This Weekend at Esalen: The Courage to Create

WEEKEND OF DECEMBER 12-14, 2014

Gregg Chadwick
The Painter (il miglior fabbro)
24"x30" oil on linen 2013

What role does creativity play in our lives? Is it an inner imperative that helps us forge the well-lived life? This workshop at Esalen, situated along California's rugged Big Sur coastline, engages with the notion that creativity is a “battle with the gods” in light of its Latin origins in the word creare, the natural urge “to grow or make order of chaos."

Our point of departure is that creativity is an archetypal journey with recognizable stages, which are especially helpful when we are stuck or lost in our work. For the last thirty years, Phil Cousineau has used his three-stage model — Inspiration, Perspiration, and Realization — as a guide to help writers, artists, and filmmakers to deepen and complete their work. The artist Gregg Chadwick uses his own artwork and anecdotes from his lifelong study of painters to provide an inside look at practices that will help us find a balance between inspiration and the marketplace, traditional notions of beauty with daring acts of innovation, and personal discipline with the importance of building community. Together, they will alternate lecture, discussion, movie clips, slide shows, readings, and exercises that encourage cross-fertilization between the visual arts and the written word.

This workshop is designed for creative souls in every field who hope to rekindle their imagination and passion, and renew their sense of joy.

Recommended reading: Cousineau, Stoking the Creative Fires and The Art of Pilgrimage; Cousineau and Chadwick, The Painted Word.

Gregg Chadwick
Die Kathedrale Der Bücher (The Cathedral of Books)              
36"x48" oil on linen 2013

More Info at:
http://www.esalen.org/workshop/weekend-december-12-14/courage-create

Phil Cousineau

Phil Cousineau

Phil Cousineau is a freelance writer, filmmaker, teacher, and youth baseball coach. He has published more than 30 books, including the bestselling The Hero's Journey: The Life and Work of Joseph Campbell. He has written award-winning documentary films, and is the host of "Global Spirit," a nationally broadcast series on LINK TV and PBS.

Email Me

www.philcousineau.net

Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick creates his artwork in an old airplane hangar in Santa Monica, California. The recurring sound of airplane take-offs and landings from the active airport runway outside his studio reminds him of his own history of travel. Chadwick has exhibited his artworks in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally. He earned a Bachelor's Degree at UCLA and a Master’s Degree at NYU, both in Fine Art. He has had notable solo exhibitions at the Manifesta Maastricht Gallery (Maastricht, The Netherlands), Space AD 2000 (Tokyo, Japan), the Sandra Lee Gallery (San Francisco), and the Lisa Coscino Gallery (Pacific Grove) among others. He has participated in nearly one hundred group exhibitions including at the di Rosa Preserve's Off the Preserve (Sonoma), the San Francisco Art Institute, the Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, the Monterey Art Museum, the LOOK Gallery (Los Angeles), the Arena 1 Gallery (Santa Monica), and the Arts Club of Washington (Washington DC). Chadwick’s art is notably included in the collections of the Adobe Corporation, the Gilpin Museum, the Graciela Hotel in Burbank, the Harbor Court Hotel in San Francisco; the Kimpton Group’s headquarters in San Francisco, the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Nordstrom Company Headquarters, the W Hotel Hollywood, and Winona State University.

Chadwick is frequently invited to lecture on the arts; in 2011-14 he spoke at UCLA, Monterey Peninsula College, the Esalen Institute, at Demand Media during NewCo LA, and at the World Views forum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands as well as at Categorically Not, a monthly forum that considers the arts and science, in May 2013 and December 2014.

Email Me

Wednesday at Book Passage in Corte Madera - Burning the Midnight Oil: Illuminating Words for the Long Night's Journey Into Day

Gregg Chadwick
Night Swim, Kaufmann House
24"x30" oil on linen 2013
Courtesy Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco, California

 On Friday, December 13th, we chased away the demons with an inspiring book reading
 at Book Soup on Sunset in Hollywood with the presentation of Burning the Midnight Oil: Illuminating Words for the Long Night's Journey into Day, which includes my essay Night Painting. Please join us at Book Passage in Corte Madera on December 18, 2013 at 7 pm for our next event. I will again be reading.

This marvelous book, edited by Phil Cousineau, includes an inspiring array of essays and poems: including pieces by Vincent Van Gogh, Walt Whitman, Pico Iyer, Rabandranath Tagore, Mary Oliver, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Jorge Borges, William Blake, Mikkel Aaland, Kent Chadwick, Alexander Eliot, Jane Winslow Eliot, Li Po, Antler, Annie Dillard, Charles Bukowski, R B Morris, Willis Barnstone, Bruce Chatwin, James Norwood Pratt, Tess Harper, Stuart Balcomb, Richard Beban, Gregg Chadwick, and more.

Phil Cousineau and I will be appearing with special guest Jeff "the Dude" Dowd. 
Yes, that one.

The event is free and open to the public.


More info at:   http://www.bookpassage.com/event/phil-cousineau-burning-midnight-oil

The Courage to Create at Esalen December 6-8 2013

The Courage to Create

WEEKEND OF DECEMBER 6-8, 2013

Gregg Chadwick
The Painter (il miglior fabbro)
24"x30" oil on linen 2013

What role does creativity play in our lives? Is it an inner imperative that helps us forge the well-lived life? This workshop at Esalen, situated along California's rugged Big Sur coastline, engages with the notion that creativity is a “battle with the gods” in light of its Latin origins in the word creare, the natural urge “to grow or make order of chaos."

Our point of departure is that creativity is an archetypal journey with recognizable stages, which are especially helpful when we are stuck or lost in our work. For the last thirty years, Phil Cousineau has used his three-stage model — Inspiration, Perspiration, and Realization — as a guide to help writers, artists, and filmmakers to deepen and complete their work. The artist Gregg Chadwick uses his own artwork and anecdotes from his lifelong study of painters to provide an inside look at practices that will help us find a balance between inspiration and the marketplace, traditional notions of beauty with daring acts of innovation, and personal discipline with the importance of building community. Together, they will alternate lecture, discussion, movie clips, slide shows, readings, and exercises that encourage cross-fertilization between the visual arts and the written word.

This workshop is designed for creative souls in every field who hope to rekindle their imagination and passion, and renew their sense of joy.

Recommended reading: Cousineau, Stoking the Creative Fires and The Art of Pilgrimage; Cousineau and Chadwick, The Painted Word.

Gregg Chadwick
Die Kathedrale Der Bücher (The Cathedral of Books)              
36"x48" oil on linen 2013

More Info at:
http://www.esalen.org/workshop/weekend-december-6-8/courage-create

Phil Cousineau

Phil Cousineau

Phil Cousineau is a freelance writer, filmmaker, teacher, and youth baseball coach. He has published more than 30 books, including the bestselling The Hero's Journey: The Life and Work of Joseph Campbell. He has written award-winning documentary films, and is the host of "Global Spirit," a nationally broadcast series on LINK TV and PBS.

Email Me

www.philcousineau.net

Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick creates his artwork in an old airplane hangar in Santa Monica, California. The recurring sound of airplane take-offs and landings from the active airport runway outside his studio reminds him of his own history of travel. Chadwick has exhibited his artworks in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally. He earned a Bachelor's Degree at UCLA and a Master’s Degree at NYU, both in Fine Art. He has had notable solo exhibitions at the Manifesta Maastricht Gallery (Maastricht, The Netherlands), Space AD 2000 (Tokyo, Japan), the Sandra Lee Gallery (San Francisco), and the Lisa Coscino Gallery (Pacific Grove) among others. He has participated in nearly one hundred group exhibitions including at the di Rosa Preserve's Off the Preserve (Sonoma), the San Francisco Art Institute, the Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, the Monterey Art Museum, the LOOK Gallery (Los Angeles), the Arena 1 Gallery (Santa Monica), and the Arts Club of Washington (Washington DC). Chadwick’s art is notably included in the collections of the Adobe Corporation, the Gilpin Museum, the Graciela Hotel in Burbank, the Harbor Court Hotel in San Francisco; the Kimpton Group’s headquarters in San Francisco, the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Nordstrom Company Headquarters, the W Hotel Hollywood, and Winona State University.

Chadwick is frequently invited to lecture on the arts; in 2011-13 he spoke at UCLA, Monterey Peninsula College, the Esalen Institute, and at the World Views forum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands as well as at Categorically Not, a monthly forum that considers the arts and science, in May 2013.

Email Me

www.greggchadwick.com

Tomorrow and Thursday in Nor Cal: The Painted Word Book Tour

I am honored to announce the publication of my latest collaboration with the author Phil Cousineau:
 The Painted Word. 

Sixty-three of my artworks are included in this new volume. 

Book Tour Dates - All Are Welcome & All Events are Free. I will bring a group of the artworks included in the book to each event listed below:

In Northern California:

Tomorrow: Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word at Book Passage 

51 Tamal Vista Blvd | Corte Madera, California

Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 7:00 PM (Art by Gregg Chadwick Courtesy The Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco)

Thursday: Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word 

City Lights Booksellers | 261 Columbus Avenue | San Francisco, California

Thursday, September 13, 2012, 7:00 PM (Art by Gregg Chadwick Courtesy The Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco)

In Southern California:

Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word at Warwick's Books | 7812 Girard Avenue | La Jolla, California

Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 7:30 PM

Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick on The Painted Word | Book Soup | 8818 Sunset Blvd West | Hollywood, California

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 7:00 PM

NEW BOOK:  The Painted Word By Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick

"When Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick join creative forces it is an important event. This historic collaboration shines with fresh insights into both language and art."
— Alexander Eliot, author of 300 Years of American Painting and The Global Myths

Notes on the Artwork In The Painted Word
When I was young, the form of words—the way they looked— intrigued me and I often wondered what it would be like to look at a word and not be able to read or understand it. In essence, I wondered about the indecipherable mystery behind the word. The artworks I have created for The Painted Word take that sense of mystery into the world of paint and image.

Each creation began with that wonderful, slippery stuff that never wants to be tamed or pinned down: paint. Specifically, I use oil paint for its historical resonance and also because of its liquid origins in the oil pressed from flax. From this plant comes both linseed oil, which is mixed with dry powdered pigments to create oil paint, and linen, which traditionally has been used as the surface that oils are painted upon. Whenever I unroll a new bolt of linen in my studio a rich fragrance reminis- cent of a newly cut field fills the room.

I find that freshly stretched paintings waiting for their first touch of color invite the mystery of life and creation. The word stories written by Phil Cousineau opened up a similar sense of wonder. Like the words, each tube of paint also brought its history into the room. Color names are words steeped in myth and meaning. Lapis Lazuli evokes dangerous treks along the Silk Road into Afghanistan that brought this exquisite blue stone into the workshops of Renaissance artists. The pigment was so expensive and so important it was often reserved for coloring the heavens and Mary’s garments. A separate clause in the artist’s contract would dictate how much the client would pay for the Lapis Lazuli in addition to the amount paid for the artist’s services. Other colors weren’t so dear but were still rich in lore. Burnt Sienna is a warm brown earth pigment that was dug up in the fields surrounding Siena, Italy. Cinnabar, a brilliant red originally found in minerals veined with mercury, also made its way along the Silk Road from its source in China. I used all three of these colors in many of the paintings in The Painted Word.

Gregg Chadwick

(From The Painted Word, available in September 2012. 

Published in the United States by Viva Editions, an imprint of Cleis Press, Inc., 2246 Sixth Street, Berkeley, California 94710.)

"If The Painted Word were a club act, I'd sit there drinking in Cousineau's revelations, tales and mythologies until they kicked me out of the joint. Reading this brew of etymology, history, lore, and pop connections, with lambent illustrations by Gregg Chadwick, is just as intoxicating. A Cousineau riff on a (passionately selected) word is like Mark Twain meets Coleridge meets Casey Stengel meets---well, everyone who's fun and informative, whether the riff is on autologophagist (someone who eats his/her words) or jack, which, believe me, the world-traveled Cousineau knows when it comes to language. "

—Arthur Plotnik, author of The Elements of Expression: Putting Thoughts Into Words

Finding Beauty in Our Art & Lives: Upcoming Workshop With Gregg Chadwick & Phil Cousineau at Esalen in Big Sur (Weekend of September 30-October 2, 2011)

Gregg Chadwick
Beauty and Sadness ( 美しさと哀しみと)

Often cocooned in our metal boxes as we speed through our days, modern life can seem barren and uncreative. How do we find joy in our lives? Where is that creative spark found?

Join Gregg Chadwick and Phil Cousineau as we explore the nature of beauty in our art and being.
Coming up at Esalen during the weekend of September 30 through October 2nd 2011, we will venture into the realms of artistic creation and personal discovery with exercises in visual art and discussions around the mythic importance of beauty. I hope you can join us at Esalen as we use the arts to get back to life.

For info and reservations:
Who Stole the Arms of the Venus de Milo? The Myth of Beauty from Aphrodite to Ansel Adams
Feel free to email me directly with questions or ideas at speedoflife@mac.com .

December 3-5, 2010 at Esalen: Gregg Chadwick and Phil Cousineau on Stoking the Creative Fires

Gregg Chadwick
Jordaan Window
25cmx25cm oil on wood 2010

Coming up on December 3-5, 2010, I am honored to lead a workshop on creativity with writer Phil Cousineau entitled Stoking the Creative Fires: Nine Ways to Rekindle Passion and Imagination

Phil Cousineau's book "Stoking the Creative Fires" is an impassioned volume on creativity that combines myth, story and personal pilgrimages in a primer on the creative life. My painting "Fire Dream" graces the cover.
We will use this book as a stepping off point for the upcoming workshop on creativity. It will be a rich journey through myth and art at Esalen. Sign up here: Reserve this workshop
We hope to see you there!




The Esalen Institute is a non-profit organization founded in 1962 by Stanford alums Michael Murphy and Richard Price as an alternative educational center devoted to the exploration of what Aldous Huxley called the "human potential." This world of unrealized human capacities that lies beyond the imagination has brought to Esalen a steady influx of philosophers, psychologists, artists, and religious thinkers.




Phil Cousineau at Esalen

Allan Hunt Badiner explains the history of Esalen:
"Esalen takes its name from the Native American tribe, the Esselen, that once lived there. Sitting on a former ceremonial ground, the Esalen property was the site of frequent cross-tribal peace gatherings. Esselen cosmology described Big Sur as a “weaving” center for human culture and drew representatives from tribes, near and far. Today, Esalen draws 10,000 people a year from around the world to participate in a wildly diverse menu of workshops. It brought former Russian President Boris Yeltsin to the West, popularized Rolfing and Gestalt, and nurtured books like The Tao of Physics and The Dancing Wu Li Masters. Esalen created a context for understanding psychedelics, established the healing power of massage, and championed wisdom of the body. Visitors often mention that the land itself and spectacular coastline setting feels almost sacred." Allan's words are not surprising, given the retreat’s lineage of powerful teachers such as Abraham Maslow, Joseph Campbell, Alan Watts, Fritz Perls, Allen Ginsberg, Ida Rolf, Joan Baez, Boris Yeltsin, Philip Glass, Gregory Bateson, Buckminster Fuller and countless others who have visited and taught at Esalen in an effort to discuss, debate and develop revolutionary ideas, transformative practices, and innovative art forms.


Sunset at the Esalen Institute

More at:
Phil Cousineau
Gregg Chadwick
Stoking the Creative Fires
"Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion" by Jeffrey J. Kripal
Esalen at the Edge. From Zen and hot tubs to glasnost, the famed Big Sur retreat has changed our minds, bodies, and ways of looking at the world.
- by past workshop participant Allan Hunt Badiner

Die Kathedrale Der Bucher (The Cathedral of Books)

Gregg Chadwick
Die Kathedrale Der Bucher (The Cathedral of Books)
20"x16" oil on linen 2010

I am back from Berlin steeped in imagery and inspiration and new work. Today, books are on my mind as my latest painting was inspired by the Selexyz Dominicanen, a bookstore in Maastricht, the Netherlands, located in a deconsecrated Dominican Church. Also, Michael Krasny interviewed Phil Cousineau about his latest book Wordcatcher which includes over twenty images of my artworks inspired by Phil's marvelous word histories.


Phil Cousineau Catches Words with Michael Krasny

Writer Phil Cousineau, Photographer Eric Lawton and Musician John Densmore

Phil Cousineau, Eric Lawton and Doors Drummer John Densmore at BookSoup in Hollywood on May 5, 2010



Phil Cousineau read from his new book WordCatcher at BookSoup in Hollywood last night. Tonight, May 6, 2010, Phil will stop by my studio at the Santa Monica Airport where we will be hosting a gathering to celebrate the publication of Wordcatcher and to feature other collaborative projects that Phil Cousineau and I have worked on. The evening will start at 7 pm.

More info at: Catching Words and Images With Phil Cousineau

Catching Words and Images With Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick
Gorgonize (Medusa)
from Wordcatcher

Just hitting bookstores is my latest collaborative work with Phil Cousineau, Wordcatcher. Phil and I share a love of art and language and this latest book combines Phil's marvelous word histories with my artworks inspired by the word tales. Phil Cousineau and I often work collaboratively. For Wordcatcher I created 25 images inspired by Phil's intriguing descriptions. I spent much of the Fall in my drawing studio with my hands and clothing covered in chalk dust with the smell of wood shavings and sepia inks in the air. The resulting artworks are mainly rendered in ink washes with black and sanguine chalks heightened with white chalk on paper.


Gregg Chadwick
Duende (Federico Garcia Lorca in Havana)
from Wordcatcher

Wordcatcher is already garnering praise:

“Stake out a claim next to the standard dictionary you use for this less pedantic companion. It contains fewer words but sends up Fourth of July skyrockets on all of them. But caveat emptor, readers beware! Cousineau’s love affair with words is contagious and you are likely to end up lovesick with words yourself.”

—Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions and Tales of Wonder

"A book that allows us to remember the genius of language-- to see, feel and, it seems, even "taste" the living-ness and poetry hidden within these many common and uncommon words. A delicious book."
----Jacob Needleman, author of What Is God?


Gregg Chadwick
Labyrinth
from Wordcatcher

On May 5, 2010 Phil Cousineau and I will be together at 7 pm at Booksoup on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood celebrating our collaboration. Also on May 6, 2010 we will be hosting a gathering at my studio in Santa Monica to celebrate the publication of Wordcatcher and to feature other collaborative projects that Phil Cousineau and I have worked on. Both evenings will start at 7 pm. Hope to see you there!


Gregg Chadwick
Murmur (Grow, Grow)
from Wordcatcher

May 6th, 2010
Please Join Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick for a Celebration of Collaboration
Phil will read from Wordcatcher and The Oldest Story in the World and books will be available for purchase and signing.
7PM-9:30PM
Gregg Chadwick
Studio #15
Santa Monica Art Studios
3026 Airport Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90405


Gregg Chadwick
Encyclopedia (Diderot)
from Wordcatcher

Phil Cousineau's "The Oldest Story in the World"

My painting The Poet's Dawn is used as the cover image for Phil Cousineau's new book The Oldest Story in the World. Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero With a Thousand Faces, had this to say about Cousineau's work:

"It's just marvelous the way you've demonstrated how similar the journeys in myth are to those in art, literature, movies, and dreams. You've done what all artists and writers must do with the great stuff of myth: you've made it your own.
-Joseph Campbell on Phil Cousineau

Phil's Website:
More Details on Phil Cousineau and His Collaborations With Gregg Chadwick

Trailer for "Inherent Vice", narrated by author Thomas Pynchon

Trailer for his new novel "Inherent Vice", narrated by author Thomas Pynchon

As if Thomas Pynchon is channeling the "Dude". Wonderful, atmospheric clip hearkening back to 1970's LA.

And if you want to hang with the inspiration for the real Dude join veteran documentary filmmaker Phil Cousineau, a protégé of mythologist Joseph Campbell, and movie producer Jeff Dowd, the legendary inspiration for "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski, for an exhilarating weekend at Esalen from December 11-13, 2009: Myth, Magic and Movies with Cousineau and Dowd

for Alex Eliot on his 90th Birthday - "Oriste!"

In Alex Eliot's marvelous essay in Frederick Franck's book, What Does it Mean to be Human?, Alex recounts his journey to the Greek region of Karoulia and his encounter with the "very holy fellow" Simon. Like many of his fellow Orthodox monks from Mount Athos, Simon retired to a cliff side residence in Karoulia. Perched high above the water, these monks spend their later years in solitude with the meeting of the sea and sky as their constant companion.

Alex was invited by a fisherman from Mount Athos, who spoke of Simon as a holy fellow, to make the journey with him by sea to visit the monk. With the fisherman's boat bobbing in the waves below, Alex climbed a series of steps carved into the rock face with only a series of chains spiked into the cliff to hold onto. The fisherman had said, "If those chains will hold you, it is as God wills" for Alex to meet with Simon. At the end of his climb, Alex explains that he lay drenched in sweat gasping like a beached fish until he felt a cool shadow break the heat and there was Simon, "sparkling eyed" with his arms spread wide, exclaiming "Oriste!" meaning "Welcome, what can I do for you!"



Forgive me if I break Alex's engaging narrative at this point. As I write these words, I am sitting in my studio surrounded by a series of new paintings inspired by a recent trip with my family to Japan. The siren of these images is calling me. And I can't help but wonder what Alex and Jane Eliot, who also traveled with their family to Japan, will think of this new work. I don't have to risk my life scaling a cliff to reach the Eliots. I just need to make my pilgrimage out my studio door and down Ocean Park Boulevard, Diebenkorn's old haunts, to Venice, California to visit this couple who always greet my friends and family with wide open arms and profound insights. Like Simon's greeting, Alex Eliot's welcoming words nourish and inspire me.


Gregg Chadwick's Studio with 13 Geisha (13芸者) - in progress

Alex Eliot will turn 90 on April 28, 2009. In his fruitful life, Alex has met with and written about the great artists of his age - Picasso and Matisse. One might think it would only be natural for a man of such wisdom and experience to be a bit haughty. Instead Alex shares the old monk Simon's gentle and generous spirit as well as his great wisdom and love for life.

While on that cliff in Karoulia, Simon offered Alex a piece of caramel candy. Alex, graciously accepted the gift and then when the monk was preoccupied, Alex, feeling that the seemingly undernourished monk needed all the calories he could get, slipped it under Simon's plate. Alex then bowed and scooted out to climb down the cliff to the boat waiting below. The sun was setting when Alex reached the fisherman who lay asleep in the boat. The sirens called. Alex disrobed and dove into the sea only to be startled by a basket hurtling down the old monk's supply cable which linked his aerie to the world. In the basket was the caramel. "My candy had come back! I put the caramel straight into my mouth and like a child once more I tasted its burnt sugar elixir right down to my toes."

And then Alex opens up to the mythosphere - "Never before in this life, possibly, had my poor spirit taken nourishment. I stood dripping upon the shore of time and Simon waved to me from eternity."

Like Simon's candy, Alex Eliot's friendship gives my poor spirit nourishment.

Let me break again from my essay to speak directly to Alex:

Alex, I thank you for your wisdom, your profound words and feelings, the inspired love that you show to your wife - Jane - and your talented children. Alex - you are a lifeline, an example, and a challenge. I am proud to be your friend.


Study for a Portrait of Alex Eliot
8"x13" oil on wood 2009

Throughout my years as I stand with my wife, MarySue, and my son, Cassiel, on the shore of time I will see Alex and Jane Eliot waving to me from eternity and exclaiming, "Oriste!"


More at:
Alex Eliot's Website
Jane Winslow Eliot's Website