Speed of Life

by Gregg Chadwick 100 years ago today, the seminal artist Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When Lawrence was in his teens his family moved to Harlem in New York City, where he studied art with Charles Alston at the Harlem Art Workshop. When Lawrence graduated from the American Artists School in New York he became a participant in the WPA Federal Art Project.  The young artist broke new ground in 1941 with The Migration Series which garnered national attention. I find the video below from the Phillips Collection  in which Lawrence discusses The Migration Series  fascinating: During World War II, while in the United States Coast Guard, first as a public relations specialist on the USS Sea Cloud, and then as a combat artist on the USS Gen. Richardson, Lawrence created a series of artworks documenting his vantage point on the war.   Jacob Lawrence No. 2 Control Panel, Nerve Center of Ship, gouache and watercolor on board Co...

by Gregg Chadwick Rocky Ground (Song by Song Review of Bruce Springsteen's New Album - Wrecking Ball)  ''The verses are the blues, the chorus is the gospel." - Bruce Springsteen in Conversation With Jon Pareles in  The New York Times  July 14, 2002 Gregg Chadwick The Luminist 12"x12" oil on linen 2010  As if reaching out from the past into the present, Bruce Springsteen's song  Rocky Ground  (Listen Here)  opens with a   ghostly voice calling out the refrain "I'm a soldier." This verbal fragment was culled from a historical performance of the Church of God in Christ Congregation's rendition of   I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord ,  recorded by musical historian Alan Lomax in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1942*.  The song then shifts to the chorus, sung by the gospel singer Michelle Moore: We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground Only after this sp...

by Gregg Chadwick Rocky Ground (Song by Song Review of Bruce Springsteen's New Album - Wrecking Ball)  ''The verses are the blues, the chorus is the gospel." - Bruce Springsteen in Conversation With Jon Pareles in The New York Times July 14, 2002 Gregg Chadwick The Luminist 12"x12" oil on linen 2010  As if reaching out from the past into the present, Bruce Springsteen's song Rocky Ground (Listen Here)  opens with a   ghostly voice calling out the refrain "I'm a soldier." This verbal fragment was culled from a historical performance of the Church of God in Christ Congregation's rendition of   I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord ,  recorded by musical historian Alan Lomax in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1942*.  The song then shifts to the chorus, sung by the gospel singer Michelle Moore: We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground We've been travel...