Here’s something to think about as you kick off 2024: we are all stardust. Every atom of oxygen in our lungs, of carbon in our muscles, of calcium in our bones, of iron in our blood—was created inside a star before Earth was born. Wishing everyone a happy & healthy New Year!🎇 pic.twitter.com/fjw1QaWZiN
— American Museum of Natural History (@AMNH) January 1, 2024
Happy New Year's Eve
Fireworks at Ryōgoku bridge
Utagawa Hiroshige
Woodblock Print on Paper
1858
Ashmolean Museum
| Series | One Hundred Famous Views of Edo | Meisho Edo hyakkei | 名所江戸百景 |
|---|---|
| Artist/maker | Hiroshige Utagawa, I (1797 - 1858) (designer) |
| Associated people | Eikichi Uoya (mid-19th century) (publisher) |
| Associated place | Asia > Japan (place of creation) |
| Date | 1857 (date of creation) |
| Material and technique | nishiki-e (full colour) woodblock print, with bokashi (tonal gradation) Ashmolean Museum |
On Transgender Day of Visibility, we want you to know that we see you just as you are:
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 31, 2023
Made in the image of God and deserving of dignity, respect, and support.
We'll never stop working to create a world where you won't have to be brave just to be yourself. pic.twitter.com/g5TTZbv1UW
Trans Power
Rommy Torrico
TransLatin@Coalition
Justseeds
Digital print, 2015
New Jersey
by Gregg Chadwick
Since I was a kid, I have spent a number of holiday seasons in Japan. The time from just before Christmas to just after New Year's Day is a magical time in Japan. Families gather from around the country as students and workers take time off and return to their homes for celebrations of the season. The food is marvelous, the conversations are rich, and the moments are precious. My monotype on paper "Tokyo (Shibuya Crossing)" is an artistic nod to my memories of Japan. As we move into 2023, I wish you a Happy Year of the Rabbit! And I would like to wish a warm Happy Birthday to artist and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki who was born on this day in 1941.
Pixar animator Enrico Casarosa said, "Miyazaki has this uncanny ability to add a childish sense of wonder to his stories. He’s able to make us feel like little kids again."
by Gregg Chadwick
%20%2048%E2%80%9Dx36%E2%80%9D%20oil%20on%20linen%202016.jpg "Ponte del Castelvecchio")
Gregg Chadwick
Ponte del Castelvecchio (Verona)
48"x36"oil on linen
In Japan the first dreams of the New Year, hatsu-yume 初夢, traditionally provide markers for the dreamer's upcoming year. In that spirit, perhaps the first artwork sold in a new year provides inspiration for the months to come. My painting Ponte del Castelvecchio (Verona) is the first sale of 2023. On this first day of the new year, I am busy packing up my Verona painting for shipment to its new home.
I think back to the genesis of the painting. I was perched above a Renaissance era bridge in Verona watching a light rainfall and the swollen river rushing by. The smell of rain filled the air. Swifts darted across the milky sky. Like gauze stretched across a stage set, the mix of rain, bus exhaust, and a distant sun breaking through the mist cloaked the moment in a spell of timelessness. I thought of the late Russian emigre writer Joseph Brodsky and his idea that water is the image of time. Often on trips to Europe, I will carry a battered copy of Brodsky’s verse to help inspire my ramblings. Here in the Veneto, I am reminded of Brodsky’s love of Italy and Venice in particular. I turn the pages of Brodsky’s Watermark and find the passage I am looking for:
“I always adhered to the idea that God is time, or at least that His spirit is. Perhaps this idea was even of my own manufacture, but now I don’t remember. In any case, I always thought that if the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water, the water was bound to reflect it. Hence my sentiment for water, for its folds, wrinkles, and ripples, and — as I am a Northerner — for its grayness. I simply think that water is the image of time, and every New Year’s Eve, in somewhat pagan fashion, I try to find myself near water, preferably near a sea or an ocean, to watch the emergence of a new helping, a new cupful of time from it. I am not looking for a naked maiden riding on a shell; I am looking for either a cloud or the crest of a wave hitting the shore at midnight. That, to me, is time coming out of water, and I stare at the lace-like pattern it puts on the shore, not with a gypsy-like knowing, but with tenderness and with gratitude.”
I look up from by book and peer down at the river’s edge. In the reeds and shallows small fish chasing food dart where the current eddies. In this reverie, my mind creates stories — If Brodsky is right these pools hold time in stasis. If I had a long net, maybe I could dip into the water and pull out living memories.
I rush back to my studio on Via Filippini and lay in with liquid oil paints the initial layers of my first study for Ponte di Castelvecchio.
On the canvas, I brush in greens, milky blues, and brick reds. The structure of the bridge begins to emerge as I cut into the wet paint with a loaded brush of lighter color. It is a large canvas in my small 16th-century space and it quickly becomes a presence in the room. After the initial surface is complete, I lean the wet painting against the plaster wall.
Gregg Chadwick’s Via Filippini Studio, Verona, Italy
I stand across the room and gaze at the painting. Even at this stage, the artwork has taken on a life of its own and I need to respect that. I see hints of Corot, maybe Degas? Perhaps I was thinking of Giorgione’s The Tempest now housed at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, Italy?
Giorgione Banner with Detail of The Tempest
I spend time with the painting, then out into the vibrant Veronese streets for dinner. Tomorrow, I will look at the painting again and maybe, if the paint is dry enough in the humid summer air, add more layers of color. In the morning light with an espresso in hand, I will see more clearly.
A few weeks later upon its completion, I left the study with a new collector in Verona and started on a much larger final version in my Santa Monica studio upon my return from Italy.
As a painting progresses, I will often find hints of its future shape in historical artworks as mentioned above, or in films, or books. When I was in graduate school at NYU, I studied not far from Verona in Venice. I often think of my instructor Giovanni Soccol who provided the art direction for Nicolas Roeg’s eerie Venice-based film Don’t Look Now. The film is based on a story by Daphne Du Maurier and stars Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. Soccol’s artistic vision is evident throughout the film and I remember traveling to sites in Venice with Giovanni where the film was shot. As a Venetian, water is an important subject for Soccol and is often poetically referenced in his film work and his paintings.
Another striking element from Don’t Look Now has found an echo in my painting Ponte di Castelvecchio (Verona). The color red is a character in Don’t Look Now as much as Christie and Sutherland. That pop of color against the green-blue water, blue and grey skies, and tawny stone of Venice finds an echo in my painting. In my painting, the splashes of red and orange that mark the umbrellas swiftly carried across the bridge find their antecedent in Soccol and Roeg’s film. Water and time.
Again, my thoughts trace a circuit from this moment back to an earlier New Year in Japan as 1989 rolled into 1990. I was in Tokyo following the spirit and artworks of Ando Hiroshige. That winter in Japan, I clutched a large volume by Henry D. Smith II and Amy G. Poster on Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo and trekked on rail, foot and car across the historic core of what was Edo era Tokyo. Sponsored by the Nippon Seiyu-Kai's 30th Anniversary Award, I endeavored to create a series of new paintings inspired by Hiroshige’s woodcuts. Time, place, memory, mystery and lore all mixed in my artworks.
Today @nortonsimon posted a photo of one of the most mysterious images from Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Alison Baldassano from the Brooklyn Museum wrote about this artwork, "People aren’t the only beings who gather together for special celebrations on the night before a new year dawns. In this woodblock print by Hiroshige, foxes come together on New Year’s Eve to receive directions for the upcoming year and emit ghostly flames, the size of which helps predict the next year’s crop…. And, as the foxes could say in the morning, 明けましておめでとうございます (akemashite omedetou gozaimasu) or #HappyNewYear!"
#art #NewYear #NYC #japan
"Our selection of paintings for December’s ‘Picture of the month’ vote was inspired by our interest in how artists have used and depicted light, particularly as a narrative device. With the clocks changing and the nights drawing in, we become more alert to the physical and symbolic qualities of light. It is a universal symbol of hope, associated with the beginning of a new day, the turning of seasons, and renewal. In many faiths, light plays ceremonial and symbolic roles.In the Christian art tradition, light alludes to the promise and presence of Christ. ‘The Annunciation’ radiates a sense of peace, and the connection to light might seem obscure at first. Set in a loggia (a room with open sides) which extends out into a lush green garden, we observe two figures, one seated and the other kneeling. As we look more closely, we notice we are witness to a divine act. Fra Filippo Lippi shows us the very moment when the Archangel Gabriel appears to Mary, telling her she is to conceive a son, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Ghost.Painted in egg tempera in the early 1450s, the striking application of gold leaf is used to symbolise divine light and render the invisible, visible. Lippi uses luminous planes of shining gold and rays of light to animate the story unfolding in front of us. He plays with the interaction between light and surface to draw our attention to delightful narrative details.When you are next in the Gallery, you may be struck by the halos – shining discs of gold – illuminating the profiles of Mary and Angel Gabriel, identifying them as divine. Swathes of golden cloth and the trim of Mary’s robe surround her in a pool of glorious light and transform her simple chair into a throne. The gold on Gabriel’s feathers glisten, bestowing him with majesty.If you are online, you can zoom in to discover dots and dustings of gold that spiral and radiate around the small dove representing the Holy Spirit. They also encircle and extend from the hand of God, and in the beams of divine light from Mary’s womb. These moving and connecting rays are celestial, they are everywhere and nowhere, carrying the word and action of God.We can imagine the panel, probably one of a pair, gleaming in the study of Piero de’ Medici, a member of the ruling family of Florence at the time of its commission. Possibly located above a door, ‘The Annunciation’ would have been surrounded by 12 ceramic roundels depicting the signs of the Zodiac. The Feast of the Annunciation, falling on 25 March, was the first day, or New Year’s Day, of the Florentine calendar year; a day often associated with renewal and looking forward."
The National Gallery in London houses the national collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the 19th centuries. The museum is free of charge and open 361 days per year, daily between 10.00 am - 6.00 pm and on Fridays between 10.00 am - 9.00 pm.
Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN
To everyone celebrating the Festival of Lights here in the United States and around the world, happy Diwali! pic.twitter.com/0DPlOaqhMO
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) October 24, 2022
This Diwali, may we remember that from darkness there is power in the gathering of light. That the American story depends not on any one of us, but on all of us.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 24, 2022
To those celebrating and connecting with one another during this festival of lights: Happy Diwali. pic.twitter.com/yrByVDXAvr
Happy Diwali! In honor of the beginning of the Hindu New Year, scholar Lakshika Senarath Gamage offered her perspective on the design, construction, and use of the spectacular bronze oil lamps in the Fowler’s collection. Watch the video to learn more!https://t.co/0UFnL7qcaQ
— Fowler Museum @ UCLA (@FowlerMuseum) October 25, 2022
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| Jackie Robinson during his collegiate years at UCLA played football, ran track, was the leading scorer on the basketball team, and played baseball. |
Exactly one week after she turned 100, Rachel Robinson — with help from son David — cut the ribbon during the ceremonial opening of her late husband’s museum in Manhattan. The Jackie Robinson Museum is finally open. pic.twitter.com/52NVdf3Hkr
— Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) July 26, 2022
#OnThisDay we celebrate Jackie Robinson, who in 1947 broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Read more about how the stadium bearing his name and the bronze statue in his honor came to be part of @UCLA: https://t.co/Swu1h2og28. @UCLAAthletics @Dodgers @MLB pic.twitter.com/drId56B1lM
— UCLA Alumni (@UCLA_Alumni) April 15, 2022
Jackie Robinson’s Last Fight https://t.co/VONUiYxrgI
— Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) April 15, 2022
Happy Jackie Robinson Day! https://t.co/hM4oBbFr0U
— Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) April 15, 2022
Jackie Robinson was the 1st UCLA athlete to earn varsity letters in four sports: @UCLABaseball @UCLAFootball @UCLAMBB @UCLATrack_Field. After serving in the army during WWII, Robinson returned to baseball. 75 years ago today, he broke the color barrier. #JackieRobinsonDay https://t.co/1Mbkc3Tp7H
— George Kliavkoff (@Kliavkoff) April 15, 2022
On the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson Day, we're reminded of his groundbreaking career and legacy that has paved the way for so many who would follow—including me. pic.twitter.com/U4CHJN2WNG
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 15, 2022
"As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world." #JackieRobinsonDay https://t.co/Pu2M4VsK4U
— Roric McCorristin (@roricmcc) April 15, 2022
Rachel Robinson is here! Turns 100 years young this summer. A true legend. If you don’t know, better ask somebody. pic.twitter.com/dlvrllfQJc
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) April 16, 2022
