Speed of Life

Leonard Cohen lifts his hat in appreciation of all of you who ventured to my studio this year and to those who engaged with my artwork online!   Deepest thanks to my collectors, supporters, and friends who helped make 2023 memorable. Thanks to my fellow  @18thstreetarts  artists who worked tirelessly to make this happen - especially  @rebecca.youssef_studio  and  @alexandradillonartist !!!!  And deep thanks to the folks at  @18thstreetarts  who support us day in and day out. And thanks to the city of Santa Monica for your financial support for our events. Leonard has found a new home and I am more inspired than ever to create.  On to 2024! Happy New Year!  #art   #contemporaryart   #santamonica   #santamonicarts   #LosAngeles   #music

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 t...

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...

 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 th...

  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 Yea...

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 ...

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

  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...

  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 cr...