Happy Transgender Day of Visibility

On Transgender Day of Visibility, we want you to know that we see you just as you are:

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

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 31, 2023

 

Trans Power 

Rommy Torrico

TransLatin@Coalition

Justseeds 

Digital print, 2015

New Jersey

From the Collection of the Center of the Study of Political Graphics which wrote:

"People around the world observe International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) each year on March 31st. TDOV celebrates and recognizes the accomplishments and lives of transgender people. In contrast, Trans Day of Remembrance, celebrated in November, is a day to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia. TDOV is a time to bring awareness to the discrimination, poverty, and violence facing the transgender and gender nonconforming community.

While the transgender community has gained greater visibility and representation in the media in recent years, lawmakers in the United States are drafting and passing historic anti-trans legislation. Anti-trans bills have been passed in fourteen states, introducing laws that exclude trans people from accessing gender-affirming healthcare, participating in sports, banning LGBTQIA+ books, and restricting teaching about sexuality and gender in schools before 5th grade. These bills are a horrendous attempt at erasing transgender people from daily life and an effort to deny transgender people their human rights. Today’s headlines demonstrate this, as the hostile right are using the Nashville shooting case to demonize trans people.

On Trans Day of Visibility we must also acknowledge that efforts made in increasing visibility and protections of transgender and gender nonconforming people have only been possible because of the efforts of trans advocates and activists, especially Black Trans women. At a time when trans rights are slipping backwards, it is important to recognize the power in trans existence. Trans people are parents, children, siblings, and friends."

Reaching for Light on Miyazaki's Birthday

by Gregg Chadwick

 

Gregg Chadwick
Tokyo (Shibuya Crossing)
30”x22” monotype on paper 2023

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." 

Gregg Chadwick
Spirited Away
60"x48"oil on linen 2019

My oil on linen painting "Spirited Away" is an artwork that bridges realms. Light pierces shadow. The past enters the future. A woman on a meditative walk in the hills of Miyajima, Japan seems lost in reverie. Echoes of Japanese film, especially the animated works of Hayao Miyazaki illuminate our vision.

About ten years ago, I woke up from a dream that seemed to have been pulled from a Miyazaki film. In my dream a tender sapling reached towards the light as it sprouted from my wrist. Above, russet clouds moved in a cerulean sky. I look to my dreams as openings rather than fortunes. Yet, since I had recently returned from Tokyo, I remembered that in Japan the first dreams of the New Year, hatsu-yume 初夢, traditionally provide markers for the dreamer's upcoming year. I wrote about first dreams in my New Year's Day post on January 1, 2023 and feel that since my sapling dream ten years ago, I have made a conscious effort to reach for the light even when the world around us seems to be caught in a storm of hateful speech and actions. 

Celluloid Dreams at the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan

In December 2010, I was fortunate to visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan where I learned much about Miyazaki and his art.  Filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata founded their animation studio in 1985 and named it after an Italian airplane first produced before World War II: the Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli. The word ghibli in Italian refers to the hot dry winds that blow across the Sahara desert.

Hayao Miyazaki

Sketch for My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)

pencil and watercolor on paper 1988

(Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan)

Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5, 1941 just months before Pearl Harbor and the brutal battles in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. As a small child growing up in greater Tokyo, Miyazaki drew scenes of aircraft and aviation most likely inspired by his father's family business which built airplane parts for Japanese Zero fighter planes and also in the later years of the war, by his remembrances of the waves of Allied bombers which firebombed much of Tokyo into smoldering ruins.

Much of Miyazaki's mature work reflects his distaste for heedless violence and warmongering. Miyazaki also deeply cares about the environment and the place of natural beauty in a heavily industrialized Japan. Thirdly, many of Miyazaki's films feature a strong, brave, and resourceful main female character. On his birthday, I would like to give thanks to Hayao Miyazaki for his talent, vision, and deep concern for humanity. 

Gregg Chadwick
December Eyes/ Tokyo
72"x24" oil on silk 2011
Private Collection, Venice, California

 #art #film #poetry  #japan #miyazaki #miyajima #spiritedaway

First Dream, First Sale 2023

 by Gregg Chadwick

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.

 

Gregg Chadwick

Study for Il Sole nella Pioggia : Ponte Castelvecchio Verona

oil on canvas 

private collection — Verona, Italy

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.

Happy New Year 2023!

Thank you Saatchi Art for coordinating the sale!

Happy New Year! On to 2023

 

Gregg Chadwick

New York Stories (Five Minutes to Midnight)

30"x 40" oil on linen 

Happy New Year!

明けましておめでとうございます

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu

In my painting "New York Stories" it’s five minutes to midnight. Waiting for 2022 to move into 2023 like the hands of a clock spinning into the next hour, figures move around the iconic Grand Central clock like foxes huddling beneath a tree in Andō Hiroshige's "New Year's Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Ōji"

It’s raining this New Year’s Eve in Santa Monica. I’m listening to a recording of a 10,000-member choir in Japan singing “Ode to Joy” in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Enthusiasm for Beethoven is particularly strong in Japan. Every year in December, singers gather in a concert hall in Osaka to sing the final chorus from Beethoven's Ninth.

Gregg Chadwick

Passing View of Shohei Bridge 

30"x24" oil on linen 1990

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.

Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando) (Japanese, 1797-1858)

 New Year’s Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Oji

( No. 118 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo)

 9th month of 1857  Woodblock print

 Brooklyn Museum

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

December: As the Clocks Change and the Night Draws In

Happy December! Love this new video and discussion of  the role of light in Fra Filippo Lippi's Annunciation in the collection of the National Gallery in London. Anna Murray and Harriet O’Neill find hope in the darkness.

 

From the National Gallery in London:

"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."

Fra Filippo Lippi, The Annunciation, about 1450-3

 

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 

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk 

Happy Diwali!

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.

To those celebrating and connecting with one another during this festival of lights: Happy Diwali. pic.twitter.com/yrByVDXAvr

— President Biden (@POTUS) October 24, 2022

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

Happy Jackie Robinson Day!

 

Jackie Robinson Day 

by Gregg Chadwick

Jackie Robinson 

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
-Jackie Robinson

"If we want to celebrate Robinson, let us also celebrate the truth he fought to reveal: that racism needs to be challenged collectively, by all of us, and we are all worthy of nothing less than first class citizenship, by any means necessary."- Dave Zirin 

Today marks the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie Robinson was the first African-American baseball player to compete in the major leagues when he joined the Dodgers in 1947. Robinson broke baseball's color line and ended a sixty year era of segregation in professional baseball. Robinson's career with the Dodgers lasted only ten years. But in that time, he won six pennants and a World Series title. Robinson retired in 1957 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Anthony Castrovince on MLB.com reports that in Los Angeles today that "Jackie’s widow, Rachel, who will turn 100 this year, will be in attendance at Dodger Stadium, where the Dodgers are set to take on the Reds at 10:10 p.m. ET.

Prior to the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will bring his entire team to the Robinson statue that resides at the main, center-field entrance to pay tribute to the baseball icon. Players Alliance representatives and former All-Stars Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson are also expected to attend."

 Today in honor of Robinson, every player in Major League Baseball  will wear Jackie Robinson’s No. 42. 

Rachel Robinson at the stadium. (From Spike Lee's documentary on Baseball and Jackie Robinson)

Rachel Robinson, Jackie's wife, had vivid memories of April 15, 1947:

"It was an exciting, exhilarating time — but it also was a stressful time," Rachel Robinson said.
Rachel and Jackie met while they both were students at UCLA. Rachel Robinson earned a degree in nursing from the UCSF School of Nursing in 1945 before marrying Jackie in 1946. A few years after Jackie Robinson's retirement from baseball, Rachel returned to school and earned a masters degree from New York University. In 1965 Rachel became an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Yale University.

Jackie Robinson during his collegiate years at UCLA played football,
ran track, was the leading scorer on the basketball team, and played baseball.

More on Jackie Robinson and Rachel Robinson at:

Baseball pays tribute to pioneer Robinson

How to watch Reds vs. Dodgers FREE on Apple TV+

New York Times on Jackie Robinson

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

Welcome to the Year of the Tiger

 Happy Lunar New Year!

새해 복 많이 받으세요!

虎年快乐

幸せな寅年

In an auspicious kick off to the lunar new year, @Singulart has included Year of the Tiger (Sumatran Tiger — CJ) in their new Year of the Tiger collection.
This oil on linen painting is the first in a series of artworks depicting the characters in the Chinese Zodiac using animals in the Los Angeles Zoo as models and inspiration. The model for Year of the Tiger is the Sumatran Tiger named CJ. Sumatran Tigers are severely endangered in the wild and need our help so they do not become extinct.

I first became aware of the fragile nature of our planet as an elementary school student. For Christmas one year, I asked my parents for the book “Wildlife in Danger” published by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) They are still an important organization providing information, plans, and hope for our endangered earth. Worried about the environment as a kid, I drew pictures of animals constantly. Now, I am creating paintings that shed light on climate change, the beauty of the natural world, and our place with other species.
Year of the Tiger was first exhibited at The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles at Barker Hangar in September 2021 and continues to uphold the spirit of those born under the tiger’s sign as we move into 2022.

Pictured:
Gregg Chadwick
Year of the Tiger (Sumatran Tiger — CJ)
40" x 40 oil on linen 2021

#lunarnewyear #happynewyear2022 #yearofthetiger #Tiger #lazoo #sumatra @singulartofficial @lazoo @18thstreetarts

2022

 

by Gregg Chadwick

Happy Year of the Tiger! Good News and New Art  from Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick Steps of Time 30" x 24" oil on linen 2020 Featured in Seeds of Optimism  "Manifest a happy and bright new year with a joyous artwork  by one of our top artists from around the globe."                    Bethany Fincher - Assistant Curator at Saatchi Art    As 2022 begins, I am honored that Saatchi Art included an artwork  of mine in their Seeds of Optimism collection. In my new  interview with Art Squat Magazine, I discuss my Saffron Road series: "Twenty years ago in Thailand, I woke up at dawn and spent  the morning quietly and carefully observing the saffron robed monks  on their morning pilgrimages. On my return to the U.S. later that week,  I began to paint Buddhist monks, privately at first - as a form of meditation.  Only later did I grasp the dharmic sense of responsibility inherent in this new  body of work. I needed to paint these paintings. And I found that  the audience I had developed over the years felt the need to see them also . They have given me their trust that I will create paintings that  speak of our times but also provide clues to a future path into the unknown." Collection at https://www.saatchiart.com/.../Seeds.../1376557/638724/view

Gregg Chadwick Frida Cano (E Line) 37" x 24" oil on linen 2021 On exhibit in 𝙒𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙚… 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙍𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙇𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨. Union Station, Los Angeles, California   For the Metro project "We Are…Portraits of Metro Riders by Local Artists", I painted a portrait of artist, writer, and curator Frida Cano.  Like a steel river, Metro’s E Line connects arts institutions across Los Angeles County. Running from 7th Street in Downtown L.A. to Santa Monica, the E train begins just down Bunker Hill from LA MOCA and the Broad Museum and passes by numerous art cultural centers from the California African-American Museum, to the art gallery districts in West Adams and Culver City, to the Sawtelle Corridor, to Bergamot Station, to the 18th Street Arts Center, ending a few miles from the Ocean Park neighborhood in Santa Monica that inspired artists from Richard Diebenkorn to John Baldessari.  Frida Cano lives in Echo Park and often travels on the E Line to her art curatorial position in Santa Monica. Frida lives and breathes the concerns of our times. She writes,” As an emerging Mexican artist and curator, focused on the reevaluation of history and culture through Latin American perspectives, it has been my concern to truly communicate the social issues of our times.” Frida rides the train and sees the world reflected in the glass of the E Line as she travels across L.A. Frida believes that art curators, in tandem with artists and critics, can bring circulating and hidden ideas to light. This zeitgeist informed my portrait of Frida Cano, pictured thinking as she waits for the E train.    Frida Cano Meets Frida Cano at  𝙒𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙚… 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙍𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙇𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨. Union Station, Los Angeles, California We Are...Portraits of Metro Riders by Local Artists is on view in the Union Station Passageway Art Gallery and in an expanded online gallery that celebrates diversity and the community of transit riders. We Are... will launch more upcoming programs in 2022 across multiple formats and sites including buses, trains and stations in Los Angeles County. The program will even include a special Metro Art Bus!  This multi-site exhibition and series of events is presented by Metro Art in collaboration with Metro’s Office of Civil Rights, Racial Equity & Inclusion and Communications departments.

Gregg Chadwick Ocean, Otters, Oil 40" x 40 oil on linen 2021 Featured in Plants and Poetry Journal: Wildlife of the Underworld   On walks along California's Central Coast, I often stop and peer into the swirling mix of seaweed and surf looking for the telltale bob of a sea otter as it breaks to the surface. The tap, tap, tap of otters cracking shells across rocks carried on their chests as they float on their backs in the kelp filled water also gives away their location. Sea otters are voracious eaters, clearing coastal seabeds of purple sea urchins that would otherwise decimate the growing kelp forests.   By keeping the purple urchin population down, sea otters remove kelp's major nemesis. Sea urchins feed on the holdfasts that keep kelp anchored to the bottom of the ocean. Sea otters feed on the purple sea urchins that devour kelp forests. When the sea otter population collapsed after centuries of being hunted for their furs, the entire ecosystem of the Monterey Bay shifted.  The bay's giant kelp forests disappeared and along with it most of the sea life that they supported and protected. Matt Simon in Wired's November 4, 2021 article on sea otters explains that, "Keeping the urchin population in check preserves the kelp, which is vital for the ecosystem in two main ways. First, the forest is a habitat for fish, which are the food source for birds and other marine mammals, like sea lions. Second, the seaweed is part of what scientists call a blue carbon ecosystem, meaning a coastal or marine area that sequesters carbon."    To get even closer to sea otters, I love to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and their sea otter information and exhibition space. The Monterey Bay Aquarium describes sea otters as aquatic environmentalists: "By munching on urchins, they help kelp forests flourish, and by crunching on crabs, they promote eelgrass in estuaries. But this marine mammal is endangered — and needs our help." The sea otter population along the Central California Coast has rebounded after being feared extinct early in the 20th Century. But a family of resilient sea otters were found near Bixby Bridge in 1938. Due to strong conservation efforts, California's sea otter population has slowly grown to the current number of around 3,000. A combination of legal protection — in 1977 sea otters became protected under the Endangered Species Act — and the efforts of nongovernmental organizations have prompted the sea otter resurgence. But the sea otter's future is still at great risk. Oil spreading south from a single tanker spill near San Francisco or off the pristine Central Coast would threaten the entire California sea otter population. With the recent oil spill in Southern California off Huntington Beach in October 2021, I was reminded how vulnerable our coastal ecosystem is to oil spills and climate change. Coast Guard officials determined that the spill came from a leak in a pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy that shuttles crude from offshore platforms to the shore. In response to this latest environmental emergency, I created my painting Ocean, Otters, Oil.  Gregg Chadwick Ocean, Otters, Oil (detail) (Oil Platforms Ellen and Elly Offshore near Long Beach, California) 40"x40"oil on linen 2021   As I painted Ocean, Otters, Oil and other artworks in my Fragile Earth series, I have been listening to the environmentally and socially conscious Australian band Midnight Oil. In 1990 Midnight Oil created a guerilla performance in front of Exxon headquarters in New York City with a banner reading, "Midnight Oil Makes You Dance, Exxon Oil Makes Us Sick," as they played in protest of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Midnight Oil has released a new song about our global climate crisis that illuminates the peril in which we find our fragile earth. This new Midnight Oil song Rising Seas has found its way to the top of my studio playlist and inspires me to keep speaking out, to keep creating, to keep caring about the future of our planet. Please visit Plants and Poetry Journal: Wildlife of the Underworld to see my artwork and more inspiring poems, prose, and artworks on our oceans and fragile ecosystem.

New Gregg Chadwick Interview by Laura Siebold in Art Squat (Occupy Art) Magazine   "The Other Art Fair edition at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica couldn’t have been a better place to give contemporary artist Gregg Chadwick a platform to exhibit his oil on linen paintings, especially as he creates his art in an old airplane hangar, as well. Gregg takes inspiration from important cultural and political figures and turns them into paintings, capturing moments and moods of contemporary America. Gregg’s series are very distinct in character – ranging from strong portraits of human beings, animals in the natural world, over medical portraitures to paintings that are inspired by meditation. A common element of Gregg’s paintings is his use of “internal illumination” to hold the viewer’s attention, his layered “Pentimenti” painting technique, and his tendency to create a glimpse of a path into the unknown future, told by his paintings multifaceted stories. Often, the artist draws ideas from poetry, novels, and music, then incorporating those elements into his paintings. Being renowned for his expressive art, Chadwick has exhibited in various galleries and shows across the U.S. and internationally; his paintings are part of many permanent collections. Gregg Chadwick is based in Los Angeles, California." - Laura Siebold in Art Squat (Occupy Art) Magazine Please visit http://www.art-squat.com/articles3/Gregg_Chadwick/index.php to read the entire interview.

Gregg Chadwick Year of the Tiger (Sumatran Tiger - CJ) 40" x 40 oil on linen 2021   In an auspicious kick off to the new year, Singulart has included  Year of the Tiger (Sumatran Tiger - CJ)  in their new Year of the Tiger collection.  This oil on linen painting is the first in a series of artworks depicting the characters in the Chinese Zodiac using animals in the Los Angeles Zoo as models and inspiration. The model for Year of the Tiger is the Sumatran Tiger named CJ. Sumatran Tigers are severely endangered in the wild and need our help so they do not become extinct. I first became aware of the fragile nature of our planet as an elementary school student. For Christmas one year, I asked my parents for the book “Wildlife in Danger” published by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) They are still an important organization providing information, plans, and hope for our endangered earth. Worried about the environment as a kid, I drew pictures of animals constantly. Now, I am creating paintings that shed light on climate change, the beauty of the natural world, and our place with other species. Year of the Tiger was  first exhibited at The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles at Barker Hangar in September 2021 and continues to uphold the spirit of those born under the tiger's sign as we move into 2022. Gregg Chadwick The Great Sunset (Carmel) 24" x 30 oil on linen 2020 Over the years, I have gravitated to the beach as a place of peace and healing. My parents moved to the Carmel area when I was a student at UCLA so the Central Coast of California will always be a site of family gatherings and homecomings. Going for a run along the beach as the sun goes down fuels me. We are still not traveling much outside of Santa Monica, due to the coronavirus, so I decided to venture out through my paintings. The golden light of late afternoon as it blends with the pink of a Carmel Point sunset appeared through the veil of memory on my canvas. A quiet, poetic moment inspired by my family home and the poetry of Carmel's late, great poet Robinson Jeffers. I wish you peace and prosperity in this new year!    - Gregg Chadwick, January 2022 A visitor viewing work by Gregg Chadwick in the Recovery Justice: Being Well exhibition at 18th Street Arts, Santa Monica, California.  Photo by Geoff Palomino.

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