Speed of Life

"There is indeed a downtown POV here in NY and elsewhere that likes to guard its favors. Downtown tastemakers will quietly rave about something or someone until that music or art achieves a relative popularity- then it is denigrated as having "been better when I first saw them". A lot of alt music publications and websites share this weird snobbism, it's a way of establishing a little in-crowd." -David Byrne, blog entry 01/30/05 from david byrne's tour journal at the met photo by Gregg Chadwick I have been discussing the idea of artist and audience recently with a diverse group of fellow artists and collectors. David Byrne's take on downtown tastemakers seems quite apt. The importance of being the first to find a new artist and then to quickly denigrate them as their popularity grows seems to have a relation to our contemporary inundation with advertising campaigns extolling the new and the fresh, as well as our fear of aging or worst of all-irr...

Tonight's Oscars shed light on many fine performances. I was especially taken with Jamie Foxx's speech during the acceptance of his best actor award and Jorge Drexler's off the cuff rendition of "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" from "The Motorcycle Diaries" which won best song. The film I am most intrigued with is Zana Briski and Ross Kaufmann's "Born Into Brothels" which won best doc. Summary follows from A.O.Scott's review in the New York Times: "Zana Briski, a New York photojournalist, spent several years in the red light district of Calcutta, where she ran a photography class for the children of prostitutes, encouraging them to document the squalor and the vibrant humanity that surrounded them. The seven children featured in this lovely documentary are not only Ms. Briski's subjects, but her collaborators, and it is thrilling to watch them discover their own artistic talents. This flowering is counterposed with a chronicle of M...

Vietnam Women's Memorial In honor of the 11,500 women who served with the US forces in Vietnam. Most as nurses or connected to medical units. Dedicated in 1993 as part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall.

by Gregg Chadwick The latest California actor turned governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has picked a battle that he can not win. Arnold is a cartoon warrior. His opponents up to now have been mainly celluloid villains and opinion poll watching politicos. What Arnold has found out in his rash decision to issue an emergency order rolling back nursing ratios in emergency rooms is that California's top nurses are tenacious and brilliant: "Arnold behaves like an arrogant patriarch with respect to women's occupations," said Rose Ann De Moro, executive director of the California Nurses Association. "Nurses, teachers, home health workers -- it's vulgar how he's run roughshod over them. He's arrogant, and he's a bully." The AP reports how these events started "in December, when a small group of nurses gathered at a state women's conference to protest Schwarzenegger's decision to side with hospitals and limit the state's nur...

by Gregg Chadwick Hunter S. Thompson's recent self-inflicted death brought to mind Elliott Smith's tragic suicide as well as Kurt Cobain's and Mark Rothko's from years before. We mourn their loss and as Moby says about Hunter on his blog- "the world is a lesser place without you." But our society also sneers at those who take their own lives- confusing mental illness with cowardice. The visionary artist David Best will have none of that and his Temple of Honor constructed at the Burning Man arts festival in 2003 was created and burned as a contemporary, propitiatory offering of sorts for all those who have committed suicide. The interior of the Temple of Honor was lined with handwritten names, pictures, photos and poems for the lost. These scraps were burned with our prejudices for those whose internal struggles proved too much. We miss Hunter's ragged wit and Elliott's soulful Beatlesque music and Kurt's fiery presence and Rothko's vision....

by Gregg Chadwick I just got back from a weekend at Joshua Tree with a group of writers and actors. We talked deeeply about the process of creation. And I spoke about what inspires me. The writer Phil Cousineau would describe my processs of artistic discovery as "pulling moments" from the hustle of life. Each of these pulled moments undergoes scrutiny and at times reverie. Some become a source for new work. For me the desert landscape encouraged visual metaphors. The sweep of the huge rock formations reminded me of the curve of a woman's back- a sleek movement across a canvas perhaps. Now it is up to me to carry these thoughts into the work. Gregg Chadwick Silk 38"x48" oil on linen 2002 

"Intolerance is the father of illusion and evil deeds.Tolerance is not its opposite; tolerance is neutral. The opposite of intolerance is creative imagination, sympathetically exercised in the service of ever illusive truth. The people I trust and admire take that path. Scholars, scientists, priests, and philosophers have helped guide me ... A fiery legion of artists and writers flung wide the gates and beckoned my near- sighted soul to go deeper" -Alexander Eliot, "The Timeless Myths" esprit d'escalier 30"x20" monotype 2005 inspired by the vision of alex and jane eliot In Japan, individuals of extraordinary talent and vision are recognized as living national treasures as they live out their later years. The American intellectual couple Alexander and Jane Eliot should be given honorary Japanese citizenship and awarded that honor. Recently when I met with Alex and Jane in their warm Venice bungalow I was struck by their graciousness and humility...

Bob Marley would have turned sixty today. Marley's life was brief but his legacy has been long and widespread. His music brought the hopes and dreams of the African diaspora into homes and clubs worldwide and was influential in dispelling the notion that important music was created only in the economic powers of Western Europe and the United States. Marley's gift was to cast the music of rebellion into infectious rhythms that lifted the spirit without abandoning the reality of political struggle in an unjust world. "In this great future, you can't forget your past." -Bob Marley, "No Woman, No Cry" In Kingston, Jamaica and for the first time in The Rastafarian holy land of Ethiopia crowds gathered to hear Bob Marley's songs of freedom and his hope for a united Africa. The Associated Press reported that in Ethiopia's capital- Addis Ababa -tens of thousands attended a memorial concert entitled "Africa Unite'' after one of Marley...

Chester Arnold, the visionary Bay Area painter who exhibits at the Catherine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, has inspired his students at the College of Marin to create a moving exhibition of memorial portraits of American troops killed in action in Iraq. According to the San Francisco Chronicle Chester Arnold encouraged his students to take on the project after the United States military death toll in Iraq reached one thousand killed in action, "Perhaps ‘Faces’ can change the political debate,” said Chester Arnold. “Instead of ‘red states vs. blue states,’ I hope that we can find common ground as we did after September 11th.” In the College of Marin’s “To Never Forget: Faces of the Fallen” exhibit art students and faculty have painted portraits of American troops killed in Iraq – more than 1200. From the College of Marin's website: “Faces” has tapped into a river of emotion in towns and communities across America, many of which have brothers, sisters, m...

Update: Chapel to be torn down today- Thursday, February 3rd Throughout the day yesterday, people came to see, photograph and touch the towering structure. Some left notes tucked in the building's walls complimenting the work. "What a wonderful temple!!! I love everything about it. Please let it stay!!!" read a note signed "Sharon." Some were in Spanish, such as one signed by Carlos Diaz that described the chapel as "bonito," or pretty. by Gregg Chadwick David Best - Chapel of the Laborer, San Rafael photo by Alan Dep David Best set out to build a temporary chapel for day laborers in San Rafael, California, "I wanted to break into a poor community, to build a central location where the laborers could reflect," said Best to Leslie Fulbright of the San Francisco Chronicle. "But the city has made us all illegal -- the Virgin Mary, the day laborers and me." David Best Temple of Honor - Burning Man 2003 pho...

by Gregg Chadwick Raising the Red Flag Over the Reichstag, Berlin May 2, 1945 photo by Yevgeny Khaldei Today near the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp world leaders gathered to remember the camp's liberation in 1945 by the Red Army. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke proudly of the Soviet soldiers who gave themselves to free Auschwitz: "They switched off the ovens, they saved Krakow," Vladimir Putin said of the Soviet soldiers. But Putin also said there was still much to be ashamed of in the current situation."We unfortunately still see signs of anti-Semitism in our country." I am reminded of the great Russian war photographer Yevgeny Khaldei. I had the honor of meeting him almost ten years ago when the end of the cold war seemed to mark an era of future peace, Yevgeny's body was starting to fail but his mind was sharp and his descriptions of the struggle against the Nazis were vivid. As a war photographer,Yevgeny a...

White Noise 60"x60" oil on linen 2002 Don DeLillo's first film, "Game 6", is being screened at Sundance tonight. For those in Park City this evening find your way to a ticket. DeLillo is the masterful novelist whose work includes Underworld, Mao II, The Body Artist and White Noise (which inspired my painting of the same title). The film sounds intriguing and like much of DeLillo's work the screenplay is darkly humorous. Michael Keaton stars as a playwright and lifelong Red Sox fan who skips out on his new play's opening night, October 25, 1986, to catch Game 6 of the World Series. While a merciless, gun toting critic, played by Robert Downey Jr. views the play in disguise, Michael Keaton watches in horror as his beloved Red Sox fall to the Mets. In the original draft, discussed in an interview with Don DeLillo by Jennifer Altman in the Los Angeles Times, the playwright and the critic eventually engage in an artist's gunfight (doesn't C...

Gregg Chadwick ciudad de la memoria 38"x38" oil on linen 2005 Private Collection, Beverly Hills At times a work of art from years before still speaks directly to the present moment. I was reading Neruda today miles away from the coronation in D.C. This mix of Neruda's words and my most recent painting, "Ciudad de la Memoria", seemed to spark something new and important while at the same time bringing light to America's dark shadows. "La United Fruit Co." Cuando sonó la trompeta, estuvo todo preparado en la tierra y Jehová repartió el mundo a Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda, Ford Motors, y otras entidades: la Compañía Frutera Inc. se reservó lo más jugoso, la costa central de mi tierra, la dulce cintura de América. Bautizó de nuevo sus tierras como "'Repúblicas Bananas", y sobre los muertos dormidos, sobre los héroes inquietos que conquistaron la grandeza, la libertad y las banderas, establec...

-gregg chadwick, buddha's hand 2004 We spoke of the tsunami in an L.A. pub last night. Over the sound system the piano intro to "Let it Be" stopped our conversation. Tentatively, yet without prompting, we sang together the first line,"When I find myself in times of trouble..." It was a brief moment but it cut through the evening. The conversation veered to John Lennon's murder and then on to the small disasters in all our lives. I looked around the room, a collection of friends celebrating life. Smiles in our eyes as the little kids at our table drew their own inner worlds. A ten year old lost in a book, i-pod buds in his ears filtering out our musical memories as he created his own. Across the room an older couple sipped wine and whispered to each other. It was as if we all were in the dining car on a train, heading for separate destinations, yet for a brief moment brought together. This random collection of faces would never be together again. Someday ...

By the Sea Stretching into the distance the sea swallows a hundred rivers for thousands of miles the spray joins the waves to the sky -Muso Soseki (translation: W.S. Merwin) I'm reading the poems of Muso Soseki today, a Japanese poet born in Ise in 1275, ten years after Dante. Ise is on the coast far to the west of what was then Edo and the sea has a real presence. We tend to sentimentalize the ocean now, travel is easier and at times it seems that we have harnessed the massive power of the tides, currents and waves. A sense of ease disappeared on December 26th as a massive shift of tectonic plates off of Java sent a wall of water that swallowed coastlines for thousands of miles, engulfing rich and poor: Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and Christians. - kenro izu, borobudur, java Kenro Izu's palladium photograph of Java is timeless. The landscape stripped of living human presence. Java as a museum - ancient, yet yielding to the forces of wind, rain, and time....

A foreign boy is carried by a Thai rescue worker after being evacuated from a nearby island resort off Krabi, southern Thailand. (Roslan Rahman AFP/Getty Images) tsunami help chiang mai disaster relief info sumankumar.com bbc how to send help red cross disaster relief - via amazon jeff ooi- malaysia unicef  

gregg i should write an official letter of thanks for your blog because (of) the good news! ... I can't thank you enough for your efforts! We won! If it was not for people like you who wrote letters I am sure this change would not have occurred. Thanks Emily

"Everyone has their Vietnam. Everyone has their war. May we embark together on a pilgrimage of ending these wars and truly living peace." -Claude Anshin Thomas, "At Hell's Gate" gregg chadwick the 49th day 38"x38" oil on linen 2004 collection of bill badalato Listening to Bono and Pavarotti sing "Miss Sarajevo" as I stretch new canvases for the upcoming year. The fresh smell of new linen mixes in the room with the fragrance of a just pulled espresso. The light this morning is crisp and warm. My world seems to be at peace until a line from the song slips into my mind :"Is there a time for keeping your head down, for getting on with your day?" I can picture Sarajevo in black snow. One by one, men, women and children race across a broad street. I can hear the crack of a sniper's rifle in my mind... That imagined gunshot haunts me. A taunting reply to my question "How does one paint peace?" I pick up Claude Ans...

"Our task now is to mend our broken world... And what our world needs now is not belief, not certainty, but compassionate action and practically expressed respect for the sacred value of all human beings, even our enemies" -Karen Armstrong, "The Spiral Staircase" gregg chadwick a balance of shadows 72"x96" oil on linen 2004

I wish to provide you with the following official statement regarding the upcoming exhibition by Emily Jacir:       "Wichita State University is aware of the discussion generated by the scheduled exhibition of work by artist Emily Jacir at the Ulrich Museum of Art.  The University is committed to going forward with the exhibition without conditions or limitations that could be considered to compromise the integrity of Ms. Jacir's work as an artist.  The University appreciates the widespread interest in the artist and the exhibition." You are welcome to forward this e-mail as appropriate. Thank you, Elizabeth King Vice President for University Advancement Wichita State University --- more detailed information can be found at: newsgrist from the floor deep appreciation to newsgrist, from the floor, kevin mullins, elizabeth king, david butler and deborah gordon for helping this important exhibition proceed as planned...

emily jacir from "where we come from" At times the subtext of events and images from Palestine to San Francisco to Berlin helps illumine an artwork, its inspiration and possibly its meaning. Emily Jacir's recent project "Where We Come From" is concerned with the ideas of memory and exile. As a Palestinian-American, Emily is able to travel in a comparatively free manner across and through the Palestinian-Israeli borderlands using her US passport as a sort of get out of jail free card. With this ability Emily was able to create an art project in which she asked exiled Palestinians: “If I could do anything for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would it be?” Many of the requests would be considered simple, almost banal, if they were not impossible for the exiles to fulfill: “Go to my mother’s grave in Jerusalem on her birthday and put flowers and pray.” “Drink the water in my parents’ village.” Emily journeyed with US passport and cameras in hand in an attempt...

----- Forwarded message from emily jacir ----- Dear all, I was slated to have a one person show at the Ulrich Museum in Wichita, Kansas in January 26th. The piece was Where We Come From which was included by Dan Cameron on the 8th Istanbul Biennale "Poetic Justice", and a small excerpt of it was also included in this years Whitney Bienniel. This show has been planned for over a year, much to my horror two days ago I was told that the The Jewish Federation of Kansas has put pressure on the University and the Museum so that they have been granted permission to place brochures and a sign in the gallery expressing their views concerning the politics of the Middle East. Actually, the University and Museum have no idea what text is contained in the brochures and what the posters are but have given them permission nonetheless. This is a complete infringement on my right to free speech, not to mention an insult to me as an artist. It is intolerable that I have to go...

"where we come from" at debs & co. ulrich museum newsgrist adbusters contemporary the thing: look for arts intolerence, emily jacir thread in undercurrents

by Gregg Chadwick alan caudillo photo by Gregg Chadwick the witty, important film "a day without a mexican" is now available on dvd. alan caudillo was the director of photography on the film and i recently had the chance to spend an afternoon at the norton simon museum in pasadena with alan. our conversations centered around the place of light in film and painting. alan- " the light one finds in vermeer and other painters of the dutch school is always in my mind when i begin to plan the overall look of a film. on one level the light flooding in from a side window as one finds in vermeer or in this gabriel metsu unifies the scene. everything in the frame looks good. the shadow areas are rich and vibrant and the light is almost spiritual. on a more technical level as the actors move through a scene, when lit in this vermeer-like light, whether they are in shadow or moving in light they are readable through the lens. there are no bad moments in this kind of light...

vincent van gogh postman 21"x15" oil on canvas 1889 the barnes collection Montgomery County Judge Stanley Ott has issued a ruling today that opens the way for the Barnes Collection to move from its hard to access Lower Merion site to downtown Philadelphia. Judge Ott in his statement wrote that there was "no viable alternative" to save the foundation from financial collapse. Albert Barnes in his will instructed that the collection never be moved. His will also limited photographic reproduction of the paintings and forbade artworks to travel on loan. For many years art scholars and artists were forced to rely on black and white photos of the work. These restrictions have been lifted at least partially in recent years. Could this be the end of an era as the Barnes Collection moves into the 21st century? Or is this the start of something new and important for the city of Philadelphia? More to follow...

the world is a lesser place w/o you...

Henry David Thoreau was inspired to write “Civil Disobedience” after a night in a Concord, Massachusetts jail for refusing to pay a tax in support of the Mexican-American War. A new book takes its title from this essay which also inspired Martin Luther King's, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". "A corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peacea...

gregg chadwick a theater of time 72"x56" oil on linen 2004 in park city, utah for the opening weekend of the julie nester gallery. nice group show including "a theater of time" and also the work of kirsten stolle and marshall crossman among others. Julie Nester Gallery opens in Park City Park Record Contemporary art finds a home off Main Street By Casey R. Basden Tucked behind Windy Ridge restaurant sits Julie Nester Gallery a former warehouse turned contemporary exhibition space that features the work of emerging Bay Area artists, among others. The walls are crisp white, the track lighting is modern and the concrete floor is stained to perfection. The floor space is bare, but the walls tell the story of artists such as Gary Denmark, Marshall Crossman, Michael Pauker, Kirsten Stolle and Gregg Chadwick. What was once a "mess" has turned into Park City's newest gallery off Main Street. Julie Nester, art consultant and owner of Juli...

"Tucked inside Congress' new blueprint for U.S. intelligence spending is a highly classified and expensive spy program that drew exceptional criticism from leading Democrats. In an unusually public rebuke of a secret government project, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday that the program was ``totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security.'' He called the program ``stunningly expensive.'' Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators -- Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon -- refused to sign the congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities." -from an article by ted bridis and the associated press from the new york times, 9 dec 2004 mystery spy project and see update: mystery spy project update seems that t...

phil cousineau's new collection of poems: "the blue museum" is out. thought i would share his cinematic poem on the burning of the library in sarajevo: MEMORICIDE Black snow fell over Sarajevo, darkening the midday sky with ashes from the million and a half books burning in what was once the National library. The old librarian raced through shell-pocked streets, his face reddening from the torrid heat pouring out of the knot of smoking ruins where he had spent a lifetime rescuing words from oblivion. Defying the snipers, he stood on the steps of the smoldering building wanting to save—something, anything—even the single sheet of cindered paper that drifted towards him through the singed air, still holding fire from the inferno. He caught the paper, which glowed in his hand like a black and white negative held up to the red light inside a photographer’s darkroom. He glared at what was once a page from a holy book, an illuminated manuscript, and coul...

Gregg Chadwick new breeze, new hour 30" x 22" monotype 2004 two exhibitions open this friday with work by gregg chadwick ( i will be attending the opening in park city. hope to see you there): the julie nester gallery in park city, utah will have its grand opening on december 3rd, 2004 from 5-8pm. 1755 b bonanza drive, park city, utah for more info: 435 649-7855 julienester@comcast.net (see below) & the lisa coscino gallery oh so proudly presents the original works of more than 30 artists at the amazing price of $99.95. entitled: the $99.95 show. we know what you're thinking: are they mad? are they out of your artsy minds? no, sir. tis the season.yes, tis. tis, tis, tis. for further information, please contact lisa coscino at 831.646.1939.

periodically i will pick an exhibition or an opening to highlight. if you are in new york this thursday or will be traveling there shortly make sure that you visit the foley gallery , a new space with great potential. michael foley, who served as director of the yancey richardson gallery in new york and before that worked with catherine clark in san francisco, has opened his own gallery. michael's new gallery focuses on photography and works on paper.

the transparent life 30"x22" monotype 2004 Moment Clear moments are so short. There is much more darkness. More ocean than terra firma. More shadow than form. -Adam Zagajewski

i've been reading the poetry of adam zagajewski derek walcott in the new republic : "these poems enter and possess you quietly. it is the quiet of a train halted on its lines. the engine throbs like a pulse, and there is always music in these verses, or the echo of music" zagajewski is a polish poet currently dividing his time between paris and houston where he teaches. there is much of czeslaw milosz here and joseph brodsky as well as the american, edward hirsch. but in the end adam zagajewski is his own poet. as i prepare for a new group of paintings i find a world of inspiration in these poems. zagajewski leads us into the shadows but he is not afraid to show us the light.

(Peace) 320˚ NW From where the red-winged blackbirds sing on the cattails of the Schel-Cheb marsh and the blue camas flowers bloom planted by Gale Cool in a prairie genesis the smooth shore of Kitsap’s village the Suquamish called “Bringing-it-home” opens out to the waves of Rich Passage, and beyond Rainier rises sixty miles away, its great gray ridges sharp, its massive glaciers white. At home in this sunlight the strong irony strikes Don Mowatt: on the phone from Pleasant Beach talking to a survivor in Bosnia, knowing he is to go, the call’s been made. Peace spreads by being left behind. - poem by kent chadwick

Kent Chadwick's poem "(Peace) 320˚ NW" is the first in a series of responses to my question, "How do you paint, write, sing peace?" Kent Chadwick is a Seattle based poet. His work is rich in language and moment. "(Peace) 320˚ NW" is from a new, ongoing series of poems modeled on the Japanese ukiyo-e artists Hokusai and Hiroshige's views of Mount Fuji. Mount Rainer is the touchstone in this series. Each poem contains a fleeting view of Rainier that acts as a silent witness to the life unveiling below. I urge you to read the lengthy and important series of comments found below the intial post. Thank you for your thoughts and I encourage you to think seriously about this question. I welcome your responses. Feel free to e-mail images, poems, stories and links to your songs my way.

  Gregg Chadwick Either/Or 36"x29" oil on linen 2004 Private Collection, San Francisco I find I need to look deeply into this painting to provide an antidote to the images flooding my way as I walk down the avenue. rack after newsrack, each with a front page heralding destruction. Years ago I was in Perth, Australia reading an art review concerning an exhibition about peace. Most of the images in in the show were anti-war but few if any were really about the idea of peace. The title of the review was "how do you paint peace". I have been trying to do that ever since. I think this painting is close. I ask you: how would you paint peace? How would you create the idea of peace in your music? In your writing? In your life? Please send thoughts. ideas and images my way- greggchadwick@icloud.com I will post your dreams...

steven, if my ten year old son did not cringe at the expression "shut-up" i might have titled my response to your national review piece "shut-up and write" or possibly "shut-up and look." but since my son skips into the room often to see what i'm up to i thought i would instead "use my words" and then after a "time out" send you my thoughts and the image of a current painting that deals with the situation in iraq. ok i'm ready now... and i have put my color wheels and brushes away. my father was an officer in the marine corps and he served in korea and vietnam. i respect his service and i thank him for the sacrifices that he and his buddies made so that i can disagree with him. that is the nature of america. at our best we are a gargantuan mix of cultures, creeds and credos. at our worst we are a gargantuan beast that without a system of checks and balances could easily slide into fascism. now we get to the part about art...

this morning's harbor , originally uploaded by greggchadwick . the julie nester gallery in park city, utah will have its grand opening on december 3rd, 2004 from 5-8pm. 1755 b bonanza drive, park city, utah for more info: 435 649-7855 julienester@comcast.net i am honored to have a group of paintings and works on paper in the inaugural exhibition. my work will include "une passante" and a series of new monotypes. monotypes are prints made by painting on metal and then transferring the painting to paper by pressure. only one initial print can be run through the press and then a follow-up ghost print. the ghosts are evocative, open ended and encourage further work. "this morning's harbor" is a good example of this process.the resulting work maintains a bit of the ghost and is quite effective in conveying my artistic thoughts. these new monotypes seem to me like small dreams.

"New York has finally become Paris -- a bountiful place to visit to see what great art used to be. The stunning new MoMA is its magnificent shrine." - Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times i currently paint in los angeles, have a grad degree from nyu and consider paris as a constant muse. los angeles is a great city with a richly nuanced cultural climate- such a great mix of traditions. but, especially now, we need new york and paris. the score keeping that christopher knight tacks on to the end of his article on the new moma is embarassing. with jet blue's $99 fares does anyone in l.a. really define themselves as "not" being from new york anymore? l.a is a great city in which to create new work. but without new york we are cut off from incredibly important artistic and social dialogues. great art is not driven by fads or civic boosterism. instead great art is created within an environment that treasures a dialogue between past and present, east and west,...

jt kirkland is running an evocative site at thinking about art. he graciously allowed me to participate in an ongoing project in which artists are asked to write a short essay in response to one word- my response is on the word     responsibility

City of Desires , originally uploaded by greggchadwick . listening to pearl jam resound in a san francisco cafe. a warm fall dusk here - it somehow brings to mind the tropics. thought i would post a painting based on a time in rio. something about the brazilian air and the rich way music flows around the landscape made it into this work. love the way that brazilians realize that they are americans. not as citizens of a country but instead as part of two joined continents - the americas. sometimes, as in this painting and dream of dawn below, i find characters creating themselves in my work. i want to discover more about them as they appear. the story will continue...

黎明夢想(a dream of dawn) 80"x76" oil on linen 2004 i have been reading classical chinese poetry in translation while working on this new painting. a mix of remembered moments, music and poetry often fuels my work. Misted the flowers weep as light dies Moon of white silk sleeplessly cries. Stilled - Phoenix wings. Touched - Mandarin strings. This song tells secrets that no one knows To far Yenjan on Spring breeze it goes. To you it wafts Through the night skies. Sidelong - Eyes. How White tears fill now! Heart's pain? Come see - In this mirror with me. -Li Po

been in the studio all day- feels good to work large and get the whole body into it the light that fills this space in the late afternoon is hypnotic, almost like being under a rainbow thinking about diebenkorn since i'm painting off ocean park he started his ocean park series in 1967 during the viet nam war monet painted waterlilies during ww1 color has never felt more necessary as the world grows darker maybe something there... -gregg

Excerpts from letters to his parents from Pfc. Moisés A. Langhorst of the Marines. Private Langhorst, 19, of Moose Lake, Minn., was killed in Al Anbar Province on April 6 by small-arms fire. March 13 As far as my psychological health, we look out for each other pretty well on that. ... I've been praying a lot and I hope you're praying for the Dirty 3rd Platoon, because there is no doubt that we are in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. March 15 After standing in the guard tower for seven-and-a-half hours this morning, we went on our first platoon-size patrol from about 1200 to 1700. It was exhausting, but it went very well. I had to carry the patrol pack with emergency chow, a poncho and night vision goggles. That's what really wore me out. We toured the mosques and visited the troublesome abandoned train station. The people were friendly, and flocks of children followed us everywhere. When I called you asked me if Iraq is what I expected, and it really is. It looks just li...

i grabbed this moment of a monk taking a break for contemplation last year and found the image while researching new ideas. it seemed so emblematic of the practice of artistic creation that i wanted to dwell on it a bit. a group of tibetan monks were in the process of creating a sand mandala when one got up and carefully moved over to a group of devotional paintings lining the gallery walls. he stood still and seemed to gather the moment and the image in. i carried these thoughts over as i started a new painting last night. i worked late till the streets were empty and the traffic on the airport runways outside had died down and i painted till the image began to seem real and present. then remembering the monk i put my tools down, stopped and listened as the new work began to breathe.

-rotc training before deployment, spring 04: photo by gregg chadwick as the battle rages again in fallujah it prompts us to look at the faces of the combatants and to understand the humanity that is lost on all sides. the acting prime minister of iraq, allawi, has dubbed this new action al-fajr : arabic for the dawn. it is time for all artists, photographers and writers to fight the censorship of the current administration and show the true faces of this dark dawn.

"In this day and age of selling out to the Bushes and being corporate and acting like the industrial, plastic American lifestyle is the greatest thing that ever hit the planet... a movie like I ♥ Huckabees —a 60’s movie, whether it’s Asian, Zen, Tibetan Buddhist, Hindu ... reinforces some sort of hope for life and human integrity." - Columbia Religion Chair Robert Thurman in an interview with the New York Observer,Oct. 4, 2004 In David O Russell's new film I ♥ Huckabees, Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) hires two existential detectives Bernard and Vivian (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) to help discover the significance of three chance meetings with an autograph hunting Sudanese refugee (Ger Duany). Dustin Hoffman's character is loosely based on the director's friend and mentor Robert Thurman who is best known as a colleague of the Dalai Lama and the father of Uma Thurman. Robert Thurman is currently the chair of the religion department at Columbia Univers...

Arlington 48” x 36” oil on linen 2004 From the funeral of Chanawongse Kemaphoom 22, of Waterford, Connecticut. Killed in action during operations on the outskirts of An Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003. Chanawongse was assigned to 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.