Speed of Life

My painting The Poet's Dawn is used as the cover image for Phil Cousineau's new book The Oldest Story in the World . Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero With a Thousand Faces , had this to say about Cousineau's work: "It's just marvelous the way you've demonstrated how similar the journeys in myth are to those in art, literature, movies, and dreams. You've done what all artists and writers must do with the great stuff of myth: you've made it your own. -Joseph Campbell on Phil Cousineau Phil's Website: More Details on Phil Cousineau and His Collaborations With Gregg Chadwick

Peter Clothier's Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce arrives at the perfect time. As the art world tries to reinvent itself in the current economic malaise, Clothier's book inspires us to see the soul and spirit inherent in the creative process. Money may not be the root of all evil but it is the root of a lot of bad art. Peter Clothier challenges artists, writers, actors and filmmakers to value artistic process as a goal in itself rather than a path to wealth and power. Most of all, Clothier urges us to keep on creating - to never give up. The world would be a lesser place without the arts. A beautiful, inspiring book. Highly recommended. Available from the publisher at: Peter Clothier's Persist from Parami Press And from Amazon: Peter Clothier's Persist Peter Clothier's blog The Buddha Diaries is continually informative and entertaining. Peter Clothier has a series of upcoming events in Los Angeles. See below:

Spreadsheets can save him by Kent Chadwick Where’s the pattern? What ratio will show he’s getting better, that he’ll breathe again on his own? The ventilator pushes puffs of warm air through our son’s trachea every time his brain asks for oxygen, into his second set of lungs, damaged too soon by pneumonia, scarred and stiffened. The machine ka-shooshing eighteen or more times a minute to make Luke breathe when he needs, and it graphs his breath, reads his volumes, scoring the resistance—centimeters of water pressure—ready to alarm and warn of dangers, displaying seven variables in LED orange with each breath, repeatedly—and I stare. My hope has fallen to this new machine, that maybe, maybe its gentler aid can coax Luke’s lungs into recovery. What numbers, what ratios show progress?, something the doctors no longer expect. Is it peak pressures to tidal volumes? 89 to 760 Or his diaphragm’s nerve activity to the ventilator’s support level? 62, 70 to 1.5 What is significant? What is just ...

Kelly Colbert, MarySue Heilemann, Alan Caudillo & Alana Caudillo at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010 Gregg Chadwick The Crossing and Arlington at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010 Ramon Lopez at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010 Saul Janson, Nell Marshall, Alana Caudillo & Alan Caudillo at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010 MarySue Heilemann, Huibrie Pieters, Kobus Pieters, Mat Gleason at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / February 20, 2010) Hope to see you there today. The Dalai Lama and Sheryl Crow at the Gibson Amphitheatre in support of Whole Child International. More at: Dalai Lama Launches L.A. Visit And my reactions to the event will appear on Speed of Life later this week. Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama at the White House this week. Photo: White House

Gregg Chadwick The Crossing 72"x36" oil, monotype and collage on Japanese Torinoko paper 2010 The morning of my last day on a trip to Thailand, was particularly luminous. I got up especially early and wandered through the alleys of Chiang Mai, following some monks on their serene morning pilgrimage. The light was almost incandescent and the blur of movement seemed to create paintings for me. I just needed to pay attention. To really see. I spent the time on the short flight to Bangkok watching a kind of film playing in my mind of saffron robes scintillating in the morning mist. Later, as I waited for my connecting flight to San Francisco, I caught sight of a different clip on a television monitor as the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. It was September 11, 2001. I felt the horror of the crowd as we watched in disbelief. I longed for home and my son. Weeks later when finally back in my studio, the juxtaposition of the monks’ serenity in Thailand that day and...

Speed of Life Called It! Update: Joseph Mallord William Turner ( April 23, 1775-December 19, 1851) The Fifth Plague of Egypt 48" x 72" oil on canvas 1800 Indianapolis Museum of Art photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art Spurred on by fellow artblogger, Tyler Green , the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art - put their paintings on the line over todays Super Bowl between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. I called an improbable New Orleans victory over the Colts. In which case the Indianapolis Museum of Art will lend Turner's vibrant and mysterious The Fifth Plague of Egypt to the New Orleans Museum of Art. Check out Tyler's blog for the ultimate in museum director trash talk and mannered New Orleans (and Indianapolis) grace as well. New Orleans Museum of Art director E. John Bullard summed up the good spirited rivalry to Tyler: "Max is a gracious opponent. Thanks for accepting the wager of a Claude from New ...

Photo: Susan Walsh/Associated Press We had friends from Washington DC over for a lovely dinner this week. It was great to share new work with them at my studio and talk deeply about travel and life. Safe travels from the rain to the snow! From the New York Times: "Pedestrians walking past the Vietnam War Memorial. An administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the blizzard "a potentially epic snowstorm" that could rival the 28 inches of snow that a January 1922 storm dropped on the capital." Much more at: Snowstorm in Washington

Iran 2010 Part Three of The "Green Movement Digital Paintings" - Digital Paintings, Video & Music by Soheil Tavakoli Soheil Tavakoli was born on April 17th, 1968 in Tehran, Iran. Soheil became an artist and architect in Iran until he left for the United States in 2004. Tavakoli explains that "he left Iran for the United States in search of a more dynamic and understanding society." More info at Soheil Tavakoli's Website