Speed of Life

Gregg Chadwick  Turquoise and Rose   6"x6" oil on panel 2015 There is a vigil tonight at 7pm to honor Deah Barakat and Yusor & Razan Abu-Salha, the Muslim students murdered by a ruthless gunman in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Most Common Type of American Terrorist Is a White Man With a Weapon and a Grudge http:// thenat.in/1AYnY3a   @ thenation   The three Muslim students tragically killed in the # ChapelHillShooting lived to help others http:// on.mash.to/1ChAwOu     The Hill  ‏ @ thehill     2m 2 minutes ago Father of Muslim students killed in # ChapelHillShooting : "This was a hate crime." http:// ow.ly/IU36v  

Rembrandt van Rijn Aristotle With The Bust of Homer 56 1/2" x 53 3/4" oil on canvas 1653 Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York   With the sad news that Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Walter Liedtke was killed in this week's horrible rail crash in New York, posting his powerfully narrated web episode of 82nd & 5th: "The Choice", for me, helps keep this wonderful man's passion for Rembrandt alive. Below is the  Metropolitan Museum of Art's label text for  Aristotle With The Bust of Homer : Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) rests his hand reflectively on a bust of Homer, the blind epic poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey. A medallion representing Alexander the Great, whom Aristotle tutored, hangs from the heavy gold chain. The philosopher contemplates material rewards as opposed to spiritual values, with the play of light and shadow on his features suggesting the motions of his mind. Painted for the great Sicilian collector Antonio Ruffo, t...

The contemporary artist Titus Kaphar searched for his father’s prison records in 2011. On the web, Titus found arrest photographs of dozens who shared his father’s name.  Horrified and spurred to artistic action, Titus created a series of paintings which comment on the United States' biased prison-industrial complex. The recent events spanning the US from Ferguson, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California, to New York City point out the inherent prejudices in the policing and imprisonment culture  current  in the United States.  Titus created portraits of men who shared his father's name. Echoing the loss of voice inherent in those imprisoned, Titus dips his paintings into hot tar - rendering his subjects mute.   Titus Kaphar Jerome I , 2014 Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel 7 × 10 ½ in. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York ©Titus Kaphar Titus Kaphar Jerome III , 2014 Oil, gold leaf ...

Titus Kaphar Jerome II , 2014 Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel 7 × 10 ½ in. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York ©Titus Kaphar As protests against police brutality continue across the United States in the wake of the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, contemporary  artists have joined the debate in artworks of extraordinary power and grace. From the Occupy Movement, to LGBT rights , to Black Lives Matter , to the issues surrounding “Je suis Charlie” , contemporary art, often of a representational bent, helps shed light on the complex nature of our times. Feroze Alam and Ravinder Padam Ferguson As a contemporary artist, I find it necessary to engage in the issue of social justice in my own artwork, and have found myself part of a disparate but powerful artistic community of painters and sculptors from Feroze Alam and Ravinder Padam in London, to Titus Kaphar, Kehinde Wiley and Joy Gar...

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans: We are fifteen years into this new century. Fifteen years that dawned with terror touching our shores; that unfolded with a new generation fighting two long and costly wars; that saw a vicious recession spread across our nation and the world. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many. But tonight, we turn the page. Tonight, after a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999. Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the financial crisis. More of our kids are graduating than ever before; more of our people are insured than ever before; we are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we’ve been in almost 30 years. Tonight, for the first time since 9/11, our combat mission in Afghanistan is over. Six years ago, nearly 180,000 American troops served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, fewer than 15,000 remain. And we salute the courage...