Speed of Life

  "I have always tended to take art contextually. If I have any merits as a critic, they have to do with my ability as a storyteller — and above all I wanted to tell a story." Robert Hughes in Salon , May 23, 1997 Robert Hughes in New York City - 1970's In a  1997 piece  on "60 Minutes," correspondent Steve Kroft said to Robert Hughes that he was the most powerful art critic in the world. Hughes deftly avoided the moniker and described his job as being akin to being the most important beekeeper in the world and that his influence said more about Time magazine than it did about the importance of his writing. But Robert Hughes writing is important. For many of us it was the first real taste of the transcendence and power of great art.  Since I discovered the art criticism of Robert Hughes in Time magazine when I was a teenager, I have eagerly awaited each of his new works. Robert's articles, books, and documentaries helped open the worlds of art...

Last month two brave Swedes wearing teddybear masks took off in a small plane from Lithuania and flew unannounced into the airspace of Belarus armed only with a sense of humor and parachute equipped teddybears. The plush arrivals carried leaflets proclaiming "We support the Belarusian struggle for freedom of speech." As noted on their website: "A dictator can be hated, despised or feared. The only thing he cannot survive is being laughed at." The oppressive leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, now knows what it is like to be laughed at. And the people of Belarus now know that the world has seen their plight. More at: Studio Total Minsk Teddybear Drop

A Powerful New Video From President Obama's Campaign You work hard, stretch every penny, but chances are you pay a higher tax rate than him: Mitt Romney made $20 million dollars in 2010, but paid only 14% in taxes—probably less than you.  Now he has a plan that will give millionaires another tax break and raises taxes on middle class families by up to $2000 dollars a year. Mitt Romney's middle class tax increase: he pays less, you pay more. More From Nate Silver: Obama Extends Electoral College Advantage And A Must Read In The New York Times From UCLA Professor Jared Diamond on Mitt Romney's Misappropriation of Diamond's Important Book - Guns Germs & Steel : " Mitt Romney may become our next president. Will he continue to espouse one-factor explanations for multicausal problems, and fail to understand history and the modern world? If so, he will preside over a declining nation squandering its advantages of location and history." - Jared Diamo...

Video: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform Drive All Night in Gothenburg, Sweden on July 28, 2012. Tonight, July 31, 2012, in Helsinki, Finland,  the indefatigable Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band just finished one of their  most powerful European music tours with the longest show of their career. The show in Helsinki began with an impromptu pre-show set of songs with just Bruce and an acoustic guitar. Video: Bruce Springsteen - No Surrender - acoustic solo - Helsinki July 31, 2012 Video: Bruce Springsteen, Helsinki 31.7.2012 - Back In Your Arms The show ended not long ago with a run time of just over four hours. Video: I Don't Want to Go Home - Bruce Springsteen in Helsinki July 31, 2012 This summer, Springsteen and the E Street Band were true American cultural ambassadors as they roamed across Europe armed with searing music and goodwill. The presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, could learn a ...

E N T E R " Echoing layered fragments from the past," Gregg Chadwick's paintings resemble a "fragile palimpsest," offering "under images that bring forth mysterious fragments" from his subconscious. Please Click Enter & Wander Through An Evocative Feature on the Art of Gregg Chadwick Curated by Stuart Vail and Joanne Warfield " We need to embrace the beauty of Art to grace our lives and hope that the fruit of the Muses will prevail. I maintain that our salvation may lie in the hands of those who embrace beauty, those in whose works celebrate the majesty and purity of life itself." — Stuart Vail, Editor

Gregg Chadwick La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life) 48"x36" oil on linen 2012 Inspired by the poem La Vita Trasparente by Luigi Fontanella: LA VITA TRASPARENTE Luigi Fontanella Apre la città le sue strade, corrono biciclette senza persone, alla finestra s'affaccia e sparisce un volto di donna, le vetrine offrono sessi per ogni stagione, giro di vite: balla una coppia agile e magra nella piazza deserta, la corsa degli uomini, agita chiome il bosco in controluce, passi su foglie e solchi di fango duro, viale d'autunno carrozza regale pioggia di rugiada e di carta: la vita trasparente. The Transparent Life by Luigi Fontanella (translation by W.S. di Piero) the city opens its streets, bicycles go by riderless, a woman's face in a window appears then vanishes, shop windows offer fetishes for every season, lives turning, a slender agile couple dances in the deserted piazza, the race men run, the hairy woods shivering...

Gregg Chadwick Barcarole 14"x14" oil on linen 2012

Gregg Chadwick Mulholland Drive 30"x40" oil on linen 2012

Gregg Chadwick Il Poeta di Milano (The Poet of Milan) 24"x18" oil on linen 2012

Gregg Chadwick La Notte 14"x11" oil on linen 2012 La Notte,  my latest painting, was begun shortly after I returned from my latest excursion to Venice, Italy.  Venice, poised between sea and land, is a place where light, shade, color, and reflection merge and recombine in the city's watery environment. In this mirrored world, past and present seem to coexist. History’s shadows slide in and out of darkened alleys and slip along narrow canals. The color and light found in the artworks of the Venetian painters Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo, seen up close in the city of their creation, is always revelatory. These artist's artworks glow like light upon water. This effect of reflected, sparkling light bouncing off canals, is called gibigiane in Venetian dialect. The liquid nature of transparent oils glowing from within, as if light lived within the pigment, seems to fix this quixotic glow onto canvas.

I am honored to announce that my artwork is now represented in San Francisco and the Bay Area by the  Sandra Lee Gallery 251 Post Street, Suite 310 San Francisco, CA 94108 tel: 415.291.8000 art@sandraleegallery.com Four of my latest paintings are hanging in the gallery, including my most recent artwork - West Village Reader (see below). Please stop in to view the art and say hello to Sandra Lee. Gregg Chadwick West Village Reader 14"x11" oil on linen 2012

My paintings are featured in the latest edition of the wonderful literary magazine -Umbrella Factory. My painting Red in Rain graces the cover and more works are inside. Please check out the issue. It is stunning! View Umbrella Factory at - UmbrellaFactoryMagazine.com @ greggchadwick And we love you! Thanks for making our issue look so darned good. — Umbrella Factory (@ufmagazine) June 21, 2012 I pity the fools who have not checked-out the art by @ greggchadwick in our new issue. — Umbrella Factory (@ufmagazine) June 19, 2012

Bruce Springsteen dedica 'The River' a #vaportiNacho Emocionó a las 60.000 personas que abarrotaron el Santiago Bernabéu Song by Song Reviews of Wrecking Ball on Speed of Life: 1.  We Take Care of Our Own 2.  Easy Money 3.  Shackled and Drawn 4.  Jack of All Trades 5.  Death to My Hometown 6.  This Depression 7.  Wrecking Ball 8.  You've Got It 9.  Rocky Ground 10.  Land of Hope and Dreams 11.  We Are Alive

Bruce Springsteen just released a new modern remix of his powerful song "Rocky Ground"

Gregg Chadwick Portrait of Yareli Arizmendi 40"x30" oil on linen 2012 I recently completed a portrait of the immensely talented actress Yareli Arizmendi. “The function of art is to renew our perceptions. The role of the artist is not to say or show what we can all speak or see, but that which we are unable to reveal” –Anais Nin Born in Mexico, raised in the United States, Yareli Arizmendi coined a word, AmeXican to describe herself: "It is a declaration of identity for the 21st century; my own account on how I prepared to wage battle in a world spilling over its human-made borders," explains Yareli.

For Background Please Read: Active-Duty Soldiers Take Their Own Lives at Record Rate U.S. Troop Suicides Surging

Ray Bradbury Santa Monica, California 2009 Photo by Gregg Chadwick The author Ray Bradbury died yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 91.  Gerald Jonas in t he New York Times describes Bradbury as " a master of science fiction whose lyrical evocations of the future reflected both the optimism and the anxieties of his own postwar America." After atomic weapons obliterated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fears that science had become more of a threat than a boon found their way into science fiction films and stories that depicted a dystopian future. Bradbury used the magic of stories to create literary works that used this threat as a source of tension in works that often left an impression of hope rather than horror. For the book loving Bradbury, his novel  Fahrenheit 451  - whose title refers to the temperature at which paper ignites - seems to be the most harrowing of his works. A future America that would burn books and thus control the river of ideas...

Light On the Wisconsin State Capitol Building photo by Gregg Chadwick Yesterday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, President Bill Clinton brought his gravitas to the bitter struggle for control of the state's soul. Clinton noted that current Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wants to divide and conquer the state for the benefit of the few while Tom Barrett, the Democratic candidate in June 5th's special election, "wants to work together to solve problems" in a spirit of cooperation not conflict. Clinton continued by saying that everywhere he travels - both nationally and globally - “creative cooperation” between political sides brings prosperity. Walker and his cronies do not want to work across the aisle. Clinton said,"You need a budget from the next governor that deals with whatever the realities are but where there is shared responsibility and shared sacrifice, not winner take all. If you believe in a state budget that preserves investments in education and jobs an...