Studio notes from the contemporary painter Gregg Chadwick.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
At UCLA
Spoke at UCLA yesterday on Art and Social Justice. Brought my #BlackLivesMatter inspired painting along. Excited to share my thoughts and experiences with the N250 class. Thanks to Dr Pavlish and my alma mater for making me feel at home.
Ed Catmull's "Creativity, Inc." is much like the films of Pixar itself: a balanced mix of sheer enthusiasm and careful planning. Catmull writes,"The thesis of this book is that there are many blocks to creativity, but there are active steps we can take to protect the creative process." Catmull writes about the history and vision of Pixar as well as the strategies and mechanisms that have kept the creativity flowing for an amazing run of great animated films - second only in my mind to the stunning work of the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and his Ghibli film studios. Cattmull's book is a must read for anyone involved in the arts. From painters, to writers, to actors, to musicians, to film-makers, to game designers - all will benefit immensely from Catmull's encouragement to embrace the unknown while learning to communicate creatively. Link here: Creativity, Inc
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine's book "Stronger Together" begins with a powerful statement: "It has been said that America is great because America is good." Clinton and Kaine agree with that statement as do I. The book continues and reminds us that,"we face our fair share of threats and challenges." The strength of this 249 page volume is the detailed description of policy suggestions that carry the knowledge that the United States is a country of good as it creates positive change for the benefit of all its citizens.
"Stronger Together" outlines investments in job growth, clean energy, debt free college plans, reining in Wall Street, equal pay for women, expanded health coverage, LGBT rights, open internet, expanded K-12 education, fair immigration reform, national defense, women's health and reproductive rights, and more.
Hillary writes, "Americans don't say:"I alone can fix it." We say: "We'll fix it together." Clinton and Kaine's book is a blueprint of inspiration and ideas of how we as Americans will move our country forward together. Highly recommended. Link Here: Stronger Together
Dad (General Robert J. Chadwick USMC) circa 1978 photo courtesy USMC
Peter Clothier asked me a while ago to contribute to his series of Boyhood Memories which he is posting on his new blog site -http://www.boyhoodmoments.com/2016/09/hop-on-pop.html and eventually working into a book. I finally finished my story and it has prompted me to continue writing about my life as an artist.
Growing up as the kid of a USMC officer during the Vietnam era inspired me in unique ways. Please have a read and let me know what you think. Also spend some time on Peter's site. Masami Teraoka 's piece is timeless and magical and Michael Provart 's writing is funny and poignant. Peter Clothier also adds his own childhood memories into the mix. Every story Peter has received is rich in memory.
Peter introduces my story with the following: "HOP ON POP Here's another "absent father" piece, this one with the added leitmotif, perhaps, of a creative vocation discovered as a child! The Dad in question is caught in the black and white photograph, below. Gregg Chadwick is today a Santa Monica-based painter whose work is widely exhibited and acclaimed. His blog is titled Speed of Life. His boyhood memory skirts subtly around the pain of separation, deflecting it first, jokingly, onto a prank played on his mother with his toys; then on a treasured book, a parting gift from Dad. But by the end, we're left in no doubt that the pain is there..."
Today on CBS Sunday morning, Bruce Springsteen spoke candidly about his upcoming autobiography in a conversation with reporter Anthony Mason. Below is the full video and a few highlights from the interview. Full story can be found at: Bruce Springsteen,"I'm still in love with playing." Thanks to CBS Sunday Morning for this insightful glimpse into the man and his art.
Bruce Springsteen has been singing about his own life and times for more than 40 years. Now’s he’s written about them as well. Here is our own music man, Anthony Mason:
In the final dates of his international tour that ended this past week, Bruce Springsteen played one four-hour gig after another. How can he keep doing that? “I’m conditioned to do it from many, many years of experience. Don’t try it at home, kids!” he warned.
It’s the one arena where the singer, who turns 67 next week, can control the clock: “You’re looking for a particular moment, and then when you catch that, it feels so good sometimes.
“Then time disappears, you know?”
“Where do you think your drive came from?” Mason asked.
“I believe every artist had someone who told them that they weren’t worth dirt and someone who told them that they were the second coming of the baby Jesus, and they believed ‘em both,” Springsteen replied.
“And that’s the fuel that starts the fire.”
For Springsteen, the fire started in Freehold, New Jersey, on the block around the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church.
“Home was right up here,” the singer pointed out to Mason. “My house was here, church was there, nun’s convent, priest’s rectory. My aunt’s house was there. My other aunt’s house was right next to her.”
“The grinding power of this ruined place would never leave me,” he writes in “Born to Run,” his new autobiography, published by Simon & Schuster (a division of CBS).
Doug and Adele Springsteen’s son found both comfort and fear there. His mother, a legal secretary, rented him his first guitar. His father, who worked at Ford, was an angry man.
“He loved me,” Springsteen writes, “but he couldn’t stand me.”
Mason joined Springsteen on a surprise visit to the school at St. Rose of Lima. He is beloved here now. It was different when he was in class.
“I’m gettin’ the willies,” he said, walking into a classroom.
“Did I read they called you ‘Springy’?” Mason asked.
“Yes. That is correct, my friend. Amongst many other things.”
“How did you do when you were here?”
“Not particularly well, you know. I didn’t fit in the box so well.”
Long after he moved away, Springsteen would drive back at times to Freehold: “I may still cruise through every once in a while.”
“What are you looking for when you do?”
“Well, they say you’re looking to make things all right again, you know? And of course, there’s no going back, you know?”
The long-haired guitar slinger who earned his stripes in the bars of Asbury Park, was signed to Columbia Records at just 22.
His first two albums did not sell well, so he poured his soul into a new song called “Born to Run”:
“Well, I was trying to make the greatest record you’d ever heard. The record that after you heard it, you didn’t have to hear another record, you know?”
“Born to Run” launched Bruce Springsteen. The album’s now-iconic cover also featured sax player Clarence Clemons, Bruce’s mythic sidekick. The big man’s imposing presence came to symbolize the brotherhood of the E Street Band.
Mason asked, “How would you describe your relationship with Clarence?”
“It was very primal,” he replied. “It was just, ‘Oh, you’re, you’re some missing part of me. You’re some dream I’m having. He was this huge force, you know? While at the same time being very fragile and very dependent himself, which is maybe what the two of us had in common. We were both kind of insecure down inside. And we both felt kind of fragile and unsure of ourselves. But when we were together we felt really powerful.
“We were very different people, you know? Clarence lived fast and loose and wild and wide-open, you know? And I tended to be a little more conservative.”
“You said offstage, you couldn’t be friends.”
“I couldn’t because it would ruin my life!” Springsteen laughed. “But Clarence could be Clarence excellently. He was very good at it.”
Until Clemons’ health went into a long decline. In 2011 he suffered a stroke and died days later. “Losing Clarence,” Springsteen writes, “was like losing the rain.”
“And it happened very quick and suddenly. And it was quite devastating,” he said.
“When something like that, that as you say kind of came magically to begin with, goes away, you’ve got to be sitting there going, ‘How do I replace this?’” Mason asked.
Gregg Chadwick creates his artwork in an old airplane hangar in Santa Monica, California. The recurring sound of airplane take-offs and landings from the active airport runway outside his studio reminds him of his own history of travel. Chadwick has exhibited his artworks in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally. He earned a Bachelor's Degree at UCLA and a Master’s Degree at NYU, both in Fine Art. He has had notable solo exhibitions at the Manifesta Maastricht Gallery (Maastricht, The Netherlands), Space AD 2000 (Tokyo, Japan), the Lisa Coscino Gallery (Pacific Grove, CA), the Julie Nester Gallery (Park City, Utah), the Sandra Lee Gallery (San Francisco), and Audis Husar Fine Arts (Los Angeles) among others. He has participated in over one hundred group exhibitions including the L Ross Gallery (Memphis, Tenn), the Andrea Schwartz Gallery (San Francisco), the LOOK Gallery (Los Angeles), the Arena 1 Gallery (Santa Monica), the di Rosa Preserve Gallery (Napa) and the Arts Club of Washington (Washington DC).
