “Arrested Development,” complete with a shower curtain and a pair of faux jean shorts, a nod to the character Tobias Fünke’s peculiar fashion choice. Jay’s earlier designs were often lighthearted, but he acknowledged that his themes have become more provocative over time.
The chair has featured messages advocating for social justice, including calls for gun reform, support for Pride Month, and solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Recently, it also bore a message opposing the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “Whether they’re justice-related or supporting the sacred worth of all human beings in response to something the president says, I put it up there,” he explained.
Among the messages displayed have been “Thou shall not worship guns” and “I pair well with banned books.” In January, one particularly poignant design read, “We want snow, not ICE,” in response to multiple fatalities linked to ICE operations.
While the public generally responds positively to the chair, attracting newcomers to the church, not all reactions have been favorable. Jay recounted instances of vandalism, though he remains undeterred by criticism. “We don’t put up messages just to be provocative, but more to encourage those who generally are not supported by this administration or by society,” he stated. “For me, it’s really important that our church be seen as a good neighbor.”
Three days after my conversation with Jay, I returned to the chair to find it had already been repainted with a new design. I met Colin there again and shared insights about Jay and the creativity behind the chair’s various themes. While the reason for choosing a chair remains elusive, Colin, who does not attend church, appreciates the discussions it fosters within the community.
Reflecting on a previous design supporting marriage equality, Colin recalled a moment when he had to explain the message to his nephew. “I thought it was nice that we could have that discussion and have it prompted in a way that I could talk about issues that he may not hear about otherwise,” he said.
