Wednesday, November 17, 2004
thinking about art
City of Desires
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...
Monday, November 15, 2004
reading li po
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
Friday, November 12, 2004
in the studio
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
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Veterans' Day
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 like it does on the news. It hardly feels like a war, though. Compared to the wars of the past, this is nothing. We're not standing on line in the open - facing German machine guns like the Marines at Belleau Wood or trying to wade ashore in chest-deep water at Tarawa. We're not facing hordes of screaming men at the frozen Chosun Reservoir in Korea or the clever ambushes of Vietcong. We deal with potshots and I.E.D.'s. With modern medicine my chances of dying are slim to none and my chances of going home unscathed are better than half. Fewer than 10 men in my company have fired their weapons in the 10 days we've been here.
March 24
While not always pleasant, I know this experience is good for me. It makes me appreciate every little blessing God gives me, especially the family, friends and home I left behind in Moose Lake.
More letters are found in the nov.11, 2004 op/ed page in the New York Times
thank you moises, ralph, dad
and all the men and women who have served
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
as the new work began to breathe
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.
Monday, November 08, 2004
the face of dawn
-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.
Sunday, November 07, 2004
existential detectives
- 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 University. Jason Schwartzman's character can be seen as a fictionalized portrait of the director. In the film the existential mentor helps his client grapple with the concept that everything is in everything else. This idea of interbeing seems so far from our contemporary American culture of strip malls, suburban sprawl and traffic jams that it is comic. And the film is funny. Richly, smartly, philosophically funny. I ♥ Huckabees is a romp- a sort of philosophical, spiritual road movie. But in this film the road is not an exterior ribbon connecting two disparate realities. Instead the road in I ♥ Huckabees is the interior path of interconnectedness.
See:
Thursday, November 04, 2004
first thoughts after the election...
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.
A Painters Light and the Enlightenment
"America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then modernity. They addressed "a candid world," as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, out of "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any more, because a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush's supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11.
The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies."
-Garry Wills, adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University
Garry wills' op-ed piece in the New York Times hits hard on the anti-intellectualism and anti-historicism that lies at the heart of the christian fundamentalists backing bush. Wills observes that enemies come to resemble each other and in their misguided bloodlust and immoral war in Iraq contemporary fundamentalist christians have created their own jihad.
This is not about mere politics but instead a clash of rational minds against the forces of ignorance and superstition.
As Americans. as artists, as philosophers, scientists, doctors, writers, musicians, poets, actors, historians, free-thinkers and members of the world community now is not the time to acquiesce but instead the time to remember and declare our American roots in the enlightenment.
As a painter i believe in light- not just light that bathes us in a warm glow of beauty but light that also reveals and creates a path to understanding.
Do not let them take the light from us.
Stand strong.
Gregg
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
today in america
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
vote- in your own backyard, in your own hometown
"I don't think it has made America safer . . . How many of our best young people are going to die? Sitting on the sidelines would be a betrayal of the ideas I'd written about for a long time....There is a long tradition of the artist being involved in the life of the nation. For me, it goes back to Woody Guthrie, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield and Bob Dylan . . . The artist is there to open up discourse, to get people thinking about American identity: Who are we? What do we fight for? What do we stand for? I view these things as a fundamental part of [the artist's] job."
-Bruce Springsteen
Saturday, October 30, 2004
vermeer in bosnia
Freedom of Expression
as part of their 30th anniversary celebration on october 30,california lawyers for the arts presents a curated digital slide and video presentation of visual art addressing the concept of freedom of expression. this includes the broadest possible range of viewpoints on the topic.
the slide presentation will be shown during the creative freedom party reception at the cowell theater, fort mason, san francisco 6:30-9pm
arlington as well as a few other pieces of mine will be included. the paintings should spark some dialogue.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Kenro Izu: Sacred Places
photo by kenro izu
Kenro Izu's pallidium prints are taken with a massive camera that seems to wrestle the sacred onto film. a selection of Kenro's work and his gargantuan camera were recently on view at the Rubin Museum in New York. In an interview conducted on July 31, 2001, with Peabody Essex Museum director of photographic services, Marc Teatum, Kenro Izu described his artistic process," I try to use my basic instincts, like an animal sensing danger. I want to be as pure, as empty as possible and just try to document the spirituality of the place. If I can’t, then I don’t want to make another picture postcard that someone else has already taken under perfect conditions."
Kenro Izu is actively creating important contemporary sacred art that defies boundaries and borders. His image (seen above) of a Buddha in a tree at Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya, Thailand is both mysterious and inviting. There is a profound silence in this image and an uncanny presence of breath.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
The Art of Tibet
Rubin Museum of Art
set in chelsea - the museum provides a needed place of beauty and contemplation.
described as the first museum in the world dedicated solely to the art of the himalayas- the rubin museum fills a gap in our understanding of the art and faith of this region.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Birthday in Bar Harbor
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Opening at Santa Monica Art Studios, Santa Monica Airport
thank you to all who braved the huge crowd at saturday's grand opening. i was touched by the enthusiasm for and interest in my work. if you have questions about a particular painting or monotype please e-mail me or leave a comment on this entry.
if you would like to view the work again in a calmer fashion please stop by on thursday, october 14th. i will be in the studio from 12pm to 6pm and of course the los angeles art fair will be opening that evening across the street in the barker hangar. if those times do not work please feel free to set up an appointment .
i hope you had a chance to view the other artist's work at the santa monica art studios facility. i just call it the hangar. it really brings back my childhood to paint with the roar of jet engines reverberating from the nearby runway. that roar sounds like possibility to me- as artists, musicians, writers, viewers and thinkers we have the ability and the call to create in a culture of destruction. thanks again for supporting my efforts.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
what i'm listening to
gregg
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Studio View Of Fire Sermon
When: 6-9 pm on saturday, october 9th and 2-5 pm on sunday, october 10th
Where: studio #15 @ the hangar studios
santa monica airport
3026 airport avenue, santa monica, ca 90405
View some of the work at:
https://www.greggchadwick.com/Gregg_Chadwick/Paintings__2000-2010.html
Hope to see you there
make sure you come up and say "hi"
take care-
Gregg
i recently sent the following description of "une passante" off to an early discoverer of the work-
czeslaw milosz' poetry has been a deep inspiration for me. his ability to search for meaning or metaphysics even after the horrors in Poland during the 20th century has always been a source of strength for me artistically and spiritually.
when i found out about his recent death i wanted to paint an image pulled from life like a sort of painted poem- a moment that if one is not truly aware will go unseen
title: une passante (in french a female passerby)
this poem by milosz feels to me like the painting:
AN HONEST DESCRIPTION OF
MYSELF WITH A GLASS OF WHISKEY
AT AN AIRPORT, LET US SAY,
IN MINNEAPOLIS
- Czeslaw Milosz
My ears catch less and less of conversations, and my eyes have weakened, though they are still insatiable.
I see their legs in miniskirts, slacks, wavy fabrics.
Peep at each one separately, at their buttocks and thighs, lulled by the imaginings of porn.
Old lecher, it's time for you to the grave, not to the games and amusements of youth.
But I do what I have always done: compose scenes of this earth under orders from the erotic imagination.
It's not that I desire these creatures precisely; I desire everything, and they are like a sign of ecstatic union.
It's not my fault that we are made so, half from disinterested contemplation, half from appetite.
If I should accede one day to Heaven, it must be there as it is here, except that I will be rid of my dull senses and my heavy bones.
Changed into pure seeing, I will absorb, as before, the proportions of human bodies, the color of irises, a Paris street in June at dawn, all of it incomprehensible, incomprehensible the multitude of visible things.