Speed of Life

Glen Hansard (the Swell Season) belts out a chilling version of Springsteen's Drive All Night . Recorded live in Milan on February 7, 2010 Edward Norton introduces and sits in with Glen Hansard as he sings Bruce's Drive All Night at Crowdrise benefit on March 22, 2010. Glen Hansard says: "Help me raise money to get my Maasai friends a truck. It will help them protect their lions, get people to health clinics and much more." Donate at: Crowdrise More at: Gli Swell Season, il sole, una chitarra scassata

Peter Clothier Reads at the Standard by Paige Wery's Torchlight (March 23, 2010) Artillery Magazine hosted an intimate event with art writer Peter Clothier last night at the Standard Hotel in Hollywood. Peter began the evening by reading a bit from his new book Persist and then in an honest vulnerability spoke of his personal and artistic challenges to a supportive audience. Peter encouraged the group to face the inhibiting lies that keep us from reaching our full potential in art and life. Peter explained that his personal lie began at his birth when he was delivered with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. A skilled, quick thinking nurse cut the cord but Peter spent much of his life held back by the illusion that "I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be alive." Peter Clothier has left that illusion behind. In Persist and on his continuing book tour, Peter provides vital clues and encouragement learned through meditation and community to his readers. Congrat...

A Reading by Peter Clothier Date/Time: Tuesday March 23 at 7 pm Location: The Standard, Hollywood Please join Peter Clothier from 7 to 10 PM in the Cactus Lounge for this public event Hosted Wine bar for the first hour Artillery Magazine presents a special book reading and signing of Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce , by writer Peter Clothier. Peter Clothier's Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce arrives at the perfect time. As the art world tries to reinvent itself in the current economic malaise, Clothier's book inspires us to see the soul and spirit inherent in the creative process. Money may not be the root of all evil but it is the root of a lot of bad art. Peter Clothier challenges artists, writers, actors and filmmakers to value artistic process as a goal in itself rather than a path to wealth and power. Most of all, Clothier urges us to keep on creating - to never give up. The world woul...

Full text of President Obama's remarks, delivered at the White House on the passage of Health Care Reform. March 21, 2010 Good evening, everybody. Tonight, after nearly 100 years of talk and frustration, after decades of trying, and a year of sustained effort and debate, the United States Congress finally declared that America's workers and America's families and America's small businesses deserve the security of knowing that here, in this country, neither illness nor accident should endanger the dreams they've worked a lifetime to achieve. Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics . We pushed back on the undue influence of special interests. We didn't give in to mistrust or to cynicism or to fear. Instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges. We proved that this government - a government of the people and by the people - still wor...

“This is the civil rights act of the 21st century,” said Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House.

Peter Clothier's new review of my work captures the soul and spirit of my art. "There is an other-worldly quality to Gregg Chadwick's paintings, a sense of liberation from the bonds of gravity that define our physical existence. They celebrate the dedication of the monks they portray and convey some of the quiet joy that freedom from earthly needs invests in them. And yet, too, there is an elegiac tone, a kind of nostalgia for a manifestation of the purely spiritual that most of us can never hope to attain. The paintings are truly captivating in that they invite us irresistibly into their spaces and hold the attention there in their swirl of light and color, suggesting inexhaustible depths of experience for the eye to explore." -Peter Clothier Please read the full review here on Peter's site: Monks by Peter Clothier Peter Clothier has a long and distinguished career as an art writer, novelist and poet. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times , Artscene, ART...

Japanese film artist Hayao Miyazaki has announced that Studio Ghibli's next film, Arrietty the Borrower (Karigurashi no Arrietty ) , will be released in Japan on July 17th 2010. The new film is inspired by Mary Norton's novel The Borrowers. Studio Ghibli's free adaptation of the book will be set in Japan in an anime version of the studio's home neighborhood Tokyo Koganei. Miyazaki will be overseeing the film but Hiromasa Yonebayashi, at 36 years old, directs the feature. On the occasion of Miyazaki's film retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005 , AO Scott wrote that after viewing a Miyazaki's film "you may find your perception of your own world refreshed, as it might be by a similarly intensive immersion in the oeuvre of Ansel Adams, J. M. W. Turner or Monet. After a while, certain vistas - a rolling meadow dappled with flowers and shadowed by high cumulus clouds, a range of rocky foothills rising toward snow-capped peaks, the fading...

Gerard Julien/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A Roman bust thought by some French historians to be the only surviving statue of Julius Caesar that was carved during his lifetime. On display at the Musée Départmental de l’Arles Antique. Julius Caesar's assassination in Joseph Mankiewicz' 1953 film version of Shakespeare's play. The Ides of March by C.B. Cavafy Guard, O my soul, against pomp and glory. And if you cannot curb your ambitions, at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously. And the higher you go, the more searching and careful you need to be. And when you reach your summit, Caesar at last— when you assume the role of someone that famous— then be especially careful as you go out into the street, a conspicuous man of power with your retinue; and should a certain Artemidoros come up to you out of the crowd, bringing a letter, and say hurriedly: “Read this at once. There are things in it important for you to see,” be sure to stop; be sure to postpone all talk or b...

Gregg Chadwick Beauty and Sadness ( 美しさと哀しみと) Utsukushisa to Kanashimi to 57"x103" oil and collage on Japanese screen 2010 Each year the city of Santa Monica sponsors an Art Walk at the Santa Monica Airport. Often the sound of takeoffs and landings from the tarmac mask the quieter sounds of chisel on stone and brush on canvas in the old hangars lining the historic airfield. A community of artists works quietly alongside the hum of rotor blades and the roar of jet engines. Hidden from the world at large on most days, on March 20th 2010 the artists that call the airport home will open their studio doors and let the public into their creative process. I enjoy this day greatly. The crowd of visitors is convivial and eclectic and represents the diversity that I love in Los Angeles. Last year I missed the event as I was traveling and gathering inspiration in Japan. A number of artworks inspired by this journey to Kyoto and Tokyo will be on display. My studio is located at the Santa...

The Kaaba , originally uploaded by GreggChadwick .

Kelly Colbert Sings her new song 600 Acres inspired by Gregg Chadwick's painting Arlington. The song is a poignant tribute to those lost in the war in Iraq and in particular to the memory of the United States Marine Ahn Chanawongse. A bit of Ahn's Story: "Cpl. Kemaphoom A. Chanawongse enlisted shortly after graduating from Waterford (Conn.) High School in 1999 over the objections of his mother, Tan Patchem. “He understood it was dangerous, and he was proud of doing it,” she said. Chanawongse died after his unit came under attack while attempting to secure a bridge. He had been listed as missing until April 16. Chanawongse, who came to the United States from Thailand at age 9, played youth soccer and planned from a young age to join the military. His grandfather is a veteran of the Thai air force. He was known to members of his unit as “Chuckles” for his sense of humor, and one friend said the avid snowboarder was talkative and outgoing: “Every time you turn around, he’s go...

Sumisan 72"x36" oil and monotype on Japanese Torinoko paper 2010 , originally uploaded by GreggChadwick .

Kamakura 36"x48" oil on linen 2010 , originally uploaded by GreggChadwick . Photographed at the Sherry Frumkin Gallery in Santa Monica.

Bob Dylan shakes President Barack Obama's hand following his performance at the "In Performance At The White House: A Celebration Of Music From The Civil Rights Movement" concert in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 9, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Leonardo da Vinci is an artist whose name is instantly recognizable but whose artwork can seem so familiar to 21st century eyes that the actual paintings feel lost behind a veil of cultural expectations. Paul Strathern's new book, The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped, allows us to see Leonardo as a living man and artist shaped by his time, friendships and experiences. Strathern's book opens with an epigraph spoken by Orson Welles' character, Harry Lime, in The Third Man . From the vantage point of a ferris wheel high above Vienna, Orson Welles surveys the battered post-war city beneath him and says. "In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that pro...

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

Peter Clothier's Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce arrives at the perfect time. As the art world tries to reinvent itself in the current economic malaise, Clothier's book inspires us to see the soul and spirit inherent in the creative process. Money may not be the root of all evil but it is the root of a lot of bad art. Peter Clothier challenges artists, writers, actors and filmmakers to value artistic process as a goal in itself rather than a path to wealth and power. Most of all, Clothier urges us to keep on creating - to never give up. The world would be a lesser place without the arts. A beautiful, inspiring book. Highly recommended. Available from the publisher at: Peter Clothier's Persist from Parami Press And from Amazon: Peter Clothier's Persist Peter Clothier's blog The Buddha Diaries is continually informative and entertaining. Peter Clothier has a series of upcoming events in Los Angeles. See below:

Spreadsheets can save him by Kent Chadwick Where’s the pattern? What ratio will show he’s getting better, that he’ll breathe again on his own? The ventilator pushes puffs of warm air through our son’s trachea every time his brain asks for oxygen, into his second set of lungs, damaged too soon by pneumonia, scarred and stiffened. The machine ka-shooshing eighteen or more times a minute to make Luke breathe when he needs, and it graphs his breath, reads his volumes, scoring the resistance—centimeters of water pressure—ready to alarm and warn of dangers, displaying seven variables in LED orange with each breath, repeatedly—and I stare. My hope has fallen to this new machine, that maybe, maybe its gentler aid can coax Luke’s lungs into recovery. What numbers, what ratios show progress?, something the doctors no longer expect. Is it peak pressures to tidal volumes? 89 to 760 Or his diaphragm’s nerve activity to the ventilator’s support level? 62, 70 to 1.5 What is significant? What is just ...

Kelly Colbert, MarySue Heilemann, Alan Caudillo & Alana Caudillo at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010 Gregg Chadwick The Crossing and Arlington at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010 Ramon Lopez at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010 Saul Janson, Nell Marshall, Alana Caudillo & Alan Caudillo at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010 MarySue Heilemann, Huibrie Pieters, Kobus Pieters, Mat Gleason at LOOK Gallery, Feb 18, 2010

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / February 20, 2010) Hope to see you there today. The Dalai Lama and Sheryl Crow at the Gibson Amphitheatre in support of Whole Child International. More at: Dalai Lama Launches L.A. Visit And my reactions to the event will appear on Speed of Life later this week. Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama at the White House this week. Photo: White House

Gregg Chadwick The Crossing 72"x36" oil, monotype and collage on Japanese Torinoko paper 2010 The morning of my last day on a trip to Thailand, was particularly luminous. I got up especially early and wandered through the alleys of Chiang Mai, following some monks on their serene morning pilgrimage. The light was almost incandescent and the blur of movement seemed to create paintings for me. I just needed to pay attention. To really see. I spent the time on the short flight to Bangkok watching a kind of film playing in my mind of saffron robes scintillating in the morning mist. Later, as I waited for my connecting flight to San Francisco, I caught sight of a different clip on a television monitor as the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. It was September 11, 2001. I felt the horror of the crowd as we watched in disbelief. I longed for home and my son. Weeks later when finally back in my studio, the juxtaposition of the monks’ serenity in Thailand that day and...

Speed of Life Called It! Update: Joseph Mallord William Turner ( April 23, 1775-December 19, 1851) The Fifth Plague of Egypt 48" x 72" oil on canvas 1800 Indianapolis Museum of Art photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art Spurred on by fellow artblogger, Tyler Green , the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art - put their paintings on the line over todays Super Bowl between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. I called an improbable New Orleans victory over the Colts. In which case the Indianapolis Museum of Art will lend Turner's vibrant and mysterious The Fifth Plague of Egypt to the New Orleans Museum of Art. Check out Tyler's blog for the ultimate in museum director trash talk and mannered New Orleans (and Indianapolis) grace as well. New Orleans Museum of Art director E. John Bullard summed up the good spirited rivalry to Tyler: "Max is a gracious opponent. Thanks for accepting the wager of a Claude from New ...

Photo: Susan Walsh/Associated Press We had friends from Washington DC over for a lovely dinner this week. It was great to share new work with them at my studio and talk deeply about travel and life. Safe travels from the rain to the snow! From the New York Times: "Pedestrians walking past the Vietnam War Memorial. An administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the blizzard "a potentially epic snowstorm" that could rival the 28 inches of snow that a January 1922 storm dropped on the capital." Much more at: Snowstorm in Washington

Iran 2010 Part Three of The "Green Movement Digital Paintings" - Digital Paintings, Video & Music by Soheil Tavakoli Soheil Tavakoli was born on April 17th, 1968 in Tehran, Iran. Soheil became an artist and architect in Iran until he left for the United States in 2004. Tavakoli explains that "he left Iran for the United States in search of a more dynamic and understanding society." More info at Soheil Tavakoli's Website

Joseph Mallord William Turner ( April 23, 1775-December 19, 1851) The Fifth Plague of Egypt 48" x 72" oil on canvas 1800 Indianapolis Museum of Art photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art Spurred on by fellow artblogger, Tyler Green , the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art are putting their paintings on the line over next weekend's Super Bowl between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. I'm calling an improbable New Orleans victory over the Colts. In which case the Indianapolis Museum of Art will lend Turner's vibrant and mysterious The Fifth Plague of Egypt to the New Orleans Museum of Art. If the favored Colts win, the New Orleans Museum of Art will lend Claude Lorrain's Ideal View of Tivoli to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Check out Tyler's blog for the ultimate in museum director trash talk and mannered New Orleans (and Indianapolis) grace as well. New Orleans Museum of Art director E. John Bulla...

Full Text of President Obama's State of the Union Address ( as provided by the White House) Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For two hundred and twenty years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility. And they have done so in the midst of war and depression; at moments of great strife and great struggle. It’s tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable – that America was always destined to succeed. But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt. When the market crashed on Black Tuesday and civil rights marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, the future was anything but certain. These were times that tested the coura...