"... I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world." - Jackie Robinson, 1972
Many are "more dedicated to order than to justice," offended by kneeling during the Anthem & not by racism & modern-day lynching. #TakeAKneepic.twitter.com/E23oM1ZW6X
NFL players who #TakeAKnee are sons of Justice, taking their place in the river of resistance that has brought us thus far on our way. pic.twitter.com/Qr82XmBdpA
“Walter Isaacson is at once a true scholar and a spellbinding writer. And what a wealth of lessons are to be learned in these pages.”—David McCullough,two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Walter Isaacson, author of a new biography of Leonardo da Vinci, discusses the Renaissance genius' wildly eclectic notebooks that contained everything from landscape sketches to math equations to 'to do' lists.
"Laced with 22 tracks, Trip shreds the public's perception of Aiko and allows everyone to walk into the life of Penny, a nickname she was given by her great-grandfather when she was a child. For the first time, Aiko gives listeners a front row seat and allows them to watch her undergo a whirlwind of emotions, including love, pain, depression and, ultimately, triumph."
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Santa Monica Art Studios last night to see my exhibit Luchador's Dream which was inspired by the incomparable Sergio Arau.
Gregg Chadwick Generation Pink
14”x11” oil on panel 2017
Generation Pink, inspired by the Women's March held on January 21, 2017, will be exhibited at Art & Home 2017: a benefit for LA Family Housing - hosted by Room & Board in Culver City.
Along with around 750,000 others, I marched with my family and friends in Los Angeles to show the world that we stand for love, inclusion, diversity, and social justice. Generation Pink is part of a series of paintings exploring the Women's March and the continuing protests in this volatile time. As an artist, I often use my creations as a sort of reflecting device that mirrors and focuses attention on social and political change. As Marvin Gaye sang so poignantly- “What’s going on.”
In collaboration with Angeleno magazine, please join us for a special art show at Room & Board in Culver City on September 13, 2017. Over 100 local, contemporary artists have donated artworks in support of LA Family Housing. (LAFH). Dedicated to helping families and individuals transition out of homelessness and poverty, LAFH offers a range of housing opportunities enriched with supportive services.
Artwork on display in the showroom will be available for purchase for $400! If you have always wanted a Chadwick, this is a wonderful opportunity to get an artwork at an affordable price and to support an important cause.
Gregg Chadwick Flor De Asfalto (for Sergio Arau) 56”x86” oil on linen 2017
With his music, words and images, Sergio Arau has inspired me to create a series of paintings that feature him as the main character in my painted movies. Rock Star, actor, director, screenwriter, and artist Sergio Arau has often performed while wearing gear honoring Mexico's most famous wrestling star El Santo (The Man In the Silver Mask). Known as lucha libre, Mexican wrestlers such as El Santo are defenders of the poor and vulnerable. By taking on the persona of the Luchador (wrestler), Josh Kun writes in Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, Sergio Arau and his bands have mixed "the traditional with the contemporary, the rural with the urban, the American with the Mexican, the charro with the rockero."
My paintings in Luchador's Dream carry Sergio Arau into a Los Angeles seemingly pulled from the lyrics of his songs or gathered from scenes of his films that were left on the cutting room floor.
Gracias Sergio!
The exhibition runs from September 7 - October 7, 2017
(Luchador's Dream is, in true rock n' roll fashion, a completely unaffiliated, and unofficial satellite exhibition of 2017: Año de México en Los Ángeles / Mexico in Los Angeles 2017)
What: Luchador’s Dream - Inspired by Sergio Arau (New Paintings by Gregg Chadwick)
Where: La Galería de la Cocina - Santa Monica Art Studios, 3026 Airport Ave. SM 90405
When: Opening - September 15, 2017, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
100 years ago today, the seminal artist Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When Lawrence was in his teens his family moved to Harlem in New York City, where he studied art with Charles Alston at the Harlem Art Workshop.
When Lawrence graduated from the American Artists School in New York he became a participant in the WPA Federal Art Project. The young artist broke new ground in 1941 with The Migration Series which garnered national attention.
I find the video below from the Phillips Collection in which Lawrence discusses The Migration Series fascinating:
During World War II, while in the United States Coast Guard, first as a public relations specialist on the USS Sea Cloud, and then as a combat artist on the USS Gen. Richardson, Lawrence created a series of artworks documenting his vantage point on the war.
Jacob Lawrence No. 2 Control Panel, Nerve Center of Ship, gouache and watercolor on board Collection USCG Museum
After the war Lawrence was invited by Josef Albers to teach painting at Black Mountain College. Lawrence's exposure to Albers’ Bauhaus-inspired theories and teaching methods greatly influenced his artistic explorations. Lawrence wrote, “When you teach, it stimulates you; you’re forced to crystallize your own thinking … you’re forced to formalize your own theories so that you may communicate them to the students … you go back to your studio and think about this again.”
Faculty of the 1946 Black Mountain College Summer Art Institute, including Jacob Lawrence and his wife Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center collection
In 1949, Lawrence and his wife Gwendolyn returned to New York where Lawrence continued to paint. Lawrence, aware of his depression, checked himself into Hillside Hospital in Queens, where he stayed for 11 months and painted as an inpatient.
Jacob Lawrence Depression Tempera and Watercolor on Paper 1950 22 3/4"x31" Whitney Museum
After many years in New York, in 1970 Lawrence and Knight moved to Seattle when he was invited to teach at the University of Washington. Lawrence was an art professor at UW until his retirement in 1986. He continued painting until just a few weeks before his death in June 2000 at the age of eighty-two. Lawrence's last commissioned public work, the mosaic mural New York in Transit, was installed in October 2001 in the Times Square subway station in New York City.
Lawrence's powerful artworks grace numerous collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum. The vibrant paintings of Jacob Lawrence tell stories of liberation, resistance, and resilience.
More: Why the Works of Visionary Artist Jacob Lawrence Still Resonate a Century After His Birth
From SimoHayha.com "In 1939, the Soviet Union attempted to invade Finland. Being a member of the Civil Guard, Häyhä was called into service, serving under the 6th Company of JR 34 on the Kollaa River. Commanded by Major General Uiluo Tuompo, the Finns faced both the 9th and 14th Soviet Armies, and at one point were fighting against as many as 12 divisions - about 160,000 soldiers. Also at one point in the same area, there were only 32 Finns fighting against over 4,000 Soviets!
Despite being outnumbered, however, the Finns were still victorious at the end of the day. The invading Soviets weren’t as organized as one would expect: they spoke many different languages, and they weren’t used to the harsh Finnish winters either. In fact, the winter of 1939-40 was very snowy, and had temperatures ranging from -40 to -20 degrees Celsius.
The Finns were also smart in their tactics, the most notable of which were known as “Motti”-tactics. Since the Soviets would invade by the roads, the Finns would hide out in the surrounding wilderness. They would then let the invaders cross the border, and attack them from behind!"
Houston is underwater due in large part to climate change & @realDonaldTrump is worried that Finland's president is proving that point.🇫🇮 https://t.co/qaPMJMXqI8
"Climate change intensifies the impact of hurricanes. Here’s how: 1. By adding fuel to the fire, climate change makes hurricanes more devastating. Average global sea surface temperatures are rising. As sea surface temperatures become warmer, hurricanes can become more powerful. In the case of the Category 4 Hurricane Harvey, this greater power comes from “sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico that are 2.7 - 7.2°F (1.5 - 4°C) above average, relative to a 1961-1990 baseline.” 2. Climate change is linked to extreme rainfall (and therefore, flooding). Global temperatures are rising. As the world becomes warmer, more water evaporates from bodies of water. Therefore, there’s more water vapor in the air. This gives hurricanes more precipitation, and can result in more flooding when the hurricane makes landfall. The Weather Channel said that Hurricane Harvey “may end up being one of the worst flood disasters in US history.” Some areas could see up to 50 inches of rain. 3. Sea-level rise caused by climate change can “dramatically extend the storm surge driven by hurricanes.” According to NOAA, a storm surge “is the abnormal rise in seawater level during a storm, measured as the height of the water above the normal predicted astronomical tide.” To put it another way, the storm surge is the ocean water pushed into the coast by the force of the hurricane. Global sea levels are rising. When sea levels are higher, storm surges intensify and can lead to more widespread and greater damage. The highest-reported storm surge from Harvey (in Port Lavaca, Texas) was 7 feet above the mean sea level."
“A truly moral agenda must be anti-racist, anti-poverty, pro-justice, pro-labor, transformative and deeply rooted and built within a fusion coalition. It would ask of all policy, is the policy Constitutionally consistent, morally defensible and economically sane. We call this moral analysis and moral articulation which leads to moral activism.” —Rev. Dr. William, J. Barber, II
"The world is a dangerous place...not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it" -Albert Einstein In the light of the horrific, fascist, white-supremacist violence against peaceful folks in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, I find this film produced by the US War Department during WWII to be instructive. Clips from the film are appearing on social media sites. The full film is presented here. From IMDB: "Financed and produced by the United States War Department in 1943, and shot at the Warners studio, although it was distributed through all of the major studios' film exchanges and also by National Screen Services free to the theatre exhibitors: A young, healthy American Free Mason is taken in by the message of a soap-box orator who asserts that all good jobs in the United States are being taken by the so-called minorities, domestic and foreign. He falls into a conversation with a refugee professor who tells him of the pattern of events that brought Hitler to power in Germany and how Germany's anti-democratic groups split the country into helpless minorities, each hating the other. The professor concludes by pointing out that America is composed of many minorities, but all are united as Americans."
Jesse Malin's new EP, Meet Me at the End of the World, is out. Produced by Joseph Arthur, this collection of four new songs timely addresses our current Trumpian tribulation and is sparking some major conversations across the music world. Lucinda Williams was so inspired by Malin's Meet Me at the End of the World, that, as Fran C. Anderson reports in Rolling Stone, Williams "hopped on the phone with the D Generation frontman ... for a wide-ranging chat about their approach to songwriting, politics, Canadian electro dynamo Peaches, and a possible future collaboration." In their conversation Williams and Malin earnestly conversed about the mix of politics and music in their art. Williams said,"Anybody who says politics and music don't mix is, that's just in your face stupid." Malin replied,"You walk out your door and it's political. You're dealing with it. You need gas in your car, you need food, everything is always just class-related, and rock music has always had an awareness of class and separation in the downtrodden." Continuing this thought Malin expressed to Nate Herwick on Grammy.com that, "And [I thought about] how much the media is owned by the government, by the big corporations, so you're not getting the full story. I think [this song is] a call to people to go beyond that, go with their guts and their hearts. You have got to treat the people around you with love, but you also have to question the powers that be, because as much as I love this country and this planet, there are some people that are out to line their own pockets and have an agenda."
Jesse Malin
Summing up the album Malin said to Williams,"the music is what brings us together, and we need it right now. We need each other. We need to stand together, and support each other, and give the message, which is really love. I mean, to me,Meet Me at the End of the World as a record is about survival. And you have to live your life like it could be the last day."
Over the August recess some members will hold "tele-town halls" instead of in-person events. Here's how to make the most of these calls: pic.twitter.com/Olt1hTIQIX
Fifty two years ago on July 30, 1965, in a groundbreaking act, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. Both programs still stand as strong examples of the United States government at its best. Because of LBJ's vision and the thousands of health care activists that laid the groundwork before the bill became law, Medicare and Medicaid have brought high quality, affordable health care to seniors, people with disabilities and qualifying individuals. The 1965 Medicare Act required that hospitals had to desegregate in order to get Medicare money. Medicaid, also, required the desegregation of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Both programs pushed the country forward towards a more equitable health care system. Instead of cutting back or repealing Medicare and Medicaid, which would give a massive tax break to the one percent, we need to build on the success story by expanding coverage and benefits. I am deeply convinced that we as a nation should make sure that every American has access to high quality, affordable health care.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare and Medicaid into law. Courtesy LBJ Presidential Library
Medicaid and Medicare were signed into law 52 years ago today in Independence, MO. pic.twitter.com/mpoT1NCAca
Then was Secretary of HEW during the passage and implementation of Medicare and Medicaid. He practically passed and wrote Medicaid alone. pic.twitter.com/GoHo8rAI1b
Rabih Alameddine is a San Francisco based author whose most recent novel, The Angel of History, is a masterful act of remembering. The scourge of AIDS ravaged the queer community in the 1980's. Alameddine honors the lost in his book that echoes Mikhail Bulgakov’s satirical, elegiac work The Master and Margarita. For those who have been asking me lately for book suggestions, these are both must reads.
Along with his literary work, Alameddine is a master at social media, especially twitter. If you are on twitter, follow Rabih Alameddine now. His feed is full of surprises, especially his engaging threads of artworks. Have a Happy Weekend!
First Reveal - I have been working on this large painting 4.5 feet by 7.5 feet for quite a while now. Great thanks to @SergioArau and @YareliArizmendi for their art and inspiration. In process - "Ask the Dust (Sergio Arau)" #literature#art🎨#artistsoninstagram#losangeles
On this day in 1948, President Truman ended segregation in the United States Armed Forces. Today in a hate filled series of tweets Trump brought it back. Trump's argument against transgender soldiers echoes one used against gays, women and blacks. Even as I am calling my Senators and engaging in active measures to help preserve our healthcare, I am standing up against Trump's bigotry. Currently, thousands of transgender folks serve proudly among the 1.3 million active-duty members of the United States military. Brave souls who volunteered to put their lives on the line. Today, their commander in chief kicks them to the curb. The scale of this insult should not be underestimated. An unconscionable act by Trump. As the Women's March organization puts it:
"The care of trans people is not a "distraction"—it is a human right." #TransRightsAreHumanRights
Rep. Joe Kennedy III to transgender servicemembers: "Know that we will never take your service, your courage, your patriotism for granted." pic.twitter.com/DR5S5t8QfV
From a report commissioned by the pentagon last year. Let's not tolerate blatant transphobia under the guise of some huge 'financial burden' pic.twitter.com/1wz1bvaB0O
