This was not the first time someone’s asked me to paint the best movie ever made on organised crime. I used to spend my Christmas breaks in Canada with my godmother’s family. They have an awesome collection of movies on VHS and my brother and I would systematically go through their entire catalogue whenever we were visiting. The Godfather trilogy was on the docket the day I was whisked away to participate in a holiday not celebrated by Americans: Boxing Day, so I missed the first one. I did come home in time, laden with several books and socks, to sit in for the second and the third one. The second one I loved, the third, not so much. So when my friend asked me to paint the original Godfather set, I was down.

This gave me the perfect excuse to watch the first one, which made me think: Why didn’t I see it sooner? My friend is the sort of customer I love, decisive but not micro manage-y. I did take some notes throughout the movie and looked at some stills and came up with this set. The cat was not suggested, but since I am now a cat person, I threw it in just for fun.

Clockwise from top: Don Vito Corleone, Michael, Tom Hagen, the horse head unceremoniously left in a bed, Fredo, and of course, Sonny.

The horse’s head was my idea, but my friend green lit it so here we are.