show and tell

I was going through some photos on the computer recently when I came across this:

It was created by the very lovely and talented Mrs. Camino, and I am quite proud of it. She christened it "sexy lamp" upon its completion, but I have since come to know it as "Holly Golightly".

It was originally an oddly shaped two and a half foot lamp with powder blue and cream colored stripes that not even a mother would love. I doubt that any style movement, thrift shop, or factory worker in China would've claimed it in its original condition, and I believe that I even gave a literal cringe when she brought it in. She had found it by a dumpster, I believe, and saw the potential in its odd shape where others only saw a hideous lighting implement that made them yearn for the dark. But two coats of paint, some mosaic work, and a new lampshade has rendered it a piece of art.

It now sits in her office area downstairs, but I hope to someday claim it for the Rexroom. I now sit among furniture that my mother-in-law could not give away at the last yard sale. Yes, now take the furniture that you have just imagined and distill anything redeeming about it and you'll have the current incarnation of the Rexroom. There are palm trees and there are stains, and I cannot tell into which camp some of the large color spots fall. There is a poster of Jack Kerouac, another of John Coletrain, a map of the Appalachian trail, a framed page of Bear Bryant postage stamps, an artist's rendition of soldiers at Shiloh, and some of my own meager artwork adorning the walls. There is bamboo and wicker and piles of CDs on particle board shelves. There is a milkcrate of records but no working record player, aside from my grandfather's antique hand cranked player from the thirties that is cool as hell but serves no practical purpose. It is a mismatch of things that probably deserve to be placed next to dumpsters with various musical instruments and memorabilia scattered about. I pray daily to be the subject of one of those TLC (or whatever channel they are on) make-over shows.

Anyway, I thought you should see the lamp.