Speed of Life

Gregg Chadwick Deutsch Traum (German Dream) 30"x22" monotype on paper 2011

Gregg Chadwick Stadtgeflüster (City Whispers) 22"x30" monotype on paper 2011

Gregg Chadwick Der Himmel Draußen (The Sky Outside) 30"x22" monotype on paper 2011 Peter Falk has died at 83 leaving us with a rich legacy of film and television work as well as a body of carefully crafted prints and drawings . As fate would have it, I am currently working on a series of artworks inspired by my experiences in the city of Berlin. Painters, writers, and filmmakers from Max Beckmann to Christopher Isherwood to Wim Wenders have created visions of the city that still guide us across Berlin's potent memoryscape. Peter Falk also left his mark on this city of memory in Wender's Wings of Desire . Peter Falk in Wim Wender's Classic Film Wings of Desire Look Closely: Are There Angels Hiding in the Ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church? photo by Gregg Chadwick (Berlin 2010) Peter Falk Girl With Ponytail Peter Falk With Artist's Model More on Berlin, Peter Falk and Wings of Desire at: City of Cinephilia Peter Falk in Wim Wender...

Gregg Chadwick Along the Arno 22"x30" monotype on paper 2011

Gregg Chadwick Alexander Gardner's Cracked Glass - (Abraham Lincoln 1865) 16"x11" oil on linen 2011 Gregg Chadwick shares this moving portrait of a beneficent-looking Lincoln entitled Alexander Gardner’s Cracked Glass - (Abraham Lincoln 1865). Oil on linen, 2011. See the full issue at: Dr. Hurley's Snake-Oil Cure Contributors Page

Takashi Murakami Summer Google Doodle for June 21, 2011 (Summer Solstice) Today - June 21st - is the longest day of the year. For this Summer Solstice, Google has commissioned Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, to create an icon for the day to be posted on Google's search page. More on Murakami at: #newday_GEISAI

Vincent Van Gogh Portrait of Theo Van Gogh Oil on Pasteboard, 19 X 14 cm 1887 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam courtesy Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam The Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands has announced that a small portrait by Van Gogh from their study collection is in fact a portrait of Vincent's brother - Theo Van Gogh. The painting has been recently restored and will go on view this week at the museum in Amsterdam. Portraits of Theo and Vincent by Van Gogh Much more at: Explore the Van Gogh Museum Using the Google Art Project Van Gogh Museum Website

I'd like to wish a Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I was heartened to read President Obama's letter to fathers this morning. I have posted it below: Good morning, I grew up without a father around. I was lucky enough to be raised by a wonderful mother who, like so many heroic single mothers, never allowed my father's absence to be an excuse for me to slack off or not always do my best. But I often wonder what it would have been like if my father had a greater presence in my life. So as a father of two young girls, I've tried hard to be a good dad. I haven't always been perfect – there have been times when work kept me away from my family too often, and most of the parenting duties fell to Michelle. I know many other fathers face similar challenges. Whether you're a military dad returning from deployment or a father doing his best to make ends meet for his family in a tough economy, being a parent isn't easy. That's why my Adm...

Filmed at Hard Rock Calling June 28, 2009, Hyde Park, London, UK. Thank you Clarence for the gift of your music ...

I'm listening to Clarence Clemons playing with Gary US Bonds as I mourn the Big Man's passing. Great solo by Clarence Clemons on Gary US Bonds' amazing version of Steve Van Zandt's Daddy's Come Home. This video was shot in Japan and adds a personally bittersweet tinge to an already emotional song. More at: Backstreets on Clarence Clemons Clarence Clemons, Springsteen’s Soulful Sideman, Dies at 69

Gregg Chadwick A Gion Rain 22"x30" monotype on paper 2011 I came home from a memorial service for a great artist and a great friend, Sylvia Moss, on Sunday night. In times of loss and uncertainty, I tend to turn to the arts - books, music, film, theater and museums - for solace. But when an artist is severely ill or dies I find that I have to create. I have been in my studio for the past few weeks creating monotypes. A monotype is a singular impression made from an image which has been drawn or painted on to a printing plate. My monotype process is technically straightforward but pushes my artistic subconscious in both image and mark. When I painted "A Gion Rain" onto a copper plate, thoughts of Sylvia fell like rain across my mind. Sylvia Moss died in Zurich, Switzerland on May 9, 2011. Sylvia had long suffered from the challenges of multiple sclerosis. Sylvia Moss grew up in Piedmont, California and then moved east to a beckoning New York City to pursue...

"They made that change uptown and the Big Man joined the band." - Bruce Springsteen 10th Avenue Freeze Out My thoughts go out to Clarence Clemons, known for his work on the saxophone in Bruce Springteen's E Street Band. Clarence suffered a stroke yesterday and the initial prognosis was grim. After two brain surgeries last night, Clemons condition seems to be improving. The Springsteen fansite BackStreets reports: "The latest out of Florida has Clarence Clemons in better condition than anyone expected, a close friend tells Backstreets: "Yesterday, it did not look good at all. Today... miracles are happening. His vital signs are improving. He's responsive. His eyes are welling up when we're talking to him. He was paralyzed on his left side, but now he's squeezing with his left hand. This is the best news we've heard since [the stroke] happened — it's nothing short of miraculous. The next five days will still be critical. But he's a f...

by Gregg Chadwick Paul Revere 1734-1818 The Boston Massacre (The Bloody Massacre) 9 7/8" x 8 1/2" Engraving, hand colored 1770 Boston Museum of Fine Arts "We live in an age where, on every level, it is considered a sin to be wrong. From advertisers to kids on the playground to the world of corporate PR to politicians, the all-too-common wisdom is to defend the indefensible. That's what Palin is doing and that is what her renfields on Wikipedia are doing, and that's sad, because as anyone remotely successful in Silicon Valley can tell you, without owning our mistakes we cannot learn from them and without learning, we cannot win." - Curt Hopkins in Read, Write, Web I love to read history. Scores of books line my studio walls and the past is never far from my thoughts. Museums have been a favorite haunt of mine since childhood. Peering through glass at ambered papers and tattered journals never fails to remind me of the great divide between what happen...

by Gregg Chadwick Rollin Pickford Spring Crescendo 22"x30" watercolor on paper Courtesy Melissa Pickford "All of those paintings I did, every one of them had something wrong with it. I guess that's why I kept painting." -Rollin Pickford Tonight the Carmel Art Association Gallery is hosting an exhibition of the watercolors of Rollin Pickford. Pickford's paintings make use of myriad techniques to approximate the play of light on land, sea, and sky. For eighty years Pickford limned the California scene as rolling hills and stands of trees vanished beneath strip malls and subdivisions. In Pickford's paintings, one can feel the sweep of an Asian brush across wet paper as pools of color shift and coalesce into light and atmosphere. The works seem to hang in a state of flux - their beauty poignantly balanced between a fixed moment and the passage of time. Rollin Pickford died in 2010 at 98. This rich exhibition was curated in his memory by his d...

Portrait of Marilyn Monroe Reading Art Book on Goya More on Marilyn and Books in The Los Angeles Times: Monroe's Library Marilyn Monroe's Library has Been Catalogued on Library Thing: Marilyn Monroe's Collection

Gregg Chadwick The Color of Wind (Whispers of the Rail, The Petaled Road, Spring Departure) 30"x72" oil on linen 2011 (triptych) "In the cherry blossom's shade there's no such thing as a stranger." by Kobayashi Issa (1763 - 1828) "In Japanese Zen poetry, spring blossoms, particularly cherry blossoms, are often used as symbols for the simple, natural, unfolding springtime of enlightenment. In the "shade" or, you might say, beneath the canopy of enlightenment, there is no longer any sense of separation. Nothing and no one is foreign to you. There is no such thing as a stranger." - Ivan M. Granger I am always honored to support Habitat for Humanity with my art. My donation this year reflects my interests in Japan and Japanese culture with my triptych The Color of Wind . Whispers of the Rail 30"x24" oil on linen 2011 The Petaled Road 30"x24" oil on linen 2011 Spring Departure 30"x24" ...

Shadow Light has paired my painting Acadia with a remarkable poem by the Portugese writer José Luís Peixoto . Enjoy: Acadia by Gregg Chadwick (Referenced by Missies Blue ) when i got tired of lying to myself José Luis Peixoto (b. 1974) when i got tired of lying to myself, i started writing a book of poetry. it was two hours ago that i decided, but it was too long ago that i started growing tired. fatigue is a gradual skin like autumn. pause. it rests slowly on the flesh, like leaves on earth, and it ingrains it to the bone, like the leaves ingrain the earth and touch the death and become fertile at their side. the city continues on the streets, the girls laugh, but there's a secret that brews in silence. it's the words, free, the books unwritten, what will come in future seasons. there's always hope at the bottom of the avenues. but there are puddles of waters on the sidewalks. there's cold, there's fatigue, there are two hours ago tha...

Opening Event tonight at LACMA for the Tim Burton exhibition. Jane's Addiction is slated to perform. Much more to follow... Tim Burton Untitled (Edward Scissorhands) 1990, private collection Edward Scissorhands © Twentieth Century Fox, © 2011 Tim Burton More at: Tim Burton at LACMA

Gregg Chadwick The Wound Dresser - Walt Whitman - Washington DC 1865 30” X 24” oil on linen 2011 "The eyes transcend the medium." -R.B. Morris (Songwriter, Performer, Poet, Playwright) I have created an ongoing series of paintings that explores the history of nursing for National Nurses Week and the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Three of these paintings were exhibited at the recent UCLA symposium: The Image of Nursing. The artworks were then auctioned at a gala event (Nurse: 21) to help fund scholarships for UCLA School of Nursing students. The paintings adopt a look as viewed through the lens of time similar to the art of a period film. In my artistic practice, I create dream like images with space for the viewer to imagine their own paths to meaning. At times these openings may be found in the doorway of a subject’s eyes. Walt Whitman's poetry is a continual source of inspiration for me. Whitman's life as a nurse, helping wounded soldiers during th...

Nemesis-Ai Weiwei: The Elusiveness of Being. By Geandy Pavon "The concept of the project is to impose the face of the victim on buildings walls that house government offices … The light on the wall is a symbol of revelation." -Geandy Pavon Provocative work by Cuban-American artist Geandy Pavon as he projects a billboard sized portrait of Ai Weiwei onto the Chinese consulate in New York City. More at: Geandy Pavon Website Video: Imprisoned Artist Ai Weiwei's Face Projected On Chinese Consulate

by Gregg Chadwick Gregg Chadwick Study for Kamakura 14"x11" oil on linen 2011 " The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty." - Kenko, from Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa), circa 1330 I am always honored to support the Venice Family Clinic with my art. My donation this year reflects my interests in Southern California and Japan with Study for Kamakura . Kamakura is both a beach town and a center of Japanese culture. In my painting, grey beach haze seems to mask the distance between east and west. Kamakura is home to the great statue of Buddha, the Daibutsu , pictured on countless postcards and books on Japan. Two years ago, I finally made my pilgimage to Kamakura and stood in awe beneath the great statue. A great wave washed away the building housing the Daibutsu in the 15th century. Since that time the statue has been seated in meditation beneath the sun and the stars. After surviving great tsunamis and political upheavals, the Daibutsu provides pers...

Gregg Chadwick Hanuman's Dream 72"x96" oil on linen 1996 NEC Collection And the dust clears and we are still here. How then shall we live? Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Make My Bed? But You Say the World’s Ending