Speed of Life

On the brink... ... she searched as if she had been thirsty whole night for a poem she could drink she found out soon enough she is not a poet nor was meant to be, a witch ;  she was not a martyr nor a virgin, again on a forgotten way again on the brink... she searched as if she had been thirsty whole night for a poem she could drink... - by Somyaa Gregg Chadwick Acadia 48"x36" oil on linen 2004   Somyaa  has paired my painting  Acadia  with her remarkable poem.

by Gregg Chadwick Bruce Springsteen's first single "We Take Care of Our Own", off his forthcoming album "Wrecking Ball", opens with pounding drums and a guitar screaming like a siren. The song is a call to action and a populist anthem that follows up where "Born in the USA" left off. With a nod to the Clash, the cover of the single is a blurry, black and white photo of a black leather and guitar clad Springsteen overlaid with crudely scrawled white type that evokes the windows of closed up storefronts and used car lots. "Where are the eyes with the will to see?" Springsteen wails. From his vantage point, good hearts have been turned to stone. We are our brother's keeper. But what happened? "From Chicago to New Orleans, from the muscle to the bone, From the shotgun shack to the Superdome", Springsteen growls. "Where's the promise from sea to shining sea?" photo by Gregg Chadwick The album was recorded before...

Watch live streaming video from partnershub at livestream.com RSVP and tune in to ask questions LIVE! Live Q&A w/ Angelina Jolie - Writer and Director of the new film: In the Land of Blood and Honey Written and directed by Angelina Jolie. Starring Zana Marjanović and Goran Kostić. Set against the backdrop of the Bosnian War that tore the Balkan region apart in the 1990s, In the Land of Blood and Honey tells the story of Danijel (Goran Kostić) and Ajla (pronounced Ayla) (Zana Marjanović), two Bosnians from different sides of a brutal ethnic conflict. Danijel, a Bosnian Serb police officer, and Ajla, a Bosnian Muslim artist, are together before the war, but their relationship is changed as violence engulfs the country. Months later, Danijel is serving under his father, General Nebojsa Vukojevich (Rade Šerbedžija), as an officer in the Bosnian Serb Army. He and Ajla come face to face again when she is taken from the apartment she shares with her sister, Lejla (Vanesa Glodjo)...

by Gregg Chadwick Gregg Chadwick Under the El 30"x20" oil on linen 2012 Chicago is a city of pulse and rhythm.  The city itself is a song. It clangs and roars by day and whispers laments at night.  Standing under the El on a hot August day, listening to the hum of traffic echoing off of steel, concrete and flesh inspired my first painting of 2012. Chicago seemed to soak up the light last summer, lending the streets a shimmering presence much like the wet Parisian boulevards in Gustave Caillebotte's  Paris Street, Rainy Day.  Caillebotte's masterpiece hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago , just blocks from the El.  Standing in front of the painting last summer, after coming in from the heat, I felt my heart beating -providing an audible rhythm to Caillebotte's figures stilled in the silent air. Gustave Caillebotte Paris Street, Rainy Day (Detail) 83.5"x108.75" oil on canvas 1876-77 The Art Institute of Chicago photo b...

The hilarious television sketch comedy Portlandia debuts its second season tomorrow night on IFC. But you can watch the episode now on Speed of Life. Enjoy!

What Are You Doing New Years Eve? by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

by Gregg Chadwick Helen Frankenthaler Mountains and Sea 7' 2 5/8" x 9' 9 1/4" oil on canvas 1952 National Gallery of Art, Washington DC "Fashion and money, fame and power politics have played a part in all art worlds. You've just got to plug away....  I see a revival of the meaning of the word "quality"---a search for truth and beauty in lieu of stock certificates. People are most interested in what's real, what endures." - Helen Frankenthaler (From a Conversation With Lee Rosenbaum ) Helen Frankenthaler's painting  Mountains and Sea opened a painterly universe. She poured, dripped, and floated thinned oil paint directly onto an unprimed canvas, creating a stained surface in which the pigment spread into and throughout the canvas fibers. The painting is mesmerizing, like the open sea is mesmerizing. Color beckons almost like song. As viewers we take the role of Odysseus, some will remain tied to a mast - fighting the beauty and...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer #1 One Year Left to Read the Book First For Those Who Haven't Had the Chance. Wonderful Adventure. Happy Holidays!

by Gregg Chadwick Colors 40"x30" oil on linen March 2003-December 2011 painting by Gregg Chadwick Today, with the casing of the colors in Baghdad, another war has ended. My thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones and with the troops who are returning home. A few weeks ago I was on a flight from LAX to Monterey seated near a young soldier who had just returned from Iraq. He was eager to talk and chatted about his specialization in the Army and his plans for the immediate future. A tech job in Silicon Valley beckoned. The men and women coming home from Iraq have given much for our country and have much more to offer our society in the future. I remember when my father came home from Vietnam. Having fought in Korea as well, this was the end of his second war. Our family reunited overseas delaying my father's reentry into life in the US. There were no parades and because my father stayed in the Corps as an active duty Marine, little seemed to chang...

by Gregg Chadwick Gregg Chadwick Berlin in Rauch Licht (Berlin in Smoke Light) 24"x18" oil on linen 2011 Private Collection Los Angeles Berlin embodies the future and at the same time carries the scars of the past. While recently in Berlin my painting Rauch Licht (Berlin in Smoke Light) was inspired by the palpable sense of beauty and the smoke of time seemingly hovering in the air. A soundtrack of Bowie, Lou Reed and U2 almost audibly haunts this mysterious vision. Will light let us break free from this Berlin Noir?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All! Darlene Love lead vocals --- The E Street Band --- Clarence Clemons tenor sax solo Danny Federici keyboards Garry Tallent bass Steven Van Zandt guitars Patti Scialfa - backing vocals Max Weinberg drums --- The Miami Horns --- Mark Pender trumpet Rick Gazda trumpet Stan Harrison tenor sax Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg trombone Eddie Manion baritone sax Arno Hecht saxophone Pat Thrall guitars Mark Alexander piano Ula Hedwig backing vocals Edna Wright backing vocals Zoë Yanakis percussion Benjamin Newberry chimes

by Gregg Chadwick Lady Gaga Poses For Tony Bennett in His Atelier photo and concept by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair During Lady Gaga's entertaining Thanksgiving special she joked about her brief gig as a life model for singer and visual artist Tony Bennett. Gaga recounted: "I walked in and said, 'Well, Tony, here we are,' and I dropped my robe and I got into position. I felt shy and thought, 'It's Tony Bennett. Why am I naked?" Lady Gaga had come face to face with what Kathleen Rooney describes as the “spine-tingling combination of power and vulnerability, submission and dominance” of nude modeling in her marvelous book  Live Nude Girl : My Life As An Object. Rooney's book   provides an introspective look at the history and challenges of art modeling from the model's point of view. Rooney's meditative prose leads us to a point of connection between muse and artist. Why after centuries of images in charcoal, paint, stone and ...