Speed of Life

For Super Bowl XLVI, Honda has released an homage to Ferris Bueller's Day Off  starring Matthew Broderick in a reprise of his iconic role. Only, this time Ferris is a grown up film star who calls in sick.  The truant hops in his bright red 2012 Honda CR-V and relishes a day in L.A.  According to Honda, over two dozen movie references are hidden throughout the ad directed  by Todd Phillips. For the Twitter inclined - Use the hashtag #dayoff and  find them all My favorite scene is with the walrus...

by Gregg Chadwick Helen Frankenthaler Mountains and Sea 7' 2 5/8" x 9' 9 1/4" oil on canvas 1952 National Gallery of Art, Washington DC "Fashion and money, fame and power politics have played a part in all art worlds. You've just got to plug away....  I see a revival of the meaning of the word "quality"---a search for truth and beauty in lieu of stock certificates. People are most interested in what's real, what endures." - Helen Frankenthaler (From a Conversation With Lee Rosenbaum ) Helen Frankenthaler's painting  Mountains and Sea opened a painterly universe. She poured, dripped, and floated thinned oil paint directly onto an unprimed canvas, creating a stained surface in which the pigment spread into and throughout the canvas fibers. The painting is mesmerizing, like the open sea is mesmerizing. Color beckons almost like song. As viewers we take the role of Odysseus, some will remain tied to a mast - fighting the beauty and...

Symphonie des Lichts (Symphony of Light) photo by Gregg Chadwick Seeing Through the Eyes of the Mona Lisa ARENA 1 Gallery Curated by Yossi Govrin & Krista Augius Exhibition: Sept. 10 – Oct. 1, 2011 Opening Reception with Baroque Music: Sept. 10, 6-9 p.m. The camera is ubiquitous in contemporary life. Nearly everyone is a photographer, most often recording the personal and mundane but occasionally capturing news-breaking images of world historical importance. With digital cameras, we have become instant gratification consumers of our own portraits. What are we looking at, and what are we seeing? Photographers include Sabine Pearlman, Gregg Chadwick, Doni Silver Simons, Kathy Peck Leeds, Yossi Govrin, David Leeds, Krista Augius, & more... Saturday, Sept 10 6-9pm Exhibition: Sept 10 - Oct 1, 2011 3026 Airport Ave,Santa Monica,CA90405 More info at: 310/397-7456

I am back after more than a month on the road. Fall in Santa Monica is crisp and reminds be of all the autumn days that have past in my life. Michael McDermott's new song "Carry Your Cross" seems to sonically embody my thoughts and dreams. Take a listen to a beautiful and haunting song. More of Michael's poignant music at: The Music of Michael McDermott

Peter Clothier's new review of my work captures the soul and spirit of my art. "There is an other-worldly quality to Gregg Chadwick's paintings, a sense of liberation from the bonds of gravity that define our physical existence. They celebrate the dedication of the monks they portray and convey some of the quiet joy that freedom from earthly needs invests in them. And yet, too, there is an elegiac tone, a kind of nostalgia for a manifestation of the purely spiritual that most of us can never hope to attain. The paintings are truly captivating in that they invite us irresistibly into their spaces and hold the attention there in their swirl of light and color, suggesting inexhaustible depths of experience for the eye to explore." -Peter Clothier Please read the full review here on Peter's site: Monks by Peter Clothier Peter Clothier has a long and distinguished career as an art writer, novelist and poet. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times , Artscene, ART...

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 2010 Each year the city of Santa Monica sponsors an Art Walk at the Santa Monica Airport. Often the sound of takeoffs and landings from the tarmac mask the quieter sounds of chisel on stone and brush on canvas in the old hangars lining the historic airfield. A community of artists works quietly alongside the hum of rotor blades and the roar of jet engines. Hidden from the world at large on most days, on March 20th 2010 the artists that call the airport home will open their studio doors and let the public into their creative process. I enjoy this day greatly. The crowd of visitors is convivial and eclectic and represents the diversity that I love in Los Angeles. Last year I missed the event as I was traveling and gathering inspiration in Japan. A number of artworks inspired by this journey to Kyoto and Tokyo will be on display. My studio is located at the Santa...

Yossi Govrin and his Bronze Sculpture of Donald Douglas and Wunderbar Yossi Govrin spoke yesterday at the unveiling of his bronze sculpture of Donald Douglas and dog Wunderbar ."I have always been afraid of flying, " he said. "As an Israeli, all citizens serve for a time in support of the country. And as I just said I was always afraid of flight. So what did they do? They put me in the airforce. And they made me jump out of airplanes!" Yossi was safely on the ground speaking in the shadow of the Douglas DC-3 Monument which seemed to soar above him. This aircraft was built at the Santa Monica airport in 1942 and after a long journey from the US Army Air Corps, to the Navy, to a stint in commercial aviation with Nationwide Airlines, to service with the Richfield oil company, the plane now dubbed "The Spirit of Santa Monica" is home. Echoing Yossi's days jumping out of aircraft, this DC-3 was initially used as a 28-seat paratrooper and glider tug. Palm...