favorite project of 2009

As I jump into new paintings and projects for the new year, I wanted to share what was probably the one that was the most fun of 2009.  I was contacted to see if I would lend some of my paintings to a movie that was being made here in Portland, and while that alone was exciting, it is a film being directed by Gus Van Sant.  That’s all I needed to know.  In addition to the paintings that were used as set dressing, I was asked to create the main characters sketch book.  The currently untitled film stars Mia Wasikowska (aka Alice in the upcoming Alice in Wonderland) as a dying girl preoccupied with mortality.   The images and quotes deal with death and are influenced by the fact that the characters father had been a naturalist.  Some images were specifically mentioned in the script so that helped as a starting point.  Here are a few pages.  Now I’ll have to wait another year to see if any of it actually makes it into the film!