Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Summer Ambassadors: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band






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 thing or two about international relations from Bruce and the band.



Video: Jake Clemons' Sax solo from Jungleland live on July 28, 2012 in Gothenburg, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band



Video: Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven performing We Shall Overcome in Oslo, Norway, in memory of the 77 Norwegians murdered on the 22nd of July 2011.

"Steve and I are honored to be included here tonight, and for all of us who love democracy and tolerance, it was an international tragedy," Bruce told the assembled crowd in Oslo. "I want to send this out as prayer for a peaceful future for Norway, and dedicate it to the families who have lost their loved ones."
-Bruce Springsteen


Song by Song Reviews of Wrecking Ball on Speed of Life:

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The Art of Gregg Chadwick Featured in The Scream - Journal of the Arts





" 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

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life)

La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life)

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
against the grain of light,
footsteps on leaves
a furrow of stiff mud,
avenue of autumn
royal coach
rain of dew
and paper -
the transparent life.

More at:
Luigi Fontanella

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Venetian Night

La Notte
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.



Monday, July 09, 2012

Now Represented by the Sandra Lee Gallery!

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.




West Village Reader

Gregg Chadwick
West Village Reader
14"x11" oil on linen 2012

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Umbrella Factory Literary Magazine


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




Must See Video of Springsteen and the E Street Band Live in Madrid




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:


Sunday, June 17, 2012

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Yareli Arizmendi: The Face of Cuba, Mexico, and Los Angeles

Portrait of Yareli Arizmendi
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.






Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Writer of Magic: Ray Bradbury Dies at 91


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 the 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 and imagination was a horror to be avoided at all costs. François Truffaut turned the book into a critically acclaimed film in 1966 which featured a moving film score by the composer Bernard Herrmann. When Herrmann asked Truffaut why he was chosen over more modernist composers to create music for the film, Truffaut replied,"They'll give me music of the twentieth century, but you'll give me music of the twenty first." Ray Bradbury gave us stories of the 21st century and beyond that will continue to inspire. 


Ray Bradbury
Santa Monica, California 2009
Photo by Gregg Chadwick


More at:

Saturday, June 02, 2012

People Have the Power - Forward in Wisconsin on June 5, 2012

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 and you want somebody that has actually created jobs…the only way it works, show up and vote for Tom Barrett."

Tom Barrett writes,"Scott Walker came into the governor's office promising to create 250,000 jobs, and to bring us together.  Instead, he divided our state like never before and presided over a Wisconsin economy that last year lost more jobs than any state in the country.

He 'dropped the bomb,' as he said, and ended 50 years of labor peace and worker protections -- something he never said he'd do during the 2010 campaign.  I know, because I was there.  As governor, I will fight to restore collective bargaining rights, because it's the right thing to do, and it's necessary to heal Wisconsin.

And Gov. Walker gutted education, cut women's health, and diverted millions of dollars intended for Wisconsin victims of Wall Street foreclosure fraud to patch a hole in his budget.

In response to this unanticipated assault on Wisconsin values, the people united and fought back.  Hundreds of thousands made their voices heard at the Capitol.  The protests turned into a movement last summer, and two GOP state senators who rubberstamped Walker's agenda were recalled.

And nearly 1 million people from all across Wisconsin signed their name to trigger a recall election of Gov. Walker, hold him accountable, and restore our Wisconsin values.

We need to bring our state back.  Wisconsin needs a governor who is focused on jobs, not ideology; a leader committed to bringing our state together and healing political wounds, not pitting people against each other and catering to the special interests.

This is the governor I will be for the people of Wisconsin."

Also yesterday, a group of musicians including Jackson Browne, Tom Morello, and Tim Mcllrath inspired a crowd of thousands at a Get Out the Vote event in Madison, Wisconsin. Jackson Browne's moving renditions of Little Steven's "I Am a Patriot" and Florence Reece's "Which Side Are You On" rallied the people of Wisconsin.


Tom Morello, Jackson Browne, Tim McIIrath, Brother Ali singing Patti Smith's "People Have the Power in Madison, Wisconsin on June 1, 2012 for a "Get Out The Vote" rally.



Jackson Browne Sings Florence Reece's Classic 1931 "Which Side Are You On" in Madison, Wisconsin on June 1, 2012 as part of the "Get Out The Vote" rally.


Jackson Browne Sings Little Steven's "I am a Patriot" in Madison, Wisconsin on June 1, 2012 as part of the "Get Out The Vote" rally.



Tim McIlrath performs Neil Young's OHIO in Madison, Wisconsin on June 1, 2012 as part of the "Get Out The Vote" rally.


Tom Morello breaks the news about Scott Walker becoming an official target of the John Doe investigation to the delight of thousands of Tom Barrett for Governor supporters.

Action by the Overpass Light Brigade


Forward! - Wisconsin State Flag Over the Wisconsin State Capitol Building
photo by Gregg Chadwick


Wisconsin State Senate Candidate Lori Compas writes,"Since November, Scott Fitzgerald has continually underestimated this movement. He said we couldn't collect the signatures, but WE proved him wrong. He said that people from outside the district are running this campaign, but from Lomira to Fort Atkinson, WE have proven him wrong.  Now he claims that he has the support of the people in the 13th, and over the next 4 days WE have a chance to prove him wrong yet again.

Thank you to those who have already signed up to help in this important movement! For those who have not, please sign up for a shift to help get out the vote. We still cannot compete with his large out-of-state donors, but our ground came will take us from striking distance to victorious.

We have knocked on tens of thousands of doors and we have identified thousands of supporters. Now is the time to make sure they vote.

This race will be extremely close and any amount of time you have to give could mean the difference between Senator Scott Fitzgerald and FORMER Senator Scott Fitzgerald.

Thank you again for all of your support and thank you in advance for your help over the next 4 days."

Sign up to GOTV here!

On Wisconsin!




To my Wisconsin Friends and Family: On June 5th Please Vote for Tom Barrett for Governor and Lori Compas for State Senate!


Why I am running for Governor

We need to bring our state back. Wisconsin needs a governor who is focused on jobs, not ideology; a leader committed to bringing our state together and healing political wounds, not pitting people against each other and catering to the special interests. This is the governor I will be for the people of Wisconsin.
Read More »


  • To the Wisconsinites who watched tonight's debate in Japan: Domo Arigato #widebate 1 day ago
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