Great Read on Getty Museum's Blog "The Iris" -Looking at a Painting as a Conservator

Fascinating Article - Looking at a Painting as a Conservator https://shar.es/1tUy0E  via @thegetty

EL VY - Return to the Moon (Political Song for Didi Bloome to Sing, with...

World Elephant Day

RT @NatGeo In honor of #WorldElephantDay, a gallery of the beloved animals in the wild: http://on.natgeo.com/1J36JR3 

Jersey Rain

Jersey Rain by gregg chadwick
Via Flickr:
Gregg Chadwick 30"x40" oil on linen 2015 

 Inspired by Robert Pinsky and Robert Chadwick 

JERSEY RAIN

by Robert Pinsky

Now near the end of the middle stretch of road
What have I learned? Some earthly wiles. An art.
That often I cannot tell good fortune from bad,
That once had seemed so easy to tell apart.

The source of art and woe aslant in wind
Dissolves or nourishes everything it touches.
What roadbank gullies and ruts it doesn’t mend
It carves the deeper, boiling tawny in ditches.

It spends itself regardless into the ocean.
It stains and scours and makes things dark or bright:
Sweat of the moon, a shroud of benediction,
The chilly liquefaction of day to night,

The Jersey rain, my rain, soaks all as one:
It smites Metuchen, Rahway, Saddle River,
Fair Haven, Newark, Little Silver, Bayonne.
I feel it churning even in fair weather

To craze distinction, dry the same as wet.
In ripples of heat the August drought still feeds
Vapors in the sky that swell to smite the state –
The Jersey rain, my rain, in streams and beads

Of indissoluble grudge and aspiration:
Original milk, replenisher of grief,
Descending destroyer, arrowed source of passion,
Silver and black, executioner, font of life.                

Basque Ghosts: A Review of Gabriel Urza’s First Novel — ”All That Followed”

by Gregg Chadwick

Author Gabriel Urza’s family has roots in Spain’s Basque region. His new novel “All That Followed”http://amzn.to/2eyXpMY shows us the faces of civil wars — the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's, the Basque separatist movement, and the small wars that families and couples often find themselves fighting. Urza recounts a fictional tale based on real events that explores the kidnapping and killing of a young politician by even younger separatists in the late 1990s. Urza limns a town where everyone knows where bullet holes were left by Franco’s murderous thugs decades before. Ghosts of the murdered seem to arrive in the slanted rain — txirimiri in Basque. In a Rashomon like retelling of the politician’s murder, three disparate voices speak in alternating chapters: Joni, an aging American expat teacher. Mariana, the victim’s young wife. And Iker, a student activist turned abductor. Joni and Mariana’s pain and loss are balanced with Iker’s hunger for meaning and action and ultimate indoctrination into violence. Much like the current appeal of ISIS for many young men and women in Europe, Iker finds acceptance into a group of like minded if not lost compadres. Urza’s novel does not give us easy answers, but instead focuses on the human costs of political and personal devotion and unfaithfulness.

Urza writes with a deep poetic connection to the Basque landscape and the struggles of its people. Highly recommended.

The Golden Ratio in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Frescoes

A fascinating new study by Brazilian researchers* entitled "More Than A Neuroanatomical Representation in The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo Buonarroti, A Representation of the Golden Ratio" presents a compelling look at Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes. (*DEIVIS DE CAMPOS, TAIS MALYSZ, JO~AO ANTONIO BONATTO-COSTA, GERALDO PEREIRA JOTZ, LINO PINTO DE OLIVEIRA JUNIOR, ANDANDREA OXLEY DA ROCHA)

"We report our use of Image Pro Plus Software 6.0 to demonstrate mathematical evidence that Michelangelo painted “The Creation of Adam” using the Divine Proportion/Golden Ratio (G R) (1.6). The GR is classically associated with greater structural efficiency and is found in biological structures and works of art by renowned artists. Thus, according to the evidence shown in this article, we can suppose that the beauty and harmony recognized in all Michelangelo’s works may not be based solely on his knowledge of human anatomical proportions, but that the artist also probably knew anatomical structures that conform to the GR display greater structural efficiency."

 "In this context, an important mathematical relationship is found in countless works of art from the Renaissance period (Livio, 2002). The mathematical relationship known as the Divine Proportion/GoldenRatio (GR) (U 5 1.6) is the ratio between two lines of unequal length, where the ratio between the length of the shorter line and the longer line is the same as the ratio between length of the longer line and the sum of the lengths (Hutchison and Hutchison, 2010), as follows: b/a 5 (a1b)/b = U  1.6 (Fig. 1).The GR is classically associated with greater structural efficiency (Livio, 2002) and has puzzled scientists for centuries due to its frequent occurrence in nature. Moreover, intriguing studies have shown the presence of GR in the organization of numerous natural structures, such as the shape of spiral galaxies(Livio, 2002; Hutchison and Hutchison, 2010), the g-Ratio of the nervous fibers (De Campos, 2014), spiral molluscan shells and plants (Newell et al., 2008). In addition, GR can be found not only in natural phenomena, but also in a variety of works by architects and designers, in famous musical compositions and the works of many other artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Durer (Livio, 2002)."

Fig. 2. The Creation of Adam fresco (1508–1512).Michelangelo Buonarroti. Extracted from Barreto and Oliveira, 2004. All measurements were taken with the aid ofImage Pro Plus Software 6.0; Media Cybernetics, SilverSpring, MD, USA. To calibrate the Image Pro Plus Soft-ware, the following commands were used: Measure/Cali-bration/Spatial

Fig. 3. The ceiling of the Sistene Chapel (1508–1512). Michelangelo Buonarroti. Extracted from Barretoand Oliveira, 2004. As in Figure 2, all measurements weretaken with the aid of Image Pro Plus Software 6.0; MediaCybernetics, Silver Spring, MD, USA. To calibrate theImage Pro Plus Software, the following commands wereused: Measure/Calibration/Spatial. 

More at:

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes linked to the golden ratio http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ca.22580/epdf … http://fw.to/EqeMp2S  #art

Santa Monica Art Studios Face Drastic Rent Hikes

Santa Monica cultural groups feel squeeze from airport rent hikes http://fw.to/ef2ByTh  #SantaMonicaArtStudios #Home

Happy Birthday Degas!

Happy Birthday to Edgar Degas born on 19 July 1834! "Four Dancers" @ngadc https://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg89/gg89-46597.html …

Edgar Degas 
1834 - 1917
Four Dancers, c. 1899
oil on canvas
59 1/2" x 70 15/16"
National Gallery of Art -Chester Dale Collection
photo by Gregg Chadwick

Cinema of Time Opens Sunday, July 12, 2015

Gregg Chadwick
Los Angeles Theatre
36"x48" oil on linen 2015

 HUFFPOST Arts & Culture

Artist Gregg Chadwick Engages Hollywood in New Exhibition: "Cinema of Time"

Article published July 7, 2015 By Kathy Leonardo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-leonardo-/artist-gregg-chadwick-eng_b_7740254.html

You are invited to the Opening Party on Sunday, July 12th from 4-7 pm

At UPPER WEST at 3221 Pico Blvd in Santa Monica.

Drinks and appetizers will be served.

Hope to see you there!

MORE on Gregg’s show at UPPER WEST in Santa Monica:

http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Meet-Artist-Gregg-Chadwick-At-Upper-West-Opening-Reception-July-12/43671

http://www.examiner.com/article/sunday-july-12th-upper-west-restaurant-celebrates-the-work-of-gregg-chadwick

http://www.ktrpromo.com/2015/06/cinema-of-time-featuring-gregg-chadwick.html

http://www.laartparty.com/index.php/upcoming-events/2105-sunday-july12-uppe-rwest-gregg-chadwick

You are Invited! Gregg Chadwick Opening - July 12, 2015 4-7pm

 I will have a solo exhibition entitled "Cinema of Time" at Upper West - a vibrant Santa Monica restaurant with an active art exhibition schedule. 

The opening is on July 12th from 4-7 pm.
Drinks and appetizers will be served. 

Hope to see you all there!

 3221 Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA

RSVP at 310 586 1111

http://TheUpperWest.com

http://www.laartparty.com/index.php/upcoming-events/2105-sunday-july12-uppe-rwest-gregg-chadwick

More on Gregg at www.greggchadwick.com

A Labyrinth of Stories

by Gregg Chadwick

From the Giardini

Tiziano Scarpa’s “Venice Is a Fish: A Sensual Guide” provides a unique, almost magical, means of exploring the canals and alleyways of Venice. Be warned, this is not another guidebook that will lead you on a shopping excursion from Piazza San Marco to the Rialto Bridge, but instead Scarpa’s volume is almost a book of spells that will enchant you and subsequently haunt you. Scarpa grew up in Venice and the ghosts of his past flicker in and out of our view as he leads us through the labyrinth of stories that is Venezia. We embody the feet, legs, hearts, hands, faces, ears, mouths, noses, and eyes of those who have come before us. Their senses conjured by Scarpa summon us to a dance of time. We meet Casanova and Vivaldi, Titian and Veronese, Ruskin and Maupassant.

Venetian Water

Scarpa reminds us that for centuries, each viewpoint in Venice has been recorded in verse, paint, and song. The weight of beauty as much as the high water (alte acqua) threatens to sink this illustrious city. Scarpa’s splendid volume acts as a literary life raft to lift us and carry us through the Venice of memory, dreams, and decay.

*photos by Gregg Chadwick

Powerful New Yorker Cover References Charleston Shooting

New New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt titled 'Nine' #CharlestonShooting