Friday, April 10, 2020

Mama Virtual


MAMA VIRTUAL from Jeny Amaya on Vimeo.

MAMA VIRTUAL, directed by 18th Street Arts Center's communications associate Jeny Amaya, materializes the virtual sphere that transnational mothers construct in order to maintain contact with their children and families back in their home countries. Separated from their children, these Central American mothers externalize this virtual realm through their performance of the “mother’s touch” through the touchscreen of a phone, digital images, phone cards, and other mediated technologies.

 Watch the other film part of this series here.

Thursday, April 09, 2020

21st Century Pauper Fields

Patrick Stewart Reads Shakespeare's Sonnet #18





Sonnet 18. Perhaps the most well-known sonnet in the book. Speaking of the book, a little backstory on that too. #ASonnetADay

Because His Music Lives - John Prine: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert





From Ann Powers' remembrance of John Prine, who died yesterday at the age of 73: “He hadn’t been well, off and on, for many years, but he also seemed oddly indestructible. Everyone’s love and need for his presence wove protection around him. But we are living in a time when no concept of protection seems adequate. Acknowledging that, I turned to Prine’s music. This is how we honor our losses as music fans: by holding close the recordings that keep a voice resonant past mortality.” Click here to read the full remembrance: https://n.pr/34ixO20

Bruce Springsteen Assures Listeners "Better Times Are Coming"

Wednesday, April 08, 2020

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Dona Nobis Pacem





Yo-Yo Ma Plays Dona Nobis Pacem (“grant us peace”) #songsofcomfort




Linda Goes to Mars - John Prine and Bill Murray



Tuesday, April 07, 2020

Listen Now to Michael McDermott's New Song "What In the World"

Stop what you are doing right now! And turn on this fire breathing new single from my visionary friend Michael McDermott.  Michael writes: “Watching the norms of this country be deconstructed and the behavior of he who will not be named, I often just found myself saying aloud ‘What in the world?’ I was in a cab on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago shooting a video for my last record when the chorus of this came to me.  The next day, I immediately went to see if those rapid-fire lyrics would fit and lo and behold I had myself that downtrodden anthem I’d always dreamed of.”



Now listen to Bob Cesca's podcast with Michael McDermott:
Bob writes - "My guest ... is singer songwriter, Michael McDermott. The new album, What In The World, drops on June 5. In addition to chatting with Michael about his life and music, he performed three of his songs, live here on the show, and at least one will make you cry -- in a good way. We also talked about everything from drugs to Trump to Stephen King, and a lot more. I’m a total fanboy, so this was a rare privilege for me. You should be downloading his albums everywhere you get your digital music, and I assure you, you will absolutely fall in love with his work, as I have. Find him on Facebook and at Michael-McDermott.com. "


Thank You Healthcare Workers!



Extubation Dance at UCLA!



Inspiring post from UCLA physician
Yes, patients do recover from . And yes, my team does do an dance every time we liberate someone from a . @uclaimchiefs @UCLAHealth @atscommunity @GiladJaffe @HungryDes @NoCoughEng

Monday, April 06, 2020

Thoughts on Michelangelo in Our Time of Crisis



by Gregg Chadwick

Frequent readers know that I enjoy the wit and erudition of Tyler Green. His Modern Art Notes Podcast is always worth a listen. The latest episode, embedded above, features art historian William E. Wallace and curator Julian Brooks.


Wallace discusses his latest book - “Michelangelo, God’s Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece.” Wallace's new book is available on Bookshop
 Tyler writes :"The book offers a rich and lively biographical examination of the last two decades of Michelangelo’s life, a period when he became the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other buildings, even as he continued to sculpt and draw." 

Michelangelo
The Florentine Pietà
 1547-55

Wallace's discussion of Michelangelo's late Pietàs is exceptionally interesting. These are two of my favorite sculptural works by Michelangelo because of their incomplete nature. 



Michelangelo 
Two Views of the Rondanini Pietà 

1564
Castello Sforzesco, Milano

photos by Gregg Chadwick
I have spent hours in the company of Michelangelo's two late pietàs in Florence and Milan. 
There is an intently spiritual nature to these sculptures. The marble seems to flicker like candlelight. Form seems to melt with time. My painting La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life) was inspired by my visits to the Castello Sforzesco which houses Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà. Watching a couple stroll through the garden along the castle wall reminded me of the hope that new love brings. Life flickers with light and hope in these moments. Now, as the Covid-19 crisis rages through Northern Italy and the world, I am brought back to the time that I painted La Vita Trasparente. I think of my friends in Milan, Verona, and Trento. Many are health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Today, it seems that the curve may be breaking in Italy. I hope this is a positive shift. I send my thoughts to all of you caught up in this struggle. Take care my friends. 


Gregg Chadwick
La Vita Trasparente (The Transparent Life) 
48"x38" oil on linen 2014
Private Collection, New York


In the second half of this podcast Tyler Green chats with Julian Brooks who co-curated with Emily J. Peters, the exhibition “Michelangelo: Mind of the Master” at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Brooks explains to us how Michelangelo used his drawings. Brooks discusses Michelangelo's studies for his unfinished and now lost Battle of Cascina, with detail and excitement. I wrote about Michelangelo's drawings after viewing the monumental 2017 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. My thoughts then


These drawings are sumptuously beautiful, and set the stage for the rest of Michelangelo's artistic life. Michelangelo's touch is all over these works. The use of chalk in many of the drawings, rather than pen and ink, opens up a sensuous physicality that feels more like flesh than stone.
A map of desire seems to be drawn across the back of many of Michelangelo's figures. In the gallery I think of the poetry and art to come - Cavafy, Isherwood, Bachardy, Bacon, and Hockney.


Sadly, the Getty is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is scheduled to be at the Getty through June 7. The catalog is available on Bookshop






The Artist's Sketchbook: A Personal View by Charles Ritchie



Inspiring lecture by Charles Ritchie - artist, and former associate curator, department of modern prints and drawings,  at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

The National Gallery writes: "In this lecture held on October 27, 2019, in conjunction with the month-long Sketching is Seeing program at the National Gallery of Art, Charles Ritchie presents varied approaches to collecting ideas. For example, do artists fill a sketchbook from front to back or do they open it to an empty space and begin working? Does writing accompany the drawings and how might it relate to the images? Are the drawings and/or writings employed for developing skill, or are they compost for the creation of other works, or does the book document completed works? Using his experience as a keeper of a sketchbook/journal, Ritchie explores the creative practices of some of his favorite artists including Isabel Bishop, Paul Cézanne, Eugène Delacroix, Alberto Giacometti, and Edward Hopper, among others, and he touches on formative manuscripts by Emily Dickinson, Jack Kerouac, and Wallace Stevens. The presentation concludes with a meditation on some of the forces at the core of drawing and writing: the desire to remember, the spirit of play and improvisation, and the essential ingredient―curiosity."


Sunday, April 05, 2020

Max Richter: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert





Wow!

Nina Simone "Suzanne" (1969)





In 2018, I was in Montreal following the trail of Leonard Cohen. Two years later in the midst of our global pandemic, Nina Simone's version of Cohen's "Suzanne" strikes me deep in my soul.

#RIP Bill Withers

Words of Hope



Saturday, April 04, 2020

Take a virtual tour of the brilliant Raffaello exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome



Take a virtual tour of the brilliant Raffaello exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome

The Soul of Our Nation

Friday, March 27, 2020

Tune in: A Frontlines Round Table With Vice President Biden | Joe Biden ...

Patrick Stewart Sonnet Time

New Online Source for Help During the Coronavirus Epidemic: #WhileAtHome

"#WhileAtHome is the portal to meet your many needs during the COVID-19 virus. Find hotlines. Check for medical help. Give to people in need. Take the census. Help with a job or benefits. Tips for parents. More added everyday. This is built for us by volunteers. In a time like this, access to high-quality information will be a game-changer."

Andy Slavitt
Founder, United States of Care; Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Access #WhileAtHome Portal Here - https://whileathome.org/



Thursday, March 26, 2020

Nurses Need Our Help





The best way to thank our nurses and health care workers is to listen to them. Here’s one ICU nurse‘s plea to her fellow New Yorkers. #NewYorkTough

Gregg Chadwick
The Team (Nurse Anesthetist)
48"x36" oil on linen 2019
In honor of the brave nurses, doctors and health care workers fighting the Coronavirus pandemic, I am posting my painting “The Team” that I created for the UCLA School of Nursing. I was brought up in a USMC family and learned the phrase “Run to the guns” as a kid. This is what these dedicated nurses, doctors, and health workers do every day. Please stay home and let them fight Covid19 for all of us.
“The Team” is part of my series of artworks about the history of nursing on permanent display at the UCLA School of Nursing. It has been an honor to create these oil on linen paintings for my alma mater. Classic framing by @deboramemento . Install led by Debora, Dean Sarna and the @ucla facilities team. Deep thanks to all who supported the @uclaspark campaign.
@uclahealth @uclaarts @uclanursing #artistsoninstagram #nursingschool #nursing #Nursingsaveslives #art #meninnursing #nurseanesthetist

Monday, March 23, 2020

Thank You Governor Newsom for Helping Us Recognize Our Common Humanity



A disease is not a reason to be racist. We simply will not tolerate any form of xenophobia. This is a time to come together. To recognize our common humanity. We will get through this -- together.

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Please Give to the Artist and Activist Relief Fund

Robert De Niro is watching you. Stay home. Save lives

Trump is going to get millions killed. That is not an exaggeration.



Ron Klain, former White House Ebola Response Coordinator, breaks it down for us



Protect Nurses



If nurses aren’t safe, we aren’t safe.



Gregg Chadwick
24/7
oil on linen 2019
In honor of the brave nurses, doctors and health care workers fighting the #Coronavirus pandemic, I am posting my painting “24/7” that I created for the UCLA School of Nursing. I was brought up in a @USMC family and learned the phrase “Run to the guns” as a kid. This is what these dedicated nurses, doctors, and health workers do every day. Please stay home and let them fight #Covid19 for all of us. “24/7” is part of my series of artworks about the history of nursing on permanent display at the UCLA School of Nursing. It has been an honor to create these oil on linen paintings for my alma mater. Classic framing by @deboramemento . Install led by Debora, Dean Sarna and the @ucla facilities team. Deep thanks to all who supported the @uclaspark campaign.

@uclahealth
 @uclaarts @uclanursing #artistsoninstagram #nursingschool #nursing 

#Nursingsaveslives #art #meninnursing



Saturday, March 21, 2020

#StayAtHome & #SocialDistancing protect us from #COVID19

“The healthy and optimistic among us will doom the vulnerable,” Landon said. She acknowledged that restrictions like a shelter-in-place may end up feeling “extreme” and “anticlimactic” — and that’s the point.

Songs of Comfort

Over the Rainbow



Chino Valley Unified School District's annual Choral Festival was canceled, so the students all sang their individual a cappella portion of "Over the Rainbow" in their separate homes, and put them together to create this masterpiece.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Burr and Loeffler sitting in a tree, illegally selling stocks, and ripping off you and me!


Burr and Loeffler sitting in a tree, illegally selling stocks, and ripping off you and me! #SwampMonsters #marketcrash #COVID19 #coronavirus