Speed of Life

by Gregg Chadwick Turn the nightly news on today, or scan the latest headlines on your iPhone, and it would seem that the world grows uglier each day. Eleven years ago,  I wrote  about my search for images of peace. I  hearken  back to those thoughts prompted by a memory  of a time in Perth, Australia  reading  an art review concerning an exhibition about non-violence. The title of the review was "How do you paint peace?" Prompted by these ongoing concerns, I have been creating a new series of paintings using ideas of New Urbanism - Los Angeles in particular with peace as a subtext. What the amazing writer, actor, and teacher Claudette Sutherland, in my studio yesterday evening, called "Love Songs to the City."  Gregg Chadwick Third L.A. (for Christopher Hawthorne) 30"x24" oil on linen 2015 Three books published in the last few years should be on every peacemaker's bookshelf: Steven Pinker's  The Better Angels of Our N...

  Gregg Chadwick Either/Or 36"x29" oil on linen 2004 Private Collection, San Francisco I find I need to look deeply into this painting to provide an antidote to the images flooding my way as I walk down the avenue. rack after newsrack, each with a front page heralding destruction. Years ago I was in Perth, Australia reading an art review concerning an exhibition about peace. Most of the images in in the show were anti-war but few if any were really about the idea of peace. The title of the review was "how do you paint peace". I have been trying to do that ever since. I think this painting is close. I ask you: how would you paint peace? How would you create the idea of peace in your music? In your writing? In your life? Please send thoughts. ideas and images my way- greggchadwick@icloud.com I will post your dreams...