Speed of Life

by Gregg Chadwick The First Grader , a new film directed by Justin Chadwick and produced by Richard Harding and Sam Feuer, has been gathering cinema festival awards as it moves towards a May 2011 release. This week The First Grader won the award for best feature film at the Palm Beach Film Festival. I recently attended a pre-release screening of this poignant and numinous movie set in the Rift Valley in the mountains of Kenya. The First Grader, like Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, seamlessly combines story and place to create an illuminating beacon for our time. The First Grader portrays the story of Kimani Maruge, an 84 year old Mau Mau veteran who helped liberate Kenya from the British. After the Kenyan government announced in 2003 that free schooling would be offered for all, Maruge, played marvelously by Kenyan actor Oliver Litondo, arrives at a primary school to finally get his chance at an education - long denied under oppressive colonial rule and unavailable to him since ...

Spend some time at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam today: Van Gogh Museum Online

On Saturday, March 26, 2011 the Torrance Art Museum held a fundraiser for the Japanese Red Cross to help with the humanitarian needs of post-tsunami Japan. I donated my painting Illume for the cause. This oil painting of a young Buddhist monk, seemingly caught in the glow of prayer candles, resonates hope in mourning, acceptance and rebirth. Gregg Chadwick Illume 16"x20" oil on linen 2011 Ongoing until April 30, 2011 at the Torrance Museum of Art is the exhibition Gateway Japan curated by Yuko Wakaume, Ei Kibukawa, and Max Presneill. More at: Torrance Art Museum

Gregg Chadwick The Sheltering Sky 218cm x 163cm oil on linen 2010 In honor of the brave people of Libya and in memory of the brave Libyan journalist Mohammed Nabbous.

Live Stream of United Nations Security Council Meeting on Libya March 17, 2011

"At times like this, we are all Japanese" -George Takei Gregg Chadwick Beauty and Sadness ( 美しさと哀しみと) Utsukushisa to Kanashimi to 57"x103" oil and collage on Japanese screen Live video chat by Ustream NHK Live Stream from Japan with Updates on the Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Crisis

Buddha, Japanese National Museum, Tokyo Gregg Chadwick "A Balance of Shadows" My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan. Video from Shinjuku,Tokyo showing skyscrapers swaying with the force of the March 11, 2011 earthquake centered off of northeastern Japan. Buildings in Japan are engineered to meet extraordinarily high governmental standards to help prevent earthquake damage. (Video by escot2008) " Friday’s quake was centered off the coast of Honshu, the most populous of the Japanese islands, at a point about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo and a depth of about 17 miles below the earth’s surface.The quake occurred at 2:46 p.m. Tokyo time, and was so powerful that buildings in central Tokyo, designed to withstand major earthquakes, swayed." -United States Geological Survey globalgiving has set up a well organized webpage for donations at Japan Earthquake And Tsunami Relief Fund More at: Earthquake in Japan

Watch live streaming video from theuptake at livestream.com Gregg Chadwick Engine Company 48"x36" oil on canvas 2011 Dedicated to the brave Union workers across the globe: firefighters, nurses, teachers, steelworkers, bricklayers, SAG members, screenwriters, police officers, custodians, musicians, and company. Especially those fighting for their futures in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin Protests set to the Dropkick Murphys' pro-union song "Take 'em Down"