Speed of Life

Delighted to share my @KFC_jp #Christmas in #Japan story with @cathaypacific inflight magazine. Ever grateful to my first #Tokyo editor Tama san who still supports me 20 years later. Arigatō. 🥰 pic.twitter.com/OzC5H32P63 — 🌾Food Sake Tokyo🍙🌻坂本ゆかり (@YukariSakamoto) December 15, 2023  

by Gregg Chadwick   Gregg Chadwick Tokyo (Shibuya Crossing) 30”x22” monotype on paper 2023 Since I was a kid, I have spent a number of holiday seasons in Japan. The time from just before Christmas to just after New Year's Day is a magical time in Japan. Families gather from around the country as students and workers take time off and return to their homes for celebrations of the season. The food is marvelous, the conversations are rich, and the moments are precious. My monotype on paper "Tokyo (Shibuya Crossing)" is an artistic nod to my memories of Japan. As we move into 2023, I wish you a Happy Year of the Rabbit! And I would like to wish a warm Happy Birthday to artist and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki who was born on this day in 1941. Pixar animator Enrico Casarosa said, "Miyazaki has this uncanny ability to add a childish sense of wonder to his stories. He’s able to make us feel like little kids again."  Gregg Chadwick Spirited Away 60"x48"oil on linen...

Merry Christmas Everyone! #Japan #Trains #Caturday https://t.co/kXAkv4wOna — Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) December 4, 2022

もうすぐハロウィンということで、今年も江戸時代版ジャック・オー・ランタンをご紹介。歌川芳員が描いた「砂村の怨霊」というカボチャの妖怪です。砂村は現在の東京都江東区。カボチャの産地として知られていました。顔がカボチャの実。手足が葉と蔓でできているのにご注目。※現在展示していません。 pic.twitter.com/Q6DO7zS7HB — 太田記念美術館 Ota Memorial Museum of Art (@ukiyoeota) October 29, 2022 Halloween is coming up soon, so this year  the Ota Memorial Museum of Art shows us the Edo period version of the Jack-O-Lantern. It is a pumpkin monster called "Sunamura no Onryo" drawn by Yoshikazu Utagawa. Sunamura is present-day Koto Ward in Tokyo. It was known for producing pumpkins. The limbs are made of leaves and vines. 

Undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life. I have no words to describe the feelings I have right now but I do know I am currently filled with gratefulness and thankfulness ❤️ love you guys thank you. pic.twitter.com/CacWQ5ToUD — NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) July 23, 2021   What a moment for Naomi Osaka (and the world). #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/9cR5dsHRqJ — Tennis GIFs 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) July 23, 2021 Iconic. 🇯🇵 Naomi Osaka lights the flame for #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/fPa54K7onx — US Open Tennis (@usopen) July 23, 2021

Loved this card from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Reminds me of the many holiday seasons that I have spent in Japan. Especially the year that I spent chasing Hiroshige in Tokyo.  

by Gregg Chadwick Beer for Homer at Miyazaki's Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan photo by Gregg Chadwick I just love this new clip from Sunday's upcoming Simpsons episode which includes a wonderful and comedic tribute to animator Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. The magic that Miyazaki has created resonates globally. Enjoy! Robot From Castle in the Sky at Ghibli Museum photo  by Gregg Chadwick

by Gregg Chadwick   GreggChadwick As I write this, an impromptu vigil is forming in front of the White House in Washington DC to mourn the victims of another senseless mass shooting and to call for much needed gun regulation. Today, a quiet school in Newtown, Connecticut was violated by a gun wielding murderer packing semi-automatic weapons with a back up assault rifle in his car. The shooting was horrific and preventable.  This is a national tragedy that needs a national response. Our glorification of weapons and our embrace of the use of violent force to resolve conflicts has led us to a crisis point. Do we continue to let our children be slaughtered in schools and theaters? Will we continue to allow almost unfettered access to military grade high powered weapons? Will we continue to cut funding for preventive mental health care? Today, we make a decision as a nation. Twenty children and six adults were killed today at a Newtown, Connecticut school. I refus...

  Deep in the tranquility of a Japanese woodland, the movement of a wooden ball plays Bach on a gravity marimba. The ball gently rolls down an elevated wooden incline striking a series of wooden bars each  tuned to play a single note of the 10th movement of Bach’s Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 , commonly known in English as, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.  A rare example of an advertisement that evokes wonder. Enjoy! Hat tip to Makezine.

by Gregg Chadwick Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando) Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (Ohashi Atake no Yudachi) (#58 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo) Sheet: 14 3/16" x 9 1/8" woodblock print 9th month of 1857 Brooklyn Museum Photo Courtesy The Brooklyn Museum Japanese fiction is a great love of mine. My taste ranges widely from the postmodern antics of Murakami, to the quiet intellectualism of Endo, to the luminous spaces of Kawabata, and to the pent up rage of Mishima. In a culture which traditionally values quietly getting along even when catastrophe strikes, fiction allows a space for readers to wail with those who hurt and lash out at those who would oppress. Japanese novels of mystery and horror provide such a space to ponder the darker recesses of humanity. Mystery writer Keigo Higashino, originally from Osaka and now resident in Tokyo, is currently one of the best selling authors in Japan. Reading "The Devotion of Suspect X" provides un...

Gregg Chadwick Setsuko's Room 30"x40" oil on canvas 2011

Takashi Murakami Summer Google Doodle for June 21, 2011 (Summer Solstice) Today - June 21st - is the longest day of the year. For this Summer Solstice, Google has commissioned Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, to create an icon for the day to be posted on Google's search page. More on Murakami at: #newday_GEISAI

On Saturday, March 26, 2011 the Torrance Art Museum held a fundraiser for the Japanese Red Cross to help with the humanitarian needs of post-tsunami Japan. I donated my painting Illume for the cause. This oil painting of a young Buddhist monk, seemingly caught in the glow of prayer candles, resonates hope in mourning, acceptance and rebirth. Gregg Chadwick Illume 16"x20" oil on linen 2011 Ongoing until April 30, 2011 at the Torrance Museum of Art is the exhibition Gateway Japan curated by Yuko Wakaume, Ei Kibukawa, and Max Presneill. More at: Torrance Art Museum

"At times like this, we are all Japanese" -George Takei 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 Live video chat by Ustream NHK Live Stream from Japan with Updates on the Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Crisis

Buddha, Japanese National Museum, Tokyo Gregg Chadwick "A Balance of Shadows" My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan. Video from Shinjuku,Tokyo showing skyscrapers swaying with the force of the March 11, 2011 earthquake centered off of northeastern Japan. Buildings in Japan are engineered to meet extraordinarily high governmental standards to help prevent earthquake damage. (Video by escot2008) " Friday’s quake was centered off the coast of Honshu, the most populous of the Japanese islands, at a point about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo and a depth of about 17 miles below the earth’s surface.The quake occurred at 2:46 p.m. Tokyo time, and was so powerful that buildings in central Tokyo, designed to withstand major earthquakes, swayed." -United States Geological Survey globalgiving has set up a well organized webpage for donations at Japan Earthquake And Tsunami Relief Fund More at: Earthquake in Japan

Kamila Shamsie's novel "Burnt Shadows" uses a cinemascope vision to portray a Japanese woman's struggle to understand her life in a spinning world where historic forces seem to lead her and her family into an inevitable showdown with fate. Hiroko carries the memories and scars imprinted into her skin from the atomic blast in Nagasaki in 1945 from Japan to India to post-partition Pakistan. Her son Raza carries the memories into a politically charged New York where the events of September 11, 2001 still loom in our headlines. Shamsie deftly leads the reader through the haunted landscapes of the last sixty years and by distilling chilling historical events through the vision of one family her words shed light into the shadows of time. An important work that I highly recommend. More on the author: Kamila Shamsie: British Council Contemporary Authors Find "Burnt Shadows"

Gregg Chadwick Murmurs 36"x48" oil on linen 2010

Gregg Chadwick Maruyama Twilight 40"x72" oil on linen 2010