Lamp Lady

A couple of my favorite blogs have recently featured unique...um...let's just say "objects d'art"  The The Bloggess started it with her Big Metal Chicken.  You gotta read that story first to get the flavor.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.

Then my other favorite blog, Momastery had to show off her Mrs. Wardlowe, a giraffe.

All the time I'm thinking "That's nothing compared to The Lamp Lady."   I ran across a picture of her last week and submit her for your enjoyment.

The picture really doesn't do her justice.  She's much bigger in person, for one thing.  Plus, in person you can see that there is a hole drilled into her head for the lamp to attach to.  I still feel uneasy thinking how long she has had this mother of all headaches. 

Because I'm pretty sure this is a craft from the Fifties Era.  Possibly crocheted and created during either a really bad menopause by a woman with far too much time on her hands.  Or maybe she comes from a craft class at a mental hospital before someone got their meds adjusted.

I found her at a Women's Retreat years ago.  I think there was some sort of  weird gift exchange that year.  The minute I saw her I knew she had to be mine. There was an auction and I got her for some ridiculously low price like 50 cents when I was prepared to go to $100.  She was worth every penny, too.

Emily and Steve had just moved into a new house with a huge picture window in the front of the house.  I insisted Emily show off  Lamp Lady.  Emily told me that once Lamp Lady was in place nobody came to introduce themselves and welcome her to the neighborhood with a plate of brownies. But Lamp Lady was in all her glory there on a table peeking through the half-opened curtains shining her light in the evenings like a beacon for the dispossesed.

And I have a horrible confession to make. I think, well, I'm pretty sure-- I sort of threw her away in a fit of cleaning one drab day. She only lasted a month at Emily's before she got evicted for being tasteless and she spent the rest of her life with us in the garage.  How could I have thrown her away? How could I not have made just a little more room in my heart for Lamp Lady? We all have our regrets and throwing away Lamp Lady is one of mine.

Who can explain the attraction to something like the Big Metal Chicken or the Lamp Lady? What is about them? They are so much larger than life. Just one increment beyond good taste, maybe? Or maybe so many levels beyond taste that it falls into the whimsey category. Could Michelangelo have gone just one flourish  too far and left the Sistine Ceiling to be the butt of laughter?

Sometimes the world gets entirely too serious and big metal chickens or lamp ladies step up to the plate and let us enjoy ourselves without really knowing how or why.  To be honest, I wouldn't want to live with Lamp Lady but --oh, how she made my life special while she was here.