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Showing posts from June, 2011

Deutsch Traum

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Gregg Chadwick Deutsch Traum (German Dream) 30"x22" monotype on paper 2011

Stadt Musik

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Gregg Chadwick Stadtgeflüster (City Whispers) 22"x30" monotype on paper 2011

Sunday Bloody Sunday for Iran & Where the Streets Have No Name - U2 Live at Glastonbury - June 2011

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Der Himmel Draußen (The Sky Outside): Actor and Artist Peter Falk Dies at 83

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Gregg Chadwick Der Himmel Draußen (The Sky Outside) 30"x22" monotype on paper 2011 Peter Falk has died at 83 leaving us with a rich legacy of film and television work as well as a body of carefully crafted prints and drawings . As fate would have it, I am currently working on a series of artworks inspired by my experiences in the city of Berlin. Painters, writers, and filmmakers from Max Beckmann to Christopher Isherwood to Wim Wenders have created visions of the city that still guide us across Berlin's potent memoryscape. Peter Falk also left his mark on this city of memory in Wender's Wings of Desire . Peter Falk in Wim Wender's Classic Film Wings of Desire Look Closely: Are There Angels Hiding in the Ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church? photo by Gregg Chadwick (Berlin 2010) Peter Falk Girl With Ponytail Peter Falk With Artist's Model More on Berlin, Peter Falk and Wings of Desire at: City of Cinephilia Peter Falk in Wim Wender...

Along the Arno

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Gregg Chadwick Along the Arno 22"x30" monotype on paper 2011

Alexander Gardner's Cracked Glass on Dr. Hurley's Snake-Oil Cure

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Gregg Chadwick Alexander Gardner's Cracked Glass - (Abraham Lincoln 1865) 16"x11" oil on linen 2011 Gregg Chadwick shares this moving portrait of a beneficent-looking Lincoln entitled Alexander Gardner’s Cracked Glass - (Abraham Lincoln 1865). Oil on linen, 2011. See the full issue at: Dr. Hurley's Snake-Oil Cure Contributors Page

Japanese Artist Takashi Murakami Doodles "Summer" for Google

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Takashi Murakami Summer Google Doodle for June 21, 2011 (Summer Solstice) Today - June 21st - is the longest day of the year. For this Summer Solstice, Google has commissioned Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, to create an icon for the day to be posted on Google's search page. More on Murakami at: #newday_GEISAI

Van Gogh Museum Discovers That a Self Portrait by Van Gogh is Actually a Portrait of His Brother Theo

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Vincent Van Gogh Portrait of Theo Van Gogh Oil on Pasteboard, 19 X 14 cm 1887 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam courtesy Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam The Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands has announced that a small portrait by Van Gogh from their study collection is in fact a portrait of Vincent's brother - Theo Van Gogh. The painting has been recently restored and will go on view this week at the museum in Amsterdam. Portraits of Theo and Vincent by Van Gogh Much more at: Explore the Van Gogh Museum Using the Google Art Project Van Gogh Museum Website

Happy Father's Day

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I'd like to wish a Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I was heartened to read President Obama's letter to fathers this morning. I have posted it below: Good morning, I grew up without a father around. I was lucky enough to be raised by a wonderful mother who, like so many heroic single mothers, never allowed my father's absence to be an excuse for me to slack off or not always do my best. But I often wonder what it would have been like if my father had a greater presence in my life. So as a father of two young girls, I've tried hard to be a good dad. I haven't always been perfect – there have been times when work kept me away from my family too often, and most of the parenting duties fell to Michelle. I know many other fathers face similar challenges. Whether you're a military dad returning from deployment or a father doing his best to make ends meet for his family in a tough economy, being a parent isn't easy. That's why my Adm...

Jungleland for Clarence Clemons: And the Poets Down Here Don't Write Nothing at All ...

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Filmed at Hard Rock Calling June 28, 2009, Hyde Park, London, UK. Thank you Clarence for the gift of your music ...

Clarence Clemons Dies at 69

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I'm listening to Clarence Clemons playing with Gary US Bonds as I mourn the Big Man's passing. Great solo by Clarence Clemons on Gary US Bonds' amazing version of Steve Van Zandt's Daddy's Come Home. This video was shot in Japan and adds a personally bittersweet tinge to an already emotional song. More at: Backstreets on Clarence Clemons Clarence Clemons, Springsteen’s Soulful Sideman, Dies at 69

Fragility of Life: I Mourn the Loss of Artist Sylvia Moss

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Gregg Chadwick A Gion Rain 22"x30" monotype on paper 2011 I came home from a memorial service for a great artist and a great friend, Sylvia Moss, on Sunday night. In times of loss and uncertainty, I tend to turn to the arts - books, music, film, theater and museums - for solace. But when an artist is severely ill or dies I find that I have to create. I have been in my studio for the past few weeks creating monotypes. A monotype is a singular impression made from an image which has been drawn or painted on to a printing plate. My monotype process is technically straightforward but pushes my artistic subconscious in both image and mark. When I painted "A Gion Rain" onto a copper plate, thoughts of Sylvia fell like rain across my mind. Sylvia Moss died in Zurich, Switzerland on May 9, 2011. Sylvia had long suffered from the challenges of multiple sclerosis. Sylvia Moss grew up in Piedmont, California and then moved east to a beckoning New York City to pursue...

Hang In There Clarence!

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"They made that change uptown and the Big Man joined the band." - Bruce Springsteen 10th Avenue Freeze Out My thoughts go out to Clarence Clemons, known for his work on the saxophone in Bruce Springteen's E Street Band. Clarence suffered a stroke yesterday and the initial prognosis was grim. After two brain surgeries last night, Clemons condition seems to be improving. The Springsteen fansite BackStreets reports: "The latest out of Florida has Clarence Clemons in better condition than anyone expected, a close friend tells Backstreets: "Yesterday, it did not look good at all. Today... miracles are happening. His vital signs are improving. He's responsive. His eyes are welling up when we're talking to him. He was paralyzed on his left side, but now he's squeezing with his left hand. This is the best news we've heard since [the stroke] happened — it's nothing short of miraculous. The next five days will still be critical. But he's a f...

Paul Revere's Ride

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by Gregg Chadwick Paul Revere 1734-1818 The Boston Massacre (The Bloody Massacre) 9 7/8" x 8 1/2" Engraving, hand colored 1770 Boston Museum of Fine Arts "We live in an age where, on every level, it is considered a sin to be wrong. From advertisers to kids on the playground to the world of corporate PR to politicians, the all-too-common wisdom is to defend the indefensible. That's what Palin is doing and that is what her renfields on Wikipedia are doing, and that's sad, because as anyone remotely successful in Silicon Valley can tell you, without owning our mistakes we cannot learn from them and without learning, we cannot win." - Curt Hopkins in Read, Write, Web I love to read history. Scores of books line my studio walls and the past is never far from my thoughts. Museums have been a favorite haunt of mine since childhood. Peering through glass at ambered papers and tattered journals never fails to remind me of the great divide between what happen...

Remembering Rollin Pickford at the Carmel Art Association: Opening Tonight - June 4, 2011

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by Gregg Chadwick Rollin Pickford Spring Crescendo 22"x30" watercolor on paper Courtesy Melissa Pickford "All of those paintings I did, every one of them had something wrong with it. I guess that's why I kept painting." -Rollin Pickford Tonight the Carmel Art Association Gallery is hosting an exhibition of the watercolors of Rollin Pickford. Pickford's paintings make use of myriad techniques to approximate the play of light on land, sea, and sky. For eighty years Pickford limned the California scene as rolling hills and stands of trees vanished beneath strip malls and subdivisions. In Pickford's paintings, one can feel the sweep of an Asian brush across wet paper as pools of color shift and coalesce into light and atmosphere. The works seem to hang in a state of flux - their beauty poignantly balanced between a fixed moment and the passage of time. Rollin Pickford died in 2010 at 98. This rich exhibition was curated in his memory by his d...

Happy Birthday to Bibliophile Marilyn Monroe!

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Portrait of Marilyn Monroe Reading Art Book on Goya More on Marilyn and Books in The Los Angeles Times: Monroe's Library Marilyn Monroe's Library has Been Catalogued on Library Thing: Marilyn Monroe's Collection

The Poet's Spring: Art/House 2011 for Habitat for Humanity

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Gregg Chadwick The Color of Wind (Whispers of the Rail, The Petaled Road, Spring Departure) 30"x72" oil on linen 2011 (triptych) "In the cherry blossom's shade there's no such thing as a stranger." by Kobayashi Issa (1763 - 1828) "In Japanese Zen poetry, spring blossoms, particularly cherry blossoms, are often used as symbols for the simple, natural, unfolding springtime of enlightenment. In the "shade" or, you might say, beneath the canopy of enlightenment, there is no longer any sense of separation. Nothing and no one is foreign to you. There is no such thing as a stranger." - Ivan M. Granger I am always honored to support Habitat for Humanity with my art. My donation this year reflects my interests in Japan and Japanese culture with my triptych The Color of Wind . Whispers of the Rail 30"x24" oil on linen 2011 The Petaled Road 30"x24" oil on linen 2011 Spring Departure 30"x24" ...

The Poet's Autumn

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Shadow Light has paired my painting Acadia with a remarkable poem by the Portugese writer José Luís Peixoto . Enjoy: Acadia by Gregg Chadwick (Referenced by Missies Blue ) when i got tired of lying to myself José Luis Peixoto (b. 1974) when i got tired of lying to myself, i started writing a book of poetry. it was two hours ago that i decided, but it was too long ago that i started growing tired. fatigue is a gradual skin like autumn. pause. it rests slowly on the flesh, like leaves on earth, and it ingrains it to the bone, like the leaves ingrain the earth and touch the death and become fertile at their side. the city continues on the streets, the girls laugh, but there's a secret that brews in silence. it's the words, free, the books unwritten, what will come in future seasons. there's always hope at the bottom of the avenues. but there are puddles of waters on the sidewalks. there's cold, there's fatigue, there are two hours ago tha...