Saturday, May 13, 2023

Happy Birthday Stevie Wonder!


100 million records sold
25 Grammys
An Oscar
RnB Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 
Songwriters Hall of Fame
Helped make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday
United Nations Messenger of Peace
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Happy Birthday to Stevie Wonder!



Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Filmed on The Front Lines in Ukraine - Imagine Dragons - Crushed (Official Video)

 
Imagine Dragons' video for Crushed was filmed on the front lines of Ukraine. It follows Sasha, a young boy who endured months of shelling in his town.


Sasha's story is heartbreaking, and there are thousands more like him who desperately need help.
Even today, his family is without electricity and other basic utilities. Please consider donating to United24 and raising your voice for this cause.





Credits:
Director: Ty Arnold
Producer: Ty Arnold, Roman Ostrovskyi, and Igor Shcherbyna
Production company: Black Box Films

Lyrics:
I suppose she’s supposed to be exactly what they want her to be
So pretty in pink
Necklace and ring, don’t be heard
Just be seen
But that’s not who I am
She said I can feel, I can feel too much
And I wish they’d go away, go away
Cause it’s crushing me
It’s crushing me

Don’t you know that you don’t have a say and the scarlet “A” on
Your neck so pretty in red, eyes are all dead
What they haven’t said gets stuck in your head
The silence is deafening and your heart is bleeding out
But they don’t care, no they never cared at all
They never cared at all
That’s not who I am

She said I can feel, I can feel too much
And I wish they’d go away, go away
Cause its crushing me
It’s crushing me
It’s crushing me
It’s crushing me
She just wants to be free, take it or leave it

Eyes like the sunrise
Colorful rainbow

She said I can feel, I can feel too much
And I wish it’d go away, go away
Cause they’re crushing me
They’re crushing me

(I can feel, I can feel too much
They’re crushing me
I can feel, I can feel too much
Oh they’re crushing me)

Crushing me
Crash down on me
Crash down on me
Donate here:




‘Mercury – Acts 1 & 2’ is out now: https://ImagineDragons.lnk.to/Mercury

Shop Imagine Dragons: https://smarturl.it/ImagineDragonsShop Sign up for email updates: https://ImagineDragons.lnk.to/EmailList Catch Imagine Dragons on tour: http://ImagineDragonsmusic.com/Tour Join the Imagine Dragons Discord: https://ImagineDragons.lnk.to/Discord Follow Imagine Dragons: Facebook: https://ImagineDragons.lnk.to/Facebook Twitter: https://ImagineDragons.lnk.to/Twitter Instagram: https://ImagineDragons.lnk.to/Instagram Youtube: https://ImagineDragons.lnk.to/YouTube TikTok: https://ImagineDragons.lnk.to/TikTok #ImagineDragons #Crushed Music video by Imagine Dragons performing Crushed. © 2023 KIDinaKORNER/Interscope Records http://vevo.ly/0KiwUp



Singer-songwriter Aoife O'Donovan takes on Springsteen's 'Nebraska'


From PBS:

"It’s not unusual for a singer-songwriter to perform songs written by others. But it is unusual for an artist to take on performing an entire album’s worth of someone else’s material, particularly if that someone else is a giant of the music world. Grammy-winning musician Aoife O’Donovan is doing that on her latest tour. Tom Casciato has this story for our arts and culture series, CANVAS."

Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG
Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Also - 

Of Songs and Stories: What Bruce Springsteen Learned From Flannery O’Connor
Great Excerpt from "Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska" by https://lithub.com/of-songs-and-stories-what-bruce-springsteen-learned-from-flannery-oconnor/
via @lithub



Monday, May 08, 2023

Gregg Chadwick's "Elephant Song" at the Los Angeles Zoo's Beastly Ball 2023




Gregg Chadwick
Elephant Song
30"x24" oil on linen 2023

"Elephant Song" depicts an African Elephant in its natural environment.  The title refers to the low frequency method of elephant communication. Elephants sing using the same physical principles as humans - using their immense larynx to produce very low notes.
Pitched below the range of human hearing, these infrasounds can travel long distances and enable elephants to connect with other elephants in hearing range. 

"Elephant Song" will be featured in the upcoming Beastly Ball benefit for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association. The event is held each Spring at the L.A. Zoo and this will be my third year participating. For 60 years, the nonprofit Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA) has funded exhibits, capital projects, field conservation efforts, education and community outreach programs, and more at the Los Angeles Zoo, an international leader in the preservation of wildlife and care of animals.

 The “best party in town” returns on June 3, with favorite L.A. eateries, special animal experiences, dazzling entertainment, an incredible silent auction, and more. It’s the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association’s largest and most important fundraiser of the year, bringing in critical support for our work on behalf of the Los Angeles Zoo and its efforts in wildlife conservation, public education, and creating innovative experiences to connect people with nature. 

The Beastly Ball's online silent auction features a range of wild items and experiences. Browse the offerings starting on May 19 and make bids when the auction opens on May 26, all from your phone, wherever you are.                         Pre-register now to receive updates.


Beastly Ball 2023
Saturday, June 3, 2023, 6 p.m. 
Hosted by Joel McHale 
Beastly Ball Honoree: Diann H. Kim
Betty White Conservation Hero Honoree: Tom LaBonge, posthumously

An unforgettable evening of adventure and philanthropy, benefiting the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association

Link to more information on the Beastly Ball at https://lazoo.org/plan-your-visit/special-experiences/beastly-ball/#auction








Let the wild rumpus start! - Thinking of Maurice Sendak



On May 8, 2012, author, artist, illustrator, and visionary Maurice Sendak died. On that day I wrote some thoughts on his life and work. Now eleven years later I am reposting those words with some further ideas. 

“Dear Mr. Sendak,  How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive, my sister and I would like to spend the summer there.”
 -From a letter sent by an eight year old reader to Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak
 Where the Wild Things Are
Pen and ink and watercolor on paper  1963



Maurice Sendak was an artist in love with the world and with things that go bump in the night. Sendak looked deeply at the world around him. His vision included the visible nature of  our existence and the invisible, but no less real, world of dreams. Sendak's beautifully crafted artworks for his books began with simple pencil sketches that were then enlarged and fleshed out with pen and ink which was then layered with glowing watercolor washes. 

The finished paintings on paper reflect what Dave Eggers described in a Vanity Fair article on Sendak as the "unhinged and chiaroscuro subconscious of a child." Sendak's books and images appealed to readers of all ages. Sendak took the deep mysteries of life head-on and allowed us all to journey to where the wild things are.


 In an interview with Terry Gross in September 2011, Maurice Sendak reflected on his mortality and the transient nature of life in general:
"Yes. I'm not unhappy about becoming old. I'm not unhappy about what must be. It makes me cry only when I see my friends go before me and life is emptied. I don't believe in an afterlife, but I still fully expect to see my brother again. And it's like a dream life. I am reading a biography of Samuel Palmer, which is written by a woman in England. I can't remember her name. And it's sort of how I feel now, when he was just beginning to gain his strength as a creative man and beginning to see nature. But he believed in God, you see, and in heaven, and he believed in hell. Goodness gracious, that must have made life much easier. It's harder for us non believers.
But, you know, there's something I'm finding out as I'm aging that I am in love with the world. And I look right now, as we speak together, out my window in my studio and I see my trees and my beautiful, beautiful maples that are hundreds of years old, they're beautiful. And you see I can see how beautiful they are. I can take time to see how beautiful they are. It is a blessing to get old. It is a blessing to find the time to do the things, to read the books, to listen to the music. You know, I don't think I'm rationalizing anything. I really don't. This is all inevitable and I have no control over it."


Maurice Sendak
Outside Over There
Pen and ink and watercolor on paper 1978


We are fortunate that Maurice Sendak's love of beauty and the mystery of existence forged a unique vision that led to his magical books and images. He has been greatly missed. I like to think that there is a bit of Sendak's influence in my paintings of animals. My latest pachyderm inspired artwork "Elephant Song" carries a bit of a magical world into its painted environment.



Gregg Chadwick
Elephant Song
30"x24" oil on linen 2023

Elephant Song will be featured at at Los Angeles Zoo's Beastly Ball in May 2023.

Sunday, May 07, 2023

P-22 - Hollywood Nights

 


Gregg Chadwick
30"x22" gouache and monotype on paper 2023


In Hollywood even Mountain Lions become stars. The wild cougar dubbed P-22 by the Park Service roamed Griffith Park for 12 years. After a few scrapes with dogs and humans in December 2022, NPS biologists captured P-22 in the Los Feliz area and transported him to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park for a thorough health evaluation. Results showed P-22 had several severe injuries, such as significant trauma to his head, right eye, and internal organs from a suspected vehicle strike, as well as multiple chronic health illnesses, including irreversible kidney disease, chronic weight loss, an extensive parasitic skin infection over his entire body, and localized arthritis. Due to his poor condition, CDFW made the extremely difficult decision to euthanize P-22 on the morning of Dec. 17, 2022.

My gouache and monotype on paper artwork "P-22" was inspired by numerous images of the mountain lion including Steve Winter's photos as well as the big cat paintings of Delacroix and Géricault.

My Apple algorithm keeps featuring Bob Seger's ode to L.A. - "Hollywood Nights."
I listened to the song as I painted "P-22."
As if in Seger's song and my painting, P-22 slinks across the Hollywood Hills looking down on the lights of L.A.

See this artwork and more at our upcoming evening Open Studio Art at the Airport event on May 13, 2023 from 5-9 PM.

#LosAngeles #ArtOfRecovery #ArtAtTheAirport #CityOfSantaMonica #SantaMonicaArtsCommunity #SantaMonicaArtScene #BuyArtFromArtists #SupportLocalArtists #SantaMonicaArtCollective #SantaMonicaCulturalAffairs #artistssupportingartists 

Saturday, May 06, 2023

An Invite to my Studio

 



I am excited to invite you to my studio at the Santa Monica Airport for an evening of art and camaraderie.

Art At The Airport Open Studios
Saturday, May 13, 2023 from 5–9 PM
Location:
Studio #15, 18th Street Arts Center, 3026 Airport Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Free to all. Feel free to invite friends and family. All ages are welcome!
Free Parking

Please register in advance:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/art-at-the-airport-evening-open-studios-tickets-607740065897

Art At The Airport is made possible by Art of Recovery, an initiative of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs.

Pictured: Collector Tiffany Montgomery @drtiffanymonique with her new addition to her growing collection of Gregg Chadwick paintings.

#LosAngeles #ArtOfRecovery #ArtAtTheAirport #CityOfSantaMonica

Friday, May 05, 2023

Matt Berninger of The National | Broken Record


From Broken Record:

"Today we have part two of our run of interviews with The National in celebration of their new album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein. Last week Broken Producer producer Leah Rose talked to guitarist and composer Aaron Dessner, and today Leah picks up the conversation with the band’s lead singer, Matt Berninger.
Matt, whose fear and anxiety are often on full display in his songwriting, talks about overcoming a debilitating bout of depression in the period before he started writing songs for the new album. He also explains how the combination of weed and iced tea help him spark creativity. And why he hopes his songwriting impresses Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift. Subscribe 🎧 https://bit.ly/3EamIjM #music #podcast #thenational #taylorswift ABOUT BROKEN RECORD For generations of music lovers, the liner notes on albums were a central part of the way music was heard. You bought an album and it came with an accompanying narrative: a digression, an aside, a backstory—maybe even an invented history. We intuitively understood that great music required not just listening but conversation between the artist and the audience and the audience and the rest of the world. Broken Record is a podcast that restarts those conversations—in a world without liner notes—for a new audience of music lovers. Broken Record is hosted by Justin Richmond with interviews by producer Rick Rubin, writer Malcolm Gladwell, and former New York Times editor Bruce Headlam."

Bruce Springsteen - Badlands (Official Lyric Video)




Thursday, May 04, 2023

Two Straws


Gregg Chadwick
24"x36" oil on linen 2023


The fresh fragrance of linseed oil and linen fills my studio as I just put some finishing touches on new work. My oil on linen painting "Two Straws" is a short story in paint.
A woman sits at a table in a diner with an empty seat across from her. On the table is a milkshake with two straws. Will her companion return? What do you think will happen in the next scene?

"Two Straws" is the latest cinematic painting in my L.A. Stories series that explores the wonderfully diverse and sprawling city of Los Angeles.

See this artwork and more at our upcoming evening Open Studio Art at the Airport event on May 13, 2023 from 5-9 PM.

 





#art #SantaMonica #SantaMonicaArt #contemporaryart #worksonpaper #artattheairport #oilonlinen #diner #milkshake