GROUNDED Woven Blankets

Need a little more color in your life? Try on this 100 % pure cotton woven blanket for size. You can hang it on a wall, throw it across the back of your sofa or in your car for a charming picnic spread. Each blanket is woven in vibrantly dyed yarn from 195 color combinations with the backing made a mirror image color negative of the front to bring one of Jennifer S. Levine's original paintings to life. The blanket is washed after weaving. The yarn contracts for a firm hold. Then, the piece is finished with a 2 IN fringe to prevent fraying and frame the design. Due to the process, size can vary + / - .5 / 1 IN.

Machine wash in cold water. Mild detergent. Gentle cycle. Do not bleach or wring.

ABOUT THE PAINTING:

GROUNDED: Acrylic on canvas, 3 x 2 FT.

According to Merriam-Webster, GROUNDED means mentally and emotionally stable. But, being “grounded” is really a subjective thing, don’t you think?

Some people find themselves grounded in community, some in routine. Some people find themselves grounded in a space, physically in the world sphere or mentally in meditation. Some find themselves grounded in ritual. No matter which way one seeks it, everybody needs it.

I’ve traveled many different versions of myself in this life. No matter where I went, I always prided myself on being grounded… until, I wasn’t.

Quite honestly, there are certain whispers of memories I have that I ask myself, “Who the, what the hell was that?” When I speak of such misty memories, I ponder “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Funny enough, for all the times it crosses my mind, it isn’t my favorite poem. The reason my mind draws back to Frost is for the way I was introduced to it. I still remember the 8th grade classroom with desks gathered in a circle, facing on another, and books crowded on whiteboard ledges, ready to be borrowed against weekly reading assignments. We took turns in the circle reading stanzas aloud then discussed it. This time, there was silence in the exchange when our teacher asked, “What else could ‘the road not taken’ mean?” I raised my hand and suggested the author was talking about the road HE had not taken.

That day was any given school day. And though I am by far not the most brilliant of my long-graduated classmates, I’m sure they remember as little about that footnote of a lesson as I remember it a new chapter opening. That was the day words gathered a new meaning for me, birthing a writer… made all the difference.

Now, looking back, having traveled those many different versions of myself, I see I was grounded. It was never about space and time for me, was the journey. It wasn’t about classic definitions of success for me, was the peaks and valleys. I look at this painting as an allegory of that journey, the journey we all have in our different expressions.