Wonderful examples of light, line, pattern, and design can often be found in very mundane objects.  One evening I was walking from the kitchen to the bedroom when, as if seeing it for the first time, one of the lamps in the house really caught my eye.  I must have walked past this same lamp a hundred times, if not a thousand or more.  The lamps are a nice design in and of themselves.  But on this occasion my attention was drawn to the lampshade—to the texture of its cloth-like surface, to the strong, dark, ribbing, and to the quality of its illumination.

I stopped in my tracks.  Literally.  After a closer inspection of the lampshade I decided to get my camera.  I must have worked with that lamp for a half hour.  It was really a joy to see new lines, to envision an abstract image, in that lamp.  I tilted my camera slightly to “see” a single rib as a strong diagonal.  Parallel threads arrayed in a herringbone pattern completed the design.