Speed of Life

  Gregg Chadwick P-22, Hollywood Nights 30"x22" gouache and monotype on paper 2023 In Hollywood even Mountain Lions become stars. The wild cougar dubbed P-22 by the Park Service roamed Griffith Park for 12 years. After a few scrapes with dogs and humans in December 2022, NPS biologists captured P-22 in the Los Feliz area and transported him to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park for a thorough health evaluation. Results showed P-22 had several severe injuries, such as significant trauma to his head, right eye, and internal organs from a suspected vehicle strike, as well as multiple chronic health illnesses, including irreversible kidney disease, chronic weight loss, an extensive parasitic skin infection over his entire body, and localized arthritis. Due to his poor condition, CDFW made the extremely difficult decision to euthanize P-22 on the morning of Dec. 17, 2022. My gouache and monotype on paper artwork "P-22" was inspired by numerous images of the mountain lion incl...

From PBS Terra: "Beyond its iconic height, the Redwood Forest is sacred to the Yurok Tribe and a scientific frontier for the study of vast biodiversity that exists nowhere else on Earth. This episode of Untold Earth explores the varied relationship between The Redwoods, their forest ecosystems, and the humans who live and work among them. Asking, at every turn, what makes these trees epically singular in nature? Untold Earth explores the seeming impossibilities behind our planet’s strangest, most unique natural wonders. From fragile, untouched ecosystems to familiar but unexplained occurrences in our own backyard, this series chases insight into natural phenomena through the voices that know them best.  Untold Earth is produced in partnership with Atlas Obscura and Nature." Subscribe to PBS Terra so you never miss an episode! https://bit.ly/3mOfd77 And keep up with Untold Earth and PBS Terra on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PBSDigitalSt... Twitter: https://twitter.co...

Today's Google doodle honors the groundbreaking environmentalist Rachel Carson, whose book  Silent Spring sounded one of the first alarms about the detrimental effect of pesticides on the eco-system. The natural world was my first love as a kid and reading Carson's work was instrumental in spurring me on to look deeply at and respect the complexities of our endangered environment. Carson's interest in conservation began with her early work as a marine biologist, which led to her award winning book, The Sea Around Us . Subsequently, nature writing provided a powerful vehicle for Carson to bring mainstream attention to the chemicals being dumped daily into our streams and rivers. Her work inspired global bans of the pesticide DDT  and helped foster the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States. I encourage you to honor Rachel Carson's legacy by spending some time today on the Audubon Society's website , the US National Park Servic...

by Gregg Chadwick Gregg Chadwick Calvino's Elephant 30"x40" oil on linen 2011 Private Collection, Arcata, California "In fact, the elephant recognizes the language of his homeland, obeys orders, remembers what he learns, knows the passion of love and the ambition of glory,  practices  virtues “rare even among men,” such as probity, prudence and equity, and has a religious veneration for the sun, the moon, and the stars." From “Man, the sky and the elephant” pp. 315-330 of The Uses of Literature by Italo Calvino, Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1986. An Open Letter to the Chief Executive Officer of NBCUniversal   Dear Stephen Burke, As Chief Executive Officer of NBCUniversal you oversee the vast and important array of news, sports and entertainment networks that make NBCUniversal a leader in global media. In many ways the world looks to you and NBCUniversal for not just entertainment but inspiration. With this in mind, it comes as ...

We were not meant to survive. We were meant to live. - W.S. Merwin Gregg Chadwick A Balance of Shadows 72”x96” oil on linen A Balance of Shadows was begun in 2004 as a visual poem reflecting the tensions of our era. Today, May 24, 2012, I laid a thin transparent layer of lapis lazuli across a section of the sky. Sourced in Afghanistan, this precious stone, when ground into pigment, creates a radiant blue that has been considered auspicious in both east and west. The word depicted in Japanese script in the upper left section of the painting is satori .  The word satori is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment or "understanding". In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori refers to the experience of kensho . Kensho when used in Zen traditions refers to "seeing into one's true nature." Ken means "seeing," sho means "nature" or "essence." Satori and kensho are commonly translated as enlightenment, a word...

  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.