RUMINATION 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:

RUMINATION: Acrylic on canvas, 2 x 1 FT.

Rumination means a deep or considered thought about something, something written or spoken that expresses such pondering or musings. For all intent and purpose, one could argue that all of these accompaniments with my paintings are ruminations. And, that’s true but it goes further than that.

Originally when I started approaching my work in this manner, through color and word, I envisioned a series being called: Use Your BLEEPING Words. The idea was a response to feeling like we are living in an increasingly noisy and rushed space. As that space has become normalized, we’ve lost our ability to sit still, our ability to process things and, most importantly, our ability to communicate within and without ourselves. I thought my best way to engage with this theme was through bold images which become thinking pieces of themselves and then adding the vignettes to open a verbal dialogue as well. As I’ve progressed in exploring this open-paged “artist book” theme, the pieces have become more than just using vocabulary as a tool but included a myriad of things from memories to ideas to… well, ruminations.

So, in this painting as a “thinking piece”, there are a few things going on here. It’s almost mathematical in composition with the equilateral triangle being the dominate feature. The triangle itself being vibrant, warm colors with under designs radiating out from what I was imagining was a kind of event horizon sitting on that stagnant space. The stagnant space being like an ocean of mystery, a “before awareness” allusion and then there was life. If we could see ideas being born, this is what I’d imagine it would look like. And, if you want to take in one step forward, one could suggest, though inverted, the triangle is both sacred and female.