Speed of Life

Liu Xiaobo's Portrait at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway Credit: Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images "Today, the values of democracy, open society, respect for human rights, and equality are becoming recognized all over the world as universal values. To my mind there is an intimate connection between democratic values, such as transparency, the rule of law and freedom of information, and the fundamental values of human goodness." - The Dalai Lama (from his Facebook page December 10, 2010) Liu Xiaobo, poet and literary critic, today received in absentia the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Chinese authorities forbade Liu from traveling to the award ceremony and harshly criticized the selection of Liu Xiaobo. Liu is currently incarcerated as a political prisoner in China where he is serving an 11-year prison term for "inciting subversion of state power" because he was involved in the creation of a manifesto known as Charter 08 calling ...

Gregg Chadwick 76cm x 61cm oil on linen 2010 Currently on exhibit at Manifesta Maastricht, the Netherlands A Bowl of Roses by Rainer Maria Rilke You saw angry ones flare, saw two boys clump themselves together into a something that was pure hate, thrashing in the dirt like an animal set upon by bees; actors, piled up exaggerators, careening horses crashed to the ground, their gaze thrown away, baring their teeth as if the skull peeled itself out through the mouth. But now you know how these things are forgotten: for here before you stands a bowl full of roses, which is unforgettable and filled up with ultimate instances of being and bowing down, of offering themselves, of being unable to give, of standing there almost as part of us: ultimates for us too. Noiseless life, opening without end, filling space without taking any away from the space the other things in it diminish, almost without an outline, like something omitted, and pure inwardness, with so much curious softness, shining i...

Late Night Ridiculousness on the Day that Springsteen Releases " The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story" Enjoy! And my personal favorite: Because the Night w/ Stevie, Roy, Bruce and the Roots Jimmy Fallon and Bruce Springsteen on Late Night - Full Show

Gregg Chadwick Jordaan Window 25cmx25cm oil on wood 2010 Coming up on December 3-5, 2010, I am honored to lead a workshop on creativity with writer Phil Cousineau entitled Stoking the Creative Fires: Nine Ways to Rekindle Passion and Imagination Phil Cousineau's book "Stoking the Creative Fires" is an impassioned volume on creativity that combines myth, story and personal pilgrimages in a primer on the creative life. My painting "Fire Dream" graces the cover. We will use this book as a stepping off point for the upcoming workshop on creativity. It will be a rich journey through myth and art at Esalen. Sign up here: Reserve this workshop We hope to see you there! The Esalen Institute is a non-profit organization founded in 1962 by Stanford alums Michael Murphy and Richard Price as an alternative educational center devoted to the exploration of what Aldous Huxley called the "human potential." This world of unrealized human capacities that lies beyond t...

photo courtesy European Pressphoto Agency Aung San Suu Kyi greets supporters after being freed today Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been freed from house arrest today in Burma. Much more to follow. Details at: Burmese Dissident Is Freed After Long Detention Gregg Chadwick The Road to Mandalay 40"x30" oil on linen 2007 Currently at Julie Nester Gallery

Gorecki Symphony No. 3 "Sorrowful Songs" - Lento e Largo (Soprano: Isabel Bayrakdaraian, Sinfonietta Cracovia, conducted by John Axelrod. Taken from "HOLOCAUST - A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz". For one of the first times since liberation, permission was granted for music to be heard in Auschwitz.) "I think that people are moved by the simplicity — which does not mean simple-mindedness — and the prayerful intensity of the music. Quite extraordinary. The Symphony No. 3 touched people in a way that few pieces do, now or ever." - Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author, former dj on WNYC in New York who played an early, Polish recording of the symphony for American audiences. "I will be extremely happy if some people 100 years from now would listen to some of my music. It's not a question of being famous and popular. It's a question of what you did and how you did it." Henryck Gorecki on NPR in 1995 I painted today, as I oft...

By Gregg Chadwick Winslow Homer The Veteran in a New Field 24 1/8" x 38 1/8" oil on canvas 1865 Metropolitan Museum of Art Veterans Day is more than just a day off. Instead it is a time to reflect on duty, honor, service, and life. Winslow Homer's The Veteran in a New Field portrays a Union veteran of the American Civil War back at work on the farm. But the painting is not instantly celebratory. There are no angels and there is no parade. Instead a psychic weight seems to be guiding the veteran's scythe as it cuts the stand of grain, much like the volleys of shot and shell mowed down troops, on both sides of that brutal war. There is hope though in the warm, life giving color of the wheat, a Northern crop, and the cerulean sky. All wars must eventually come to an end. Uniforms are cast off. Homer paints the ex-soldier's jacket and canteen tossed onto the newly cut field. Life does go on. The soldier will inevitably struggle to find his place in the mundane world ...