by Gregg Chadwick
Happy New Year 2017!
It’s raining this New Year’s Eve in Santa Monica. The haunting voice of Gil Scott-Heron singing Winter In America fills our living room. My thoughts trace a circuit from this moment back to an earlier New Year in Japan as 1989 rolled into 1990. I was in Tokyo following the spirit and artworks of Ando Hiroshige. That winter in Japan, I clutched a large volume by Henry D. Smith II and Amy G. Poster on Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo and trekked on rail, foot and car across the historic core of what was Edo era Tokyo. Sponsored by the Nippon Seiyu-Kai's 30th Anniversary Award, I endeavored to create a series of new paintings inspired by Hiroshige’s woodcuts. Time, place, memory, mystery and lore all mixed in my artworks.
Gregg Chadwick
Passing View of Shohei Bridge
30"x24" oil on linen 1990
Today, on the Brooklyn museum’s Tumblr page, Alison Baldassano posted a photo of one of the most mysterious images from Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. She wrote,"People aren’t the only beings who gather together for special celebrations on the night before a new year dawns. In this woodblock print by Hiroshige, foxes come together on New Year’s Eve to receive directions for the upcoming year and emit ghostly flames, the size of which helps predict the next year’s crop…. And, as the foxes could say in the morning, 明けましておめでとうございます (akemashite omedetou gozaimasu) or Happy New Year!"
Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando) (Japanese, 1797-1858)
New Year’s Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Oji
( No. 118 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo)
9th month of 1857 Woodblock print
Brooklyn Museum
And some of the best things that happened in 2016!
(Please scroll to the end for all 51)
Thinking about the past year and inspired by a series of tweets by Canadian Astronaut Commander Hadfield, who is back on Earth after living aboard ISS as Commander of Expedition 35 , I have put together a list of positive achievements from 2016. Yes, it has been a difficult year with the Trumpian circus and the deaths of far too many in Aleppo, Iraq, Turkey, Nice, and Berlin. Not to mention, the untimely passing of artists from David Bowie, to Prince, to Carrie Fisher and so many more.
1. It’s easy to forget that this year saw a great many positive accomplishments. Let’s take a look:
2. The Colombian government and FARC rebels committed to a lasting peace, ending a war that killed or displaced over 7 million people.
3. Sri Lanka spent five years working to exile the world’s deadliest disease from their borders. As of 2016, they are malaria free.
4. The Giant Panda, arguably the world’s cutest panda, has officially been removed from the endangered species list.
5. @astro_timpeake became the first ESA astronaut from the UK, symbolizing a renewed British commitment to space exploration.
6. Tiger numbers around the world are on the rise for the first time in 100 years, with plans to double by 2022.
7. Juno, a piece of future history, successfully flew over 588 million miles and is now sending back unprecedented data from Jupiter.
8. The number of veterans in the US who are homeless has halved in the past half-decade, with a nearly 20% drop in 2016.
Thank you Michelle Obama and so many more!
Army Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Howell, 8th Theater Sustainment Command public affairs operations noncommissioned officer, talks with a homeless veteran ahead of the annual Veterans Stand-Down in Honolulu, Aug. 5, 2015.
The stand-down was part of the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness initiative announced by First Lady Michelle Obama as a way to challenge the mayors in major cities to provide services and supplies to homeless veterans such as food, shelter, clothing, medical, dental and benefits counseling with the hope of getting them off the streets. Courtesy photo
9. Malawi lowered its HIV rate by 67%, and in the past decade have seen a shift in public health that has saved over 250,000 lives.
10. Air travel continue to get safer, and 2016 saw the second fewest per capita deaths in aviation of any year on record.
11. India’s dogged commitment to reforestation saw a single day event planting more than 50 million trees, a world record.
Hundreds of thousands of people in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh planted 50 million trees in 24 hours.
(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
12. Measles has been eradicated from the Americas. A 22 year vaccination campaign has led to the elimination of the historic virus.
13. After a century, Einstein’s theory of gravitational waves has been found verifiable, in a ‘moon shot’ scientific achievement.
14. China has announced a firm date for the end of the ivory trade, as public opinion is becoming more staunchly environmentalist.
15. A solar powered airplane flew across the Pacific Ocean for the first time, highlighting a new era of energy possibilities.
16. Costa Rica’s entire electrical grid ran on renewable energy for over half the year, and their capacity continues to grow.
17. Israeli and US researchers believe they are on the brink of being able to cure radiation sickness, after successful tests this year.
18. The ozone layer has shown that through tackling a problem head on, the world can stem environmental disasters, together.
19. A new treatment for melanoma has seen a 40% survival rate, taking a huge step forward towards long-term cancer survivability.
20. An Ebola vaccine was developed by Canadian researchers with 100% efficacy. Humans eradicated horror, together.
21. British Columbia protected 85% of the world’s largest temperate rainforest, in a landmark environmental agreement.
Spirit bears are the best known part of the unique flora and fauna of the Great Bear Rainforest that will be protected under an agreement finalized in B.C.
Spirit bears, also known as Kermode bears, are black bears with a unique genetic variation that gives them their cream-coloured fur. (Photo by Ian McAllister)
22. 2016 saw the designation of more than 40 new marine sanctuaries in 20 countries, covering an area larger than the United States.
23. These marine reserves include Malaysia’s 13 year struggle to complete a million hectare park, completed this year.
24. This also includes the largest marine reserve in history, created in Antarctica via an unprecedented agreement by 24 nations.
25. Atmospheric acid pollution, once a gloomy reality, has been tackled to the point of being almost back to pre-industrial levels.
26. Major diseases are in decline. The US saw a 50% mortality drop in colon cancer; lower heart disease, osteoporosis and dementia.
27. Uruguay won a major case against Philip Morris in a World Bank ruling, setting a precedent for other small countries that want to deter tobacco use.
28. World hunger has reached its lowest point in 25 years, and with poverty levels dropping worldwide, seems likely to continue.
29. The A.U. made strides to become more unified, launching an all-Africa passport meant to allow for visa-free travel for all citizens.
30. Fossil fuel emissions flatlined in 2016, with the Paris agreement becoming the fastest UN treaty to become international law.
31. One third of Dutch prison cells are empty as the crime rate shrank by more than 25% in the last eight years, continuing to drop.
32. Homelessness in the United States declined by 35% since 2007, and Los Angeles committed to $1.2 billion to help get more people off the street. Amanda Hoover in the Christian Science Monitor writes,"The decreases nationwide, especially those involving chronic homelessness, come in part thanks to a push for permanent housing options rather than temporary placements that are no longer seen as a good path to getting people 'back on their feet.' Communities, such as Boston, that have explored supportive, long-term options have seen more of their vulnerable citizens thrive, and some say an expansion of that plan could eradicate the issue of homelessness entirely."
33. @BoyanSlat successfully tested his Ocean Cleanup prototype, and aims to clean up to 40% of ocean-borne plastics starting this year.
34. Israel now produces 55% of its freshwater, turning what is one of the driest countries on earth into an agricultural heartland.
35. The Italian government made it harder to waste food, creating laws that provided impetus to collect, share and donate excess meals.
36. People pouring ice on their head amusingly provided the ALS foundation with enough funding to isolate a genetic cause of the disease in 2016.
37. Manatees, arguably the most enjoyable animal to meet when swimming, are increasing their population.
38. The United States now feeds healthy lunches to more than 30 million children, is about to ban trans fats, and has enacted one of the biggest overhauls of nutrition labels in decades.
39. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau announces ban on transgender discrimination
40. In December, Gambia became the latest African country to show that voting does count, and dictators do fall.
41. The Gates Foundation announced another 5 billion dollars towards eradicating poverty and disease in Africa.
42. Individual Canadians were so welcoming that the country set a world standard for how to privately sponsor and resettle refugees.
43. Teenage birth rates in the United States have never been lower, while at the same time graduation rates have never been higher.
44. In 2012, the US and Mexico embarked on an unprecedented binational project to revive the Colorado River. By 2016, the results had astonished everyone.
45. SpaceX made history by landing a rocket upright after returning from space, potentially opening a new era of space exploration.
46. Black incarceration rates fell in the United States. Not fast enough, but certainly something worth celebrating.
47. The proportion of older US adults with dementia, including Alzheimer’s, declined from 11.6% in 2000 to 8.8% in 2012, a decrease of about a million people.
48. Mobile phones made significant inroads in the fight against rabies, a disease that kills more people annually than all terrorists combined.
50. The World Health Organisation released a report showing that, since the year 2000, global malaria deaths have declined by 60%.
51. Katherine Johnson, 98, was able to see her life's work as a mathematician realized, recognized, and appreciated. #STEMwomen
There are countless more examples, large and small. If we refocus on the things that are working, our new year will be better than the last.
Thinking of all of you this holiday season!
We remain hopeful in this dark moment and send healing thoughts your way.
Thank you for your love and support!
Gregg
This is an update from an earlier letter. I will be sending these out as the situation develops.
It is my goal in these updates to point out the injustice our country faces and actions we can take to find peace and overcome this tide of hate coming from DJT supporters and DJT ideas and policies.
I have posted the content of my first letter without personal details on my blog Speed of Life -
