An evening with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Kevin Merida

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the Biden family to yours – Happy Thanksgiving. pic.twitter.com/r0mhQtQS69

— President Biden (@POTUS) November 25, 2021

From Asilomar (The Big Music) 

                                                                        Gregg Chadwick

United States

Painting, Oil on Linen

Size: 24 W x 30 H x 1.5 D in

 

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. New York City, 1988.

Elliott Erwitt

Happy Thanksgiving! https://t.co/zkaGK2JOxi

— Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) November 25, 2021

Steve Martin on how to look at abstract art | MoMA BBC | THE WAY I SEE IT

In this episode of "The Way I See It," actor and comedian Steve Martin looks at paintings by two early pioneers of American abstraction and takes us on a journey of seeing—shape and color transform into mountains, sky, and water. Find "The Way I See It" on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000... Subscribe for our latest videos, and invitations to live events: http://mo.ma/subscribe Explore our collection online: http://mo.ma/art Commit to art and ideas. Support MoMA by becoming a member today: https://moma.org/join The comments and opinions expressed in this video are those of the speaker alone, and do not represent the views of The Museum of Modern Art, its personnel, or any artist.  #TheWayISeeIt #SteveMartin #StantonMacdonaldWright #MorganRussell #art #museumofmodernart #moma #museum #modernart

There's No Thanksgiving Without Farm Workers

As you are shopping, prepping and preparing your Thanksgiving meals, we'd like you to know a little more about the work behind every ingredient and the people doing that work.

Here's a thread for everyone who wants to thank a farm worker this week. #WeFeedYou pic.twitter.com/XPpRfbOmiA

— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) November 22, 2021

Mayita shared this photo taken in the sweet potato fields of California. Her youngest daughter wanted a picture in the fields to show she was proud of her mom being a farm worker and proud of how hard she worked to invest in her children’s opportunities. pic.twitter.com/97EU425Pmv

— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) November 22, 2021

Here’s where we pause to remind you: we say #WeFeedYou because you’d have nothing on that Thanksgiving table without farm workers.

Supporting us during the season of thanks and giving will help fund change all year long.
DONATE HERE: https://t.co/dnHjgtuTOh pic.twitter.com/QWWZyo93GJ

— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) November 22, 2021

What Makes Bruce Springsteen's No Nukes Performances Legendary

A nice bit of musical history...

WhyHunger: Turn Hope Into Action

Nutritious Food is a Human Right. Through community-fueled solutions, grassroots support, and scaling out sustainable, agroecological food production, WhyHunger meets people’s immediate food needs with dignity while also building a movement to end hunger in the U.S. and around the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the hunger crisis, leaving nearly 54 million Americans and 2 billion people worldwide struggling to feed themselves. In the face of crisis and urgent need, there is still great hope that a healthy, just, and hunger-free world is possible. Together, we can turn hope into action.

——— Special Thanks to: Our Organizational Partners: Jesús Vázquez Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica de Puerto Rico Facebook: @organizacionboricua Twitter: @orgboricua Instagram: @organizacion_boricua Katrina Sanders, Judy Belue Delta Fresh Foods Initiative - Bolivar County, MS Facebook: @deltafreshfoods Joan Brady Farmer and advocate La Vía Campesina - Ontario, Canada Facebook: @viacampesinaOFFICIAL Twitter: @via_campesina Instagram: @la_via_campesina_official Niaz Dorry Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance National Family Farm Coalition – Gloucester, MA Facebook: @natlfamilyfarmcoalition Twitter: @FarmFamilyCo And Our Artist Partners: Bruce Springsteen Yoko Ono Lennon Carlos Santana Brandi Carlile Tom Morello Michael McDonald ——— Follow us on social media: Facebook http://www.Facebook.com/WhyHungerFans Twitter http://Twitter.com/WhyHunger Instagram http://Instagram.com/WhyHungerPix LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/whyh... Visit our website to learn more about WhyHunger's work and mission at http://www.whyhunger.org

Promenade

 On a warm summer afternoon, a couple strolls arm in arm in my painting "Promenade". Peace, love, and light reign in this moment.

Thanks to @saatchiart, @theotherartfair, @nicolegarton, @bsalatinooo_ for all their hard work in featuring and placing my work. To my new collectors - Thank You!
Life is fragile folks - spend time with the ones you love.
#art #artsales #theotherartfair #theotherartfairla #Promenade #UnderTheMilkyWay #todayistheday

Bruce Springsteen - The Making of The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts

On Veterans Day

 by Gregg Chadwick

(First Published November 11, 2010)

Winslow Homer

The Veteran in a New Field

24 1/8" x 38 1/8" oil on canvas 1865

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Veterans Day is more than just a day off. Instead it is a time to reflect on duty, honor, service, and life. Winslow Homer's The Veteran in a New Field portrays a Union veteran of the American Civil War back at work on the farm. But the painting is not instantly celebratory. There are no angels and there is no parade. Instead a psychic weight seems to be guiding the veteran's scythe as it cuts the stand of grain, much like the volleys of shot and shell mowed down troops, on both sides of that brutal war.

There is hope though in the warm, life giving color of the wheat, a Northern crop, and the cerulean sky. All wars must eventually come to an end. Uniforms are cast off. Homer paints the ex-soldier's jacket and canteen tossed onto the newly cut field. Life does go on.

The soldier will inevitably struggle to find his place in the mundane world of civilian work. And the civilian world struggles to understand these warriors bereft of armor and weapons plopped back into society. Wounds need time and care to heal.

Art can help bridge this gap.

Stories need to be told.

Rising Seas and Oil Spills (Thoughts Behind Ocean, Otters, Oil)

by Gregg Chadwick

"Every child put down your toys

And come inside to sleep

We have to look you in the eye and say we sold you cheap

Let’s confess we did not act

With serious urgency

So open up the floodgates

To the rising seas"

- Rising Seas

Written by Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil)

Gregg Chadwick

Ocean, Otters, Oil (detail)

40"x40"oil on linen 2021

On walks along California's Central Coast, I often stop and peer into the swirling mix of seaweed and surf looking for the telltale bob of a sea otter as it breaks to the surface. The tap, tap, tap of otters cracking shells across rocks carried on their chests as they float on their backs in the kelp filled water also gives away their location. Sea otters are voracious eaters, clearing coastal seabeds of purple sea urchins that would otherwise decimate the growing kelp forests.  

By keeping the purple urchin population down, sea otters remove kelp's major nemesis. Sea urchins feed on the holdfasts that keep kelp anchored to the bottom of the ocean. Sea otters feed on the purple sea urchins that devour kelp forests. When the sea otter population collapsed after centuries of being hunted for their furs, the entire ecosystem of the Monterey Bay shifted. 

The bay's giant kelp forests disappeared and along with it most of the sea life that they supported and protected. Matt Simon in Wired's November 4, 2021 article on sea otters explains that, "Keeping the urchin population in check preserves the kelp, which is vital for the ecosystem in two main ways. First, the forest is a habitat for fish, which are the food source for birds and other marine mammals, like sea lions. Second, the seaweed is part of what scientists call a blue carbon ecosystem, meaning a coastal or marine area that sequesters carbon."   

Gregg Chadwick

Ocean, Otters, Oil

40"x40"oil on linen 2021

To get even closer to sea otters, I love to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and their sea otter information and exhibition space. The Monterey Bay Aquarium describes sea otters as aquatic environmentalists: "By munching on urchins, they help kelp forests flourish, and by crunching on crabs, they promote eelgrass in estuaries. But this marine mammal is endangered — and needs our help." The sea otter population along the Central California Coast has rebounded after being feared extinct early in the 20th Century. But a family of resilient sea otters were found near Bixby Bridge in 1938. Due to strong conservation efforts, California's sea otter population has slowly grown to the current number of around 3,000. A combination of legal protection — in 1977 sea otters became protected under the Endangered Species Act — and the efforts of nongovernmental organizations have prompted the sea otter resurgence. But the sea otter's future is still at great risk. Oil spreading south from a single tanker spill near San Francisco or off the pristine Central Coast would threaten the entire California sea otter population. With the recent oil spill in Southern California off Huntington Beach in October 2021, I was reminded how vulnerable our coastal ecosystem is to oil spills and climate change. Coast Guard officials determined that the spill came from a leak in a pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy that shuttles crude from offshore platforms to the shore. In response to this latest environmental emergency, I created my painting Ocean, Otters, Oil. 

Gregg Chadwick

Ocean, Otters, Oil (detail)

(Oil Platforms Ellen and Elly Offshore near Long Beach, California)

40"x40"oil on linen 2021

As I painted Ocean, Otters, Oil and other artworks in my Fragile Earth series, I have been listening to the environmentally and socially conscious Australian band Midnight Oil. In 1990 Midnight Oil created a guerilla performance in front of Exxon headquarters in New York City with a banner reading, "Midnight Oil Makes You Dance, Exxon Oil Makes Us Sick," as they played in protest of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This week Midnight Oil has released a new song about our global climate crisis that illuminates the peril in which we find our fragile earth. This new Midnight Oil song Rising Seas has found its way to the top of my studio playlist and inspires me to keep speaking out, to keep creating, to keep caring about the future of our planet.  

Midnight Oil – Rising Seas (Official Video) ‘Rising Seas’ Available Now: https://MidnightOil.lnk.to/RisingSeas Join Mailing list - https://eepurl.com/cBpcov Website - https://www.midnightoil.com Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/midnightoilo... Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/midnightoil... Twitter - https://twitter.com/midnightoilband Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/72Kyo... Apple - https://music.apple.com/au/artist/mid... Production Company: Hype Republic Director: Cameron March Executive Producer: Macario De Souza Producers: Michaela Le / Macario De Souza DOP: Sean Ryan 1st AD: Murray Robertson 1st AC: Nicholas Jackson 2nd AC: Rebecca Wilson Gaffer: Steve Schofield Grip: Damian Heckendorf Production Assistant/Assistant Editor: Jarred Lammiman Production Assistant: James Elliott Best Boy: Alan Fraser Wardrobe: Simone Turnbull HMU: Lisa Fulginiti Featuring footage courtesy of Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org.au/ Full Lyrics Rising Seas (Written by Jim Moginie) Every child put down your toys And come inside to sleep We have to look you in the eye and say we sold you cheap Let’s confess we did not act With serious urgency So open up the floodgates To the rising seas Temperature rising Climate denying Fever is gripping Nobody’s listening Lustre is fading Because nobody’s trading Wall Street is jumping Still the music keeps pumping If you can’t decide Between wrong and right If you can’t see through All that you hold true Queen of the firmament Lord of all beneath Masters of the universe We’re all refugees And in many countries they adore celebrities Open up the floodgates To the rising seas Dinosaur stories Reliving past glories Lusting for gold F-f-fishing for souls They said it was coming We knew it was a-coming If you lift your game Put your toys away Well it looks like rain On that western plain Queen of the firmament Lord of all beneath Masters of the universe We’re all refugees And in many countries they adore celebrities Open up the floodgates To the rising seas #midnightoil #midnightoilband #risingseas

Gregg Chadwick's Ocean, Otters, Oil is on exhibit at Laguna Art in Mission Viejo, California through November 2021 in the group exhibition SOS Save Our Seas. There will be an opening on Saturday, November 6, 2021 from 3-6pm. 

SOS Save Our Seas

Laguna Art 

November 6, 2021
3–6pm Opening Reception

Featuring special musical guest
Bobby Grey and Friends 

555 THE SHOPS AT MISSION VIEJO, MV, CA 92691 suite 928A

TF. 1-888-9-FINEART | Gallery 949-257-9008

info@lagunaart.com

Gallery Hours:

MON - SAT 11AM - 7PM

SUN 12PM - 6PM

Sea otters: Back by pawpular demand! Once hunted to almost extinction, these ecosystem engineers are slowly making a comeback in California and transforming the coast along the way. pic.twitter.com/zOwCfMs5cp

— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) September 23, 2022

Ocean, Otters, Oil

 

Gregg Chadwick

Ocean, Otters, Oil

40"x40"oil on linen 2021

My oil on linen painting "Ocean, Otters, Oil" was painted as a celebration of nature and as a warning of the dangers of oil spills and environmental destruction. The artwork will be displayed through the month of November 2021 in my latest group exhibition 

"SOS - Save Our Seas"at @lagunaartgallery in Mission Viejo, California. 

Please join me at the opening on November 6, 2021 from 3-6 pm.
555 THE SHOPS AT MISSION VIEJO, MV, CA 92691 suite 928A
TF. 1-888-9-FINEART | Gallery 949-257-9008
info@lagunaart.com

Gallery Hours:
MON - SAT 11AM - 7PM
SUN 12PM - 6PM

This artwork is part of a new series of paintings that considers the threats to our planet from Climate Change, greed, hate, and war. There is a mysterious beauty to life itself that I am constantly inspired by.

I first became aware of the fragile nature of our planet as an elementary school student at Linda Vista Elementary School in Mission Viejo, California. For Christmas one year, I asked my parents for the book “Wildlife in Danger” published by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). They are still an important organization providing information, plans, and hope for our endangered earth. Worried about the environment as a kid, I drew pictures of animals constantly. Now I am bringing out a series of paintings that shed light on climate change, the beauty of the natural world, and our place with other species. 

Also I was pleased to read today's new article in @wired - The Cutest Way to Fight Climate Change? Send in the Otters
Saving California's adorable (and very hungry) sea otters helps control other species, leading to the growth of more carbon-sequestering vegetation.


#art #SeaOtters #MarineLife #MissionViejo #Irvine #OrangeCounty #OCCulture #climatechange #environment #SaveOurSeas

People of the First Light: The Wampanoags Tell Their Story on the 400th Anniversary of the First Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621

Wampum Exhibition at Sea City Museum, Southhampton, UK 

(Created by SmokeSygnals creative agency) 

In today's New York Times, Dana Hedgpeth explains that "for the Wampanoags and many other American Indians, the fourth Thursday in November is considered a day of mourning, not a day of celebration." The Wampanoags helped the Pilgrims survive only to enable "a slow, unfolding genocide of their people and the taking of their land." 

As we reach the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621, the Wampanoags tell their story at the Mashpee Wampanoag Museum.  On their website the Museum explains that it is located at "the geographic core of the Mashpee Wampanoag people. Eighty-five percent of Wampanoag people live within 20 miles of the Museum." The history and culture of the Wampanoag from the Stone Age to the present are presented in a range of exhibits. Established under the guidance of the Mashpee Historical Commission, the Museum is the only one  devoted exclusively to Wampanoag history. 

Dana Hedgpeth writes that "the Wampanoags, whose name means People of the First Light in their native language, trace their ancestors back at least 10,000 years to southeastern Massachusetts, a land they called Patuxet.

In the 1600s, they lived in 69 villages, each with a chief, or sachem, and a medicine man. They had “messenger runners,” members of the tribe with good memories and the endurance to run to neighboring villages to deliver messages.

They occupied a land of plenty, hunting deer, elk and bear in the forests, fishing for herring and trout, and harvesting quahogs in the rivers and bays. They planted corn and used fish remains as fertilizer. In the winter, they moved inland from the harsh weather, and in the spring they moved to the coastlines."

 

(Created by SmokeSygnals creative agency) 

Paula Peters, who runs the SmokeSygnals creative agency said to Dana Hedgpeth that "when she was 8 years old a schoolteacher explained the Thanksgiving tale. After the story, another child asked, 'What happened to the Indians?'

The teacher answered, ‘Sadly, they’re all dead.’

'No, they’re not,” Paula Peters said she replied. 'I’m still here.'"

Paula Peters and other Wampanoags are keeping their culture and traditions alive through education and advocacy. 

(Courtesy of SmokeSygnals/Plymouth 400)

 Website: Mashpee Wampanoag Museum

 Address:

                            414 Main St
                            Mashpee, Massachusetts 02649

 Phone: 508-477-0208

 Email: publicrelations@mwtribe-nsn.gov

(Courtesy of SmokeSygnals/Plymouth 400)

(Courtesy of SmokeSygnals/Plymouth 400)

Good News! Wampanoag, who helped Pilgrims survive, win rights to tribal lands https://t.co/Muf70Jfzm2

— Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) December 31, 2021

On Robert Mapplethorpe's Birthday

From Maria Popova at Brainpicker: Patti Smith Reads Letter to Robert Mapplethorpe About How He Taught Her What It Means to Be an Artist

“You drew me from the darkest period of my young life, sharing with me the sacred mystery of what it is to be an artist.”

brainpicker · Patti Smith reads her letter to Robert Mapplethorpe

Patti Smith by Robert Mapplethorpe (Courtesy of Tate Museum)

Miss Alma Thomas - A Life In Color

Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color from Reel Plan/Jon Gann on Vimeo.

For beloved D.C. artist Alma Thomas, beauty wasn’t just about art. It was essential to life, too. Full article by Philip Kennicott here.

Alma Thomas’s “Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music,” 1976. 

(Smithsonian American Art Museum)