Speed of Life

Gregg Chadwick Rembrandt (Dutch Masters) 10"x7.5"x1" oil on vintage, wood cigar box 2025 The genesis of my lifelong artistic practice can be traced to a deeply personal encounter with Rembrandt’s genius. During my childhood, following my father’s return from military service, my reunited family visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. There, I was captivated by "The Syndics of the Clothmakers' Guild" (1662). I knew the image from the lid of my father’s Dutch Masters cigars. Eureka! This masterwork, enshrined as high art, was simultaneously accessible through popular commercial branding, bridging the historical distance between the 17th century and 20th-century American life. It was a moment of profound clarity, where my family's reunion and the artistic vision on the wall suddenly converged and made sense. Rembrandt captured the vulnerability and struggle of the private self. I often seek to capture the vulnerability of the cultural moment and the struggle...

by Gregg Chadwick Holland  Cotter has a wonderful new piece in the New York Times entitled A Memory Museum .  Cotter writes,"  I’m also a curator of my memory, which carries traces of art encounters from over the years. A few of those encounters — with certain objects, books, buildings — have altered the atmosphere, changed how I see and joined a permanent collection that I regularly revisit." He then challenges us  to describe experiences with art that has changed our lives and to post them in the comment section in his article. I find this to be an enlightening question: Which works of art have changed the way you look at the world?  I answered Mr. Cotter with the following : The place of memory in the arts is so revealing. One of my first experiences with an artwork happened in Amsterdam when I was a six year old and the experience changed me forever. My father had finished his tour in Vietnam as a USMC JAG and we reunited as a family in Euro...