A Body of Sound in Arabic and English

Gregg Chadwick
A Body of Sound
30"x22" monotype on paper
Courtesy the Julie Nester Gallery

The writer Farouq Salloum recently sent me a poem inspired by my artwork The Body of Sound. Mr. Salloum's lilting words swirl and fix a passing image.

The poem is posted below in the original arabic version and is followed by the english translation by Farouq Salloum.
Thank you Farouq!

من اسئلة الجسد والوساوس
من زهرة الشهوات على وسادة السرير
من زخارف الكلمات على رنين هواتفك
حيث اتوهم انك تحتويني .. اتوهم انني احتويك
انثى هابطه من جحيم اللذائذ
وآدم حائر في ندم ايامه على الأرض
هو عطرك الذي يملأ المكان
كأنك هنا دائما
نعيد ترف وحدتنا بالفصول ..
بالجسد الحاني .. وبالغناء
*
A body of sound
جسد الصوت
لوحة
Gregg Chadwick
By: Farouq Salloum


A Body of Sound
-by Farouq Salloum

You spring up from the magic space of my forest
from the Questions of body and whispers
from the flower of desires on the pillow
from the ornementation of words on your phones calls
as an Illusion where you comprise me
... a falling female from the hell of pleasures

Paintings at Night

Chadwick's "Passports From the Realm" at Julie Nester Gallery

Gregg Chadwick
The Road to Mandalay
40"x30" oil on linen 2007


Gregg Chadwick's new exhibit "Passports From the Realm" opens January 4, 2008 at the Julie Nester Gallery in Park City, Utah.

"In old Arabic poetry love, song, blood and travel appear as four basic desires of the human heart and the only effective means against our fear of death. Thus travel is elevated to the dignity of the elementary needs of humankind." - Czeslaw Milosz on the poetry of travel

Movement, travel and pilgrimage are themes of the 21st Century that often appear in my paintings. Travel can involve a physical relocation or it can exist in the realm of the senses. Recently I attended "A Gathering of Hearts Illuminating Compassion," an interfaith meeting in San Francisco. The Dalai Lama was the keynote speaker at the event. He entered the packed hall, briskly moved up the center aisle, but stopped briefly to greet an elderly Tibetan woman a few feet from where I was seated. Then the Dalai Lama suddenly spun around and, with a beatific smile, gazed deeply and directly into my eyes.

I was transfixed. The moment was short but to me it felt as if all time collapsed within that point. For that moment, it seemed as if the Dalai Lama yearned to see with my eyes as I, in turn, learned to see through his.

These new paintings travel like the visual notes of a modern Marco Polo. They move from Venice, to India, to Tibet, to China, to Burma, to Thailand, to Japan, to New York to New Orleans, sometimes through my eyes and sometimes through the eyes of others.


Gregg Chadwick
Passports From the Realm 36"x48" oil on linen 2007


"Passports from the Realm," an exhibition of new paintings by Gregg Chadwick, opens Friday with an artist's reception from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Julie Nester Gallery, 1755 B Bonanza Drive, Park City.
For more information or to see more images of Chadwick's work, call 435-649-7855 or visit julienestergallery

More at:
chadwick at nester gallery

Gregg Chadwick's Homepage:
gregg chadwick

The Salt Lake Tribune:
passports from the realm

The Saffron Road

Gregg Chadwick
"The Saffron Road"
40"x90" oil on linen 2007