Speed of Life

Wanted to thank: Hans Heiner Buhr in Georgia (not the state- the country) for his comments on Silk Road. hans heiner buhr Marja-Leena Rathje from Finland (now resident in Canada) for her comments on Lalla Essaydi. marja-leena rathje Linden Langdon for her work in Tasmania. linden langdon Vvoi in Portugal for his thoughts on contemporary art. vvoi And Laila Carlsen from Norway (now in SF) for her friendship, inspiration and amazing work. Laila Carlsen "Dance" 60" x 45" oil on canvas 2005 Laila - when can we expect your blog?

Update: May 2008 - Painter and Model: Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping Sells for $33.64 Million Both Franklin and Todd pay homage to the Lucian Freud article in the London Times . Lucian Freud "The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer" 54"x42" oil on canvas 2005 This painting will be the most recent work in a a retrospective exhibition , curated by William Feaver, on show this summer at Venice's Museo Correr (12 June-30 October 2005). The exhibition is organised by the Venetian Civic Museums on the occasion of the 2005 Venice Biennale.

by Gregg Chadwick While glancing at the schedule for this week’s National Critics Conference (May 25-28, 2005) at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles, I came across the description for Elizabeth Zimmer's "Kamikaze Writing Workshop." Obviously the word "kamikaze" has shifted in tone and meaning since it first entered the American vocabulary during the last years of WWII. I doubt that Zimmer’s criticism class will make a fiery plunge into the conference hall as a final project. But I was reminded of the important work being done in the fields of aesthetics and history by Emiko Ohnuki – Tierney at the University of Wisconsin. Cherry blossom send off. Kamikaze means "divine wind" in Japanese, and originally referred to a miraculous typhoon that saved Japan from a Mongolian invasion force in the 13th century. The Japanese Navy used this term to describe their suicide attack planes. In America, the word "kamikaze" describes actions that are...

Painting in the studio today... Gregg Chadwick Silk Road 48"x38" 2005 Private Collection

by Gregg Chadwick Modern Kicks reports today on the 2005 DeCordova Museum's Annual Exhibition. The report from Modern Kicks: " those of you who haven't already been hearing a lot about Lalla Essaydi, expect to do so." Encouraged by Modern Kicks prompting I add my thoughts about Lalla Essaydi: The Boston based photographer Lalla Essaydi grew up in Morocco. Her childhood experiences in a remote family residence inspired a return visit two decades later in which Lalla began a series of images that she recently described to T. Trent Gegax in Newsweek's International Edition as her reinterpretation of "the Arab female. We're always seen as the woman who's oppressed, when we're actually negotiating every day." Essaydi creates and then photographs henna scripted tableaux of women in draped interiors. Essaydi's henna calligraphy runs across figures, skin, floors and walls. The arabic words comprise, as reported by Gegax, "Essaydi...

by Gregg Chadwick A new mayor has been elected in Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa - the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since the city's pioneer days. L.A.'s last Latino mayor, Cristobal Aguilar, left office in 1872, when Los Angeles was a frontier town of barely 6,000 people. Villaraigosa's win exemplifies the growing clout of Latinos in California, after decades of population growth that failed to lead to a rise in political power. This is a positive step that bodes well for the future of the city and the state of California. But there is still much to be done. As Bruce Springsteen said at his latest concert in L.A. - "The American government's border policy is a disgrace." Across the Border in Ensenada, Mexico photo by Gregg Chadwick On her blog today, Megan McMillan thinks of Wim Wenders' film, "The End of Violence", after overhearing the gardener's working at her apartment complex. Megan McMillan's description of t...

by Gregg Chadwick In response to Tyler Green's response to the Guardian: Diego Velazquez' "Juan de Pareja" is my favorite painting in America. Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez Juan de Pareja oil on canvas 1650 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York photo by Gregg Chadwick This is one the paintings that made me want to become a painter. Richard Diebenkorn's "Ocean Park #54" is my favorite painting by an American. Richard Diebenkorn "Ocean Park 54" 100" x 81" oil on canvas 1972 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art See: Diebenkorn and Kitaj Off Ocean Park R.B. Kitaj's "If Not, Not" is my favorite painting by a living American artist. R.B. Kitaj "If Not, Not" 60" x 60" oil on canvas 1975-76 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Video Art in Tom Bradley International Airport - CA Deadline: May 23, 2005. The City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department seeks to establish a pre-qualified pool of up to twenty (20) Video artists/artist teams to be considered for the upcoming Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) projects at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Artists who have experience working with multiple screen projections and are capable of occupying an entire space on a grand scale are being sought. The artists should address the context of the airport and the City of Los Angeles and help create an impressive moving visual art environment. This is an exciting opportunity for Video Artists to collaborate with a team and generate work that will enhance a dynamic space and engage millions of visitors each year. The artwork will be exhibited on a video wall and/or a linear “film strip”. The video wall is comprised of 20 40”LCD screens and covers an area approximately 25 feet wide and 10 feet high. Th...

From Gerald Nicosia in the San Francisco Chronicle " Phil Cousineau has long been a powerful presence in the San Francisco literary scene, but he is best known as a filmmaker and writer who has carried on and reinterpreted the work of Joseph Campbell, especially regarding the omnipresent influence of myth in modern life. Phil Cousineau photo by Gregg Chadwick Last year he also had a best- seller with "The Way Things Are," a collaboration with the religious philosopher Huston Smith. All this while Cousineau has been publishing -- in very limited editions -- collections of his own poetry, whose influence has been noted by a great many other major poets of his generation, including Antler and Jane Hirshfield. But his latest collection, The Blue Museum (Sisyphus Press; 152 pages; $12 paperback; P.O. Box 330098, San Francisco, CA 94133), comprising poems selected from his entire life's work, is a book readers will be unlikely to forget.  l to r: Gregg...

by Gregg Chadwick There is a cinematic light to the skies in Los Angeles at dusk and a Disney-like quality to the shopping arcades and restaurants. Encounter at LAX photo by Gregg Chadwick The level of energy is similar to New York but it is spread out horizontally and tends to dissipate along the edges as the city leaks into Orange County. Prompted by Megan and Murray's recent newcomer's thoughts on L.A. and my current exhibit at the LACMA Art Rental and Sales Gallery, I have begun to think about Los Angeles as a muse as well as a subject. What siren calls does this city sing? Ed Ruscha "LACMA On Fire" At my opening at LACMA last Friday, more than one person came up to me and asked if I was in the business -referring to film and television. As an artist in L.A. you must not forget your place on the periphery. But in that benign neglect, there is freedom for a visual artist. There is a sense of possibility even. And chance. Gregg Chadwick...

by Gregg Chadwick Artists create communities. And artists that share representation by the same gallery form a family. Dysfunctional maybe. But still a family. As a family of artists and with deep sadness those of us who exhibit at the Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco mourn the passing of Tom Fowler. Again, we are reminded how fragile life is. " More influential than current art trends is the religious or spiritual tradition of writing repetitive phrases as a form of meditation. Zen Buddhist scroll writings and Hebrew holographic writings are examples of this. Another motivation is the tradition of penitence. Saying a hundred Hail Mary's, or having to write mistakes over and over on a blackboard, is something we are all familiar with." - Tom Fowler Tom Fowler  "Why" There will be a memorial service for Tom Fowler at The Melting Point Gallery on Sunday, May 15, at 2:00 PM. The Melting Point is located at 1340 Bryant Street in San Francisco...

Carol Vogel at the New York Times reports: "Lawrence Graff, the London jeweler, successfully outbid five other contenders for "Liz," one of Andy Warhol's series of 13 paintings of Ms. Taylor, this one against a deep-red background. The 1963 painting was being sold by Irving Blum, the Los Angeles art dealer who had owned it for 40 years."

"Gregg Chadwick paints scenes from the life of Asia that reminds us of the monastic life of pilgrimage which has been all but lost in the West." -Ratnagarbha and Thomas Jones from "Urthona: Journal of Buddhism and the Arts" Issue 20 Gregg Chadwick The Crossing 48"x72" oil on linen 2004  Thanks to Anna Conti for her recent comments on my work and site. Enjoyed her tour of the downtown San Francisco galleries. And Tyler Green is pondering the state of art in LA while reading about the Tate in London. Provacative ideas. Also a must read is Megan McMillan's account of skipping out of high school to sit in the cool chill of Church's iceburgs.

by Gregg Chadwick This weekend in San Francisco (May 2005) an important and powerful film series by the British Director Adam Curtis was screened. Jeanne Carstensen from the San Francisco Chronicle explains,"The Power of Nightmares," Curtis' three-part series, broadcast on BBC last fall... asks hard questions about the scope of the global war on terror, such as whether al Qaeda is really as vast and powerful a network of international terrorism as we've been led to believe. But "Nightmares" also digs much deeper, into the roots of neoconservatism and radical Islamism, two conservative movements that have significantly helped shape geopolitical events since the end of World War II. As we near the four-year mark of a war that has no definable end, "Nightmares" asks viewers to consider the idea, and its implications, that politicians and citizens alike are now living in a society driven by fear above all else." Jeanne Carstensen continue...