Speed of Life

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans: We are fifteen years into this new century. Fifteen years that dawned with terror touching our shores; that unfolded with a new generation fighting two long and costly wars; that saw a vicious recession spread across our nation and the world. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many. But tonight, we turn the page. Tonight, after a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999. Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the financial crisis. More of our kids are graduating than ever before; more of our people are insured than ever before; we are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we’ve been in almost 30 years. Tonight, for the first time since 9/11, our combat mission in Afghanistan is over. Six years ago, nearly 180,000 American troops served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, fewer than 15,000 remain. And we salute the courage...

Happy New Year! My artwork will be featured in the big LA Art Show this week at the LA Convention Center. Please pass on the words to friends and family in So Cal.   My work will be in the Sandra Lee Gallery - Booth 640.  The website for the LA Art Show with info on tickets, hours, and parking is below:  http://www.laartshow.com Floorplan at: http://www.laartshow.com/pdf/LA2015_FloorPlan.pdf For a selection of my new paintings please visit my LA Art Show 2015 page on Flickr:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/greggchadwick/sets/72157650251453821/ All the Best Gregg Gregg Chadwick Third L.A. ( for Christopher Hawthorne) 30”x24” oil on linen 2015 Gregg Chadwick Pigalle 48”x36” oil on linen 2015 Gregg Chadwick Speed of Sound 24”x36” oil on linen 2015

WEEKEND OF DECEMBER 12-14, 2014 Gregg Chadwick The Painter ( il  miglior fabbro) 24"x30" oil on linen 2013 What role does creativity play in our lives? Is it an inner imperative that helps us forge the well-lived life? This workshop at Esalen, situated along California's rugged Big Sur coastline, engages with the notion that creativity is a “battle with the gods” in light of its Latin origins in the word  creare , the natural urge “to grow or make order of chaos." Our point of departure is that creativity is an archetypal journey with recognizable stages, which are especially helpful when we are stuck or lost in our work. For the last thirty years, Phil Cousineau has used his three-stage model — Inspiration, Perspiration, and Realization — as a guide to help writers, artists, and filmmakers to deepen and complete their work. The artist Gregg Chadwick uses his own artwork and anecdotes from his lifelong study of painters to provide an inside look at...

Thanksgiving Message from Thich Nhat Hanh Thich Nhat Hanh at UCLA photo by Gregg Chadwick   A worthy repost from four years ago: “We like the idea of being thankful to the cosmos, to everything that offers itself to us as food. That is why in Plum Village we organize a Thanksgiving Day, and we address our thanks to four objects:  first of all to our father and our mother, who gave us life; to our teacher who gave us spiritual life and helped us know how to live in the here and now; we thank our friends who support us, especially in difficult moments, and we thank every being in the animal, vegetable and mineral world for our support and maintenance. So the Buddhists also celebrate Thanksgiving, with that kind of insight. And while we celebrate Thanksgiving, we relate to everyone who is there, and this is a very good practice so that we don’t cut ourselves off from reality. The feeling of gratitude can help us to remember and to cultivate the element of compassio...

Gregg Chadwick, KC Cole, and Amy Parish on the radio promoting the reboot of Categorically Not I had the wonderful opportunity last Friday to be on the radio with the esteemed Bonobo expert Amy Parish , and the marvelous science writer KC Cole  as we discussed Compassion and what it means in art, biology and physics.  The three of us will be giving presentations at the reboot of Categorically Not  at the Santa Monica Art Studios on December 7th 2014 at 6 pm.  Should be a fantastic evening. RSVP and other information below. Feel free to share with friends. Compassion What could be more important these days than understanding compassion : How it works and when it fails, how to persuade people that being tuned to the needs of others is actually in everyone’s personal self-interest? Despite the reputation compassion has for seeming “softhearted,” its benefits are based on well-studied mathematics and neuroscience, as well as evolutionary biology. Soc...

"Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger -- we were strangers once, too. My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too." -- President Obama, November 20, 2014 Remarks of President Barack Obama Address to the Nation on Immigration The White House November 20, 2014 As Prepared for Delivery – My fellow Americans, tonight, I’d like to talk with you about immigration. For more than 200 years, our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations. It’s kept us youthful, dynamic, and entrepreneurial. It has shaped our character as a people with limitless possibilities – people not trapped by our past, but able to remake ourselves as we choose. But today, our immigration system is broken, and everybody knows it. Families who enter our country the right way and play by the rules watch others flout the...

by Gregg Chadwick Bruce Springsteen's performance last night at The Concert for Valor was passionate, a bit gritty, and dialed in to the characters in his songs. T he words of Promised Land , Born In the USA , and surprisingly for me Dancing In the Dark cut like a knife through the hushed crowd. Springsteen seemed to embody the underlying pain of the returning warrior and the scourge of PTSD.  Springsteen stood bare on the stage with just a guitar for a compelling reason. Like a soldier returning from war and moving on without a platoon and moving on without a weapon always at hand, Springsteen courageously stood alone. T hrough his lyrics, Springsteen gave truth to the fears that many carry home from war. Yes, you are alone now. Yes, your uniform is packed away and your weapons stowed. But, there is hope. I watched friends and family come home from Vietnam as changed men. I watched many stay in the military for years and then watched them put on their uniforms for the last ti...