Speed of Life

Gregg Chadwick Stilled Life (Akihabara) 30"x22" monotype on paper 2011 TOWN OF CATS (Excerpt from 1Q84) by Haruki Murakami At Koenji Station, Tengo boarded the Chuo Line inbound rapid-service train. The car was empty. He had nothing planned that day. Wherever he went and whatever he did (or didn’t do) was entirely up to him. It was ten o’clock on a windless summer morning, and the sun was beating down. The train passed Shinjuku, Yotsuya, Ochanomizu, and arrived at Tokyo Central Station, the end of the line. Everyone got off, and Tengo followed suit. Then he sat on a bench and gave some thought to where he should go. “I can go anywhere I decide to,” he told himself. “It looks as if it’s going to be a hot day. I could go to the seashore.” He raised his head and studied the platform guide... Continue reading in The New Yorker at: Excerpt from Haruki Murakami's Upcoming Novel 1Q84 Above: The Cover for Haruki Murakami's New Novel 1Q84: 1. Jacket 2. Binding...

by Gregg Chadwick In his first work of fiction,  The Wandering Falcon , Jamil Ahmad depicts a world caught between timeless paths of migration and geo-political modernity. Ahmad knits together a series of short stories that cover the life arc of one young man, Tor Baz - the wandering falcon of the title, as he journeys from infancy to manhood. Inspired by his time as a civil service worker in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Ahmad writes of a world governed by clan and custom. During his time as a powerful emissary of the Pakistani government under the tribal region's frontier governing system, Jamil Ahmad simultaneously served as politician, police chief, judge, jury and executioner. Bits of this personal history are woven within the stories, including hints of Jamil's wife's German heritage. Environmentalist and activist Helga Ahmad was instrumental in encouraging her husband Jamil to move from  halting first attempts at poetry to richly crafted stories of people, p...

Gregg Chadwick The Diasporist (Portrait of RB Kitaj) 30"x22" monotype on paper 2011 The work of RB Kitaj continues to inspire and humble me in my artistic quest. His fervent questioning in print and paint acts as a beacon. He is greatly missed. R. B. Kitaj (1932-2007) talks about the profound influence of Cézanne on his work. The architect MJ Long on her friendship with RB Kitaj. More at: The Paris Review on RB Kitaj