Friday, February 24, 2012

Wanderlust Movie Has R. Griggs' Slightly Skewed Sculptures on the Set


A dozen of my pieces are being used on the set of an upcoming Universal Studios' movie, Wanderlust, opening February 24, 2012. The film was shot at the the historical Kollock home place, Elysium, in Clarkesville, Georgia and stars Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Justin Thoreau and Alan Alda. The plot centers around a modern day hippie commune.

One of the three Kollock daughters, Carie Madigan, lives down the hill from the movie set and has been a dear friend of mine since childhood. We've stomped around their land and explored the old house for years. When the movie crew was scouting around for quirky art, Carie recommended that they use my work in the movie set. The production crew contacted me and picked out some pieces to lease for the duration of the filming. They ended up purchasing a few pieces to use in retakes after the filming on location was done.

My husband, David Ray, and I took a trip up to the movie set last year and got to glimpse a few filming days. We ate meals in the dining trailers with the actors and crew and got to see how "movie magic" works. We toured the house to see where my pieces were being used. Though the movie hasn't come out in the St. Simons Island theater yet, we have been able to identify several pieces in the trailers.

There is also a large collage covering several walls in the movie set's bathroom, which includes a front and center picture of David Ray, a young friend, Geneva, and our dog, Gary Dug, that I sent to the production crew before they started filming. Other characters in the collage include a young Elizabeth Taylor, some nude dancers, a fellow with horns, and topless, three breasted Siamese twins. At the end of the movie trailer when Paul Rudd is sitting on the toilet you can see the collage when the camera pans back. It's fun having David Ray, Geneva and Gary Dug's visages as part of the Wanderlust movie.

Apparantly, my name isn't in the credits since I would have to had to be a part of the movie crew or donate $20,000 worth of art to Universal Studios to be listed. I hope that seeing my work in the movie will generate interest and possibly new collectors so I've been working on a newly designed website at www.rosemarygriggsclayart.com that has Wanderlust as one of it's keywords. I'm not really sure how all that keyword business works but think the more times my name is used in conjunction with the word Wanderlust, the more visible my website will be on the search engines.

Here's a preview of the pieces in the movie:

Totem with the artist and her muse


Cool Breeze


PotHead



Sunny


Lover's Dance


Another PotHead

Part of the collage in Wanderlust bathroom scene


Feets of Love


Hole Hearted


Squash Jar

The Blue Virgin
(at the front door on the movie set)