Speed of Life

by Gregg Chadwick Review: The Gospel of The Hold Steady: How a Resurrection Really Feels  by Michael Hann and The Hold Steady  Craig Finn and The Hold Steady The Hold Steady, described by many as the world’s best bar band outside of E Street, releases a new book on July 25, 2023 that delves deeply into the stories behind the band and its loyal fans. The physical book is gorgeous. The story of the band and their passionate fans blazes across the volume from the first page to the last. Over two hundred expertly composed photographs capture The Hold Steady on stage and off with a proper smattering of confetti strewn floors.   The history of The Hold Steady is told through interviews with the band members and those who were there behind the scenes. From their Midwest roots to their adopted Brooklyn home, the members of The Hold Steady open up about the struggles and triumphs of creating, performing, and promoting their music. Lead singer and lyricist Craig Finn opens the...

Gregg Chadwick Poolside 20"x16"oil on linen 2022     Private Collection, Oxford, Connecticut Pleased that my painting "Poolside" has been sold by  @saatchiart  and successfully delivered to its new home near New Haven, Connecticut. It arrived in the midst of a record cold spell and hopefully brought warm memories of Spring and Summer along. Legs dangling in an aquamarine pool, drink in hand, and a book open to the right page. What is she reading? Perhaps because he was born on this day in 1946, French Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard's book "Happiness: "A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill" which explores how to develop happiness as a skill that includes acceptance of pain and struggle through a process of understanding, meditation, and breath. Or perhaps her book is a collection of Emily Dickinson's poetry? "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at al...

  Gregg Chadwick Sea of Words ink, and gouache on a monotype substrate on paper 30"x22".  2018 I have always loved books. My studio is full of monographs on artists that I admire and scientific discoveries that I find fascinating. But the library is where I first learned to cherish the written word. As a kid I would spend hours in the shelves looking for just the right books. I would venture home with a stack of volumes on art, art making, and animals. "Sea of Words" - my ink and gouache painting over a monotype substrate is an homage to my memories of neighborhood libraries and the joy of learning. The library depicted in my artwork is the Montana Avenue Library in Santa Monica, California. Designed by architect Weldon Fulton, the Montana Branch opened to great acclaim on March 1, 1960. Direct Link at https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Sea-of-Words/25560/8921199/view #art #contemporaryart #books #library #SantaMonica #adventure

by Gregg Chadwick Frequent readers know that I enjoy the wit and  erudition  of Tyler Green. His Modern Art Notes Podcast is always worth a listen. The latest episode, embedded above, features  art historian  William E. Wallace   and curator   Julian Brooks. Wallace discusses his latest book - “Michelangelo, God’s Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece.” Wallace's new book is available on Bookshop .   Tyler writes :"The book offers a rich and lively biographical examination of the last two decades of Michelangelo’s life, a period when he became the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other buildings, even as he continued to sculpt and draw."  Michelangelo The Florentine Pietà  1547-55 Wallace's discussion of Michelangelo's late  Pietàs is exceptionally interesting. These are two of my favorite sculptural works by Michelangelo because of their incomplete nature.  Michelang...

By Gregg Chadwick Gregg Chadwick Bookseller's Night oil on linen 2019      I lift three brushes wet with paint. Each brush holds its own hue- ultramarine blue, glowing amber, and a cool black. Airborne Toxic Event’s “Sometime AroundMidnight” plays on headphones tethered to my iPhone. The room spins like the song. I almost dance as each brush moves across the linen. Wet paint slurred into wet paint. I search for the light in the dark in a painterly chase through the night. I paint in a refurbished airplane hangar, the night glowing darkly through the skylights above me. Alone in a vast space, my thoughts travel back to years of painting at night: from a loft in SoHo during New York’s “Bright Lights Big City” years, to a small makeshift space in Tokyo, to a studio in a reconfigured office building on a block of San Francisco’s Market Street that Edward Hopper would have appreciated, to now in a building at an airfield where a fak...