JUXTAPOZ Magazine
CHET ZAR - Painter of Dark
by Greg Escalante
August 2006 #67

(The following is the extended and mostly unedited text of Chet's interview. Enjoy!)

Greg Escalante tries to start a band with Hollywood effects man and painter extraordinaire Chet Zar, only to learn that there's no room for a rain stick man.

GE: So Chet, tell us a little about how you got started. You’re involved in a lot more than just painting.

CZ: I’ve been doing special effects and makeup work in film industry for the past 20 years. I started working in the nightmare movie industry right out of high school, when I was 18. It started out as a hobby, since I was so into horror movies as a kid in San Pedro.

GE: So what were you like as a kid then? Was Halloween your favorite holiday then?

CZ: Hah, yeah! I had been building makeup effects portfolio since I was a teen.

I was making bloody holes in my face with makeup since I was 9. Luckily I had a cool mom. I would run in and show her my newest bloody gash with all this fake blood gushing out and she was always into it. As a kid I had all these skulls and blood on the floor, and she was very understanding and supportive of her son’s interest.

And yeah, Halloween was and is my favorite holiday. I lived it more than just that day.

GE: Wait, so you were 9 when you started getting into effects and makeup? What happened at 9?

CZ: I used to make Super 8 films like sci-fi related stories and always drew montsters. So that was always the focus. The first thing I drew was a turtle at 3, and I don’t know what happened after that… (laughing) When I think about it, I figured that what drew me to where I started to really grow and do the work that I love was from the parts of my childhood and family life that were scary. My biological father was kind of emotionally unstable so it was a scary environment. (pause) …and that reality kind of translated into and had this kinship with horror films, that just became its own thing.

GE: What was your earliest horror memory?

CZ: I was 5 years old, getting out of the bathtub with wet hair and watching the original black ‘n’ white Night of Living Dead and it just creeped me out! It’s really simple and was just such a powerful statement, especially the last scene. I think it was the first time that I’d seen something like that. It was all gritty and dirty and real looking to me. it reminded me of the real war footage i would see on the TV news. In the last scene where the zombies are attacking the farmhouse kind of got to me, more now I guess. The zombies have all been shot by a makeshift milita of rednecks. And the main hero and lone survivor emerges from the house only to be mistaken (?) as a zombie and shot in the head. It was pretty intense, and very grim., especially since the lead was black and killed by some white redneck. This movie came out in 1967 I think, right around the time of the Civil Rghts Era. The undertones of what all that meant or could have been saying didn’t sink in ‘til years later, and it just made the moment a little more important I guess.

GE: So even though it was an exploitation of zombies and monsters…

CZ: It definitely had important social undertones.

GE: So did you feel like this was the preeminent tone-setter for all zombie movies?

CZ: Yes, I think it’s the first time they showed zombies eating people. It showed them eating their guts, they even used real animal guts. They showed people eating this, on the screen! It was quite visceral and very shocking for it's time. There were people fainting and puking in theatres.

GE: Did you see Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive?

CZ: Yeah. I really dug that movie. I thought it was really epic and well done. And I don’t usually like to mix comedy and horror, but he really pulled it off. If I were to make the movie, though, it would be straight up creepiness.

GE: Is there room for a Chet Zar zombie film?

CZ: Absolutely! I would love for that to happen. But I would want to be involved in the directing and writing, not so much the effects and such. I would have to hand the effects on to someone I know so that I could concentrate on getting the vision across correctly.

GE: Do you know Gregg Gibbs? He did the Long Gone John documentary. But he has your sensibility about zombies and things. But he was the set designer for the Rob Zombie House of 1000 Corpses flick. The script/story wasn’t the strongest, but the art direction was pretty cool. What do you think of most horror flicks these days?

CZ: Lots of movies these days have sucky scripts and great art direction. I don't watch a lot of horror films now. I would love to direct a movie. The thing I’m tired of in effects is not being able to do what I think and feel is best. There’s always a producer or executive telling you to do something "32 percent less scary "and really breathing down your neck with stupid direction like that.

GE: The more nincompoopishness there is…

CZ: Yeah, there’s just a lack of vision and too mamy restrictions.
I just want to create my own version of the world that I see.

GE: Van Arno said something that I’d never heard before “Most of these artists create their own world. They create where they want to live.”

CZ: A lot of what I paint are characters in this weird dream world that I sometimes think of in terms of… well, as if they exist in their own reality. It’s been like that since I was a kid.

GE: Somehow you got it at age 9… so you were pretty popular at Halloween huh?

CZ: Yeah that whole scary monster drawings thing is where I got my identity as a kid.

My Mom thought it was cool and didn’t think I was Satan. She was always seeing the artistic merit in my happy mad imaginations and was always really supportive. Plus, she had a weird sense of humor, like me.

GE: So you established yourself as a unique person in San Pedro, did you surf?

CZ: Nah, the funny thing is that when I was growing up the surfers were the assholes, much like the jocks. they were not very inclusive. We would go boogie boarding at the beach, but you had to be careful you weren't on some dickhead surfer's turf or you would get your ass kicked.

GE: Well there were some tough and provincial attitudes at spots for sure.

The guy that shaped my board was there, and there was the sense of localism there.

They kind of have this weird vibe of this major LA area and find this hillbilly surf element. (laughter)

CZ: But they did have the Minutemen!

GE: So Chet, did you have a particular masterpiece that just wrecked things back then?

CZ: One time I rigged my friend up with a nail through his finger and his mom freaked out. I mean FREAKED out! And he felt pretty bad because she thought it was real and, well, we didn’t think twice about it at my house. My Mother was used to it. Once a week I was cutting my wrist and blood would come out and mom would laugh. It was normal for us.

GE: What did your parents do? How many are in your family?

CZ: I have one older brother and one older sister. Mom’s a teacher. But now she’s a writer. My stepdad, James Zar, is a great fine artist, I learned a lot from him. He studied under Keith Finch. He paints these wild fantasy paintings, but he made his living doing Dodgers posters, stuff for Muscle magazines. Weird stuff. Sports stuff. He’s an extremely skilled artist. I’d love to do a show with him someday. My biological dad was a fisherman in San Pedro. My brother is a super talented guitarist, and he and I used to play in a band as kids. My sister is the Queen Master of Scrapbooking in Palace Verdes. Very fancy.

GE: Does he play rainstick?

CZ: No, I don’t think so. Should I ask?

GE: What kind of name is Zar?

CZ: Yugoslavian, from my stepdad. It’s not made up. He legally adopted me when I was pretty young.

I think it was a misspelling from when the ancestors came over. It was Car and in the immigration rush they must have mis-heard and spelled it Zar. My born name was Sepeda. I’m a quarter Mexican and a quarter Irish, some German, French and a bunch of other shit, a real mutt. An American!

GE: So when did you start painting?

CZ: Doing makeup effects I was always drawing and painting making weird monsters. When I was about 13 I was thinking of doing makeup effects as a career. My stepdad was supporting us as a fine artist. It was always a struggle, but we made it ok. So when my art teacher said to pursue makeup instead of fine art it totally made sense to me. That was a good move. It never occurred to me to that I could make a living as a fine artist. Make up effects seemed a little more sensible, and I was really into it. So after about 10 years in the effects industry I was getting a little dismayed at the politics and bullshit of the film industry. I got into computer animation and started this small digital company called Screaming Lobster Dogital. That’s when I did some fine art animation stuff that Adam Jones saw and used for Tool’s live shows. It's through Adam that I met Cam. Cam de Leon’s a really incredible artist as well who’s a Tool art alum. You know, that work, especially the make up effects that I’ve done for the last few videos… those have been some of the most satisfying projects that I’ve worked on in the movie biz.

GE: So are they (Tool) one of your collectors?

CZ: Yes actually, at the last Copro show Adam bought two pieces.

GE: And he’s the guitarist? Does he play rainstick?

CZ: He’s kind of the Visual Director for the band too.

I met him in the makeup effects business before he had Tool. We worked at one of the shops together.

I think we were working on the movie Darmkan. It was around that time that he introduced me to Cam. The three of us actually jammed together a couple of times way back when Adam was trying to start a band (laughs).

GE: So you play the rainstick?

CZ: The guitar! (mad laughter) No, and my brother is way bettter than me. I paint.

GE: So then, how did you make the transition to pursue painting?

CZ: Well, at a very crucial point I had a conversation with (famed horror writer) Clive Barker. The shop I worked at had done some film work with him and we had plans to create some horror toys and model kits with him, so I had somewhat of a professional relationship with him. Years later, I had sent him a screaming lobster digital demo reel (which had a lot of my dark 3D animations on it) and called him up to try and get him to hire us for any future film projects. He told me that he liked the reel, but he was more impressed with my unique vision. He suggested I get into fine art and do my own thing rather than go the 'work for hire' route.

GE: So you got reverse advise than from earlier?

CZ: Yeah. And I thought that was interesting that he would actually say that.

Other people had mentioned that they really like the paint jobs I would do for creatures in make up effects. So I had been thinking about it. I started painting while I was on set for Planet of the Apes. We were on-call to touch up these gorilla hands and masks at intervals, which meant a lot of free time sitting in the makeup trailer being really bored. Getting paid to sit on your ass all day is great, but after a while the boredom really gets to you. So I thought, 'fuck it. people are telling me they like my personal vision and my creature paint jobs...I am gonna be a painter", in the fine art sense, that is. So I painted this little painting during all my down time and it came out really good.

GE: And when you sold that you cut them in right?

CZ: (laughing) Oh, I sold it to a buddy of mine for only 100 bucks at a Cannibal Flower show early in my art career.

GE: How did you find them (Cannibal Flower)?

CZ: Through Cam. He was invited to show with them through an acquaintance. And my friends at work were saying that I should look for this Cannibal Flower thing. It wasn’t registering in my mind as a place to show art, I’d just heard it was more of a party. So I went and checked it out and was blown away with the talent and impressed with their inclusive attitude. I started showing with them in ’03.

I didn't sell too much the first year. Then I started doing these weird oval portraits… (he gives us an expression of something like “I guess it just finally clicked”)

GE: So did you jump in with that art biz philosophy to price your art really high?

CZ: No I was the other way. I priced ‘em low to get them sold… once I do a painting, I want to get rid of it and start on another. It's all about the process for me and less about the showing. Keeping the price low definitely seemed to help get the ball rolling.

GE: What do you think of NY? Is something in NY next? What do you think they think of my playing rainstick there?

CZ: (laughing more) It’s harder to get in from what I hear. On the West Coast, the underground art scene is becoming accepted by the mainstream art world. But I think NY and the rest of the country is catching on if it hasn’t already.

GE: I think that what we think of as a handful of Jux readers might be stronger than we think.

Are you coming out with a toy?

CZ: Actually I’m surprised that I haven’t already.
The processes for both the toy industry and the make up effects industry are quite similar, designing, sculpting, molding, casting, painting. A lot of people in makeup effects also do work for the toy industry.

GE: Like who?

CZ: Tully Summers, Dan Platt, Moto Hata, Tim Gore....lots more I am forgetting. All of these guys are veteran make up effects artists who have a lot of experience making toys. So I do have an “in”.

I would like to make some toys based on the characters in my paintings, but i can't afford to do it myself. i guess i am just waiting for the opportunity to come up.

GE: So you didn’t do the art school thing?

CZ: I almost went to Cal Arts, but it just didn’t feel like it was the right path. I didn't want to waste time at school when I knew I was good enough to get my foot in the door of the make up effects field. I started working right out of high school. Actually, i started while I was IN high school working for an older friend of mine, Jim Beinke. He did music videos and low budget films. My mom would let me ditch school and go work for him.

GE: What artists inspire you? Historically, working now…

CZ: I’m a big Giger fan. But my favorite is Beksinski. Cam and Adam turned me on to him while using his work as reference for one of the Tool videos. Beksinski was a genius, one of the best dark, surrealist artists ever, as far as i am concerned. I actually sent him a DVD of my animation work and he sent me back his comments, through another polish artist I had become acquainted with over the net, Lukasz Banach. But the note was in Polish and Lukasz couldn't translate much of it into English for me. Right after that, Beksinski, still creating brilliant art in his 70's, was tragically murdered.

GE: I think that guy is Natalia Fabia’s father. (Mad laughter) Yeah, she’s from Poland. She speaks Polish. Yeah, so if he hadn’t been murdered she could be your interpreter. She could read that letter from Beksinski like it was her first language, because it is.

He’s got a perfect name for a limerick.

The Chet Zar Beksinski Limerick Contest.

Chet’s putting up a small oval painting for whoever finishes the limerick:

“ There once was an artist named Beksinski…”

(Big cheer. We love the idea of a limerick contest.)


GE: So Chet, did you get his pictures and trace it and transfer it to your canvas?

CZ: I’ve never been able to do that but art teachers say it’s a good exercise.

GE: So who do you like out of today’s artists?

CZ: I really like Cam de Leon, Nathan Spoor. My first ever art purchase was Nathan's painting from the Copro Nason 'Three Waves to the Apocalypse' show. I also really like Jose Lopes.

GE: What about Basel Wolverton?

CZ: He’s great! Frazetta, Basil Gogos, a lot of the artists who did those old covers from Creepy, Eerie and Famous Monsters magazine .

GE: So in your art, creating your own world, your vision, what are you trying to say?

CZ: I don't try and make it mean something, but it means something afterwards. I go by intuition and do what looks cool to me and get the meaning after the fact. often, people will tell me what they think it means and it's usually something more profound than I could have come up with. I feel like what I paint has a weird sense of dark humor to it. They are ugly and scary, yet they have this sort of innocence as well. And it’s what we truly are as humans. We are ugly, smelly, violent animals, yet we still have this innocence, due to the fact that we are all scared to die. I like to portray that in my work.

GE: Are you familiar with Ivan Albright? He’s the guy that painted that festering Picture of Dorian Gray. It’s out in Chicago. He influenced Joe Coleman.

CZ: Yeah! that’s what turned me on to Giger when I was a kid - the beautiful / ugly thing.

I like that beauty that you find in the grotesque.

GE: Were you aware of the artist Robert Williams?

CZ: Yes, absolutely. Cam is a huge fan and turned me on to him years ago.

GE: I think you guys would hit it off. You’d like his wife and her work too.

GE: So what’s your process like?

CZ: I usually start with doodles. When I talk on the phone and I’m not thinking about what I am drawing, that's when I get the really cool ones.

GE: Is it anything like what your drawing right now?

CZ: Yeah, it’s actually kind of a crazy drawing, maybe we can use it?

When I’m working on a painting, I take the drawing to a certain point and work out the basics, like composition and lighting. i then start painting it, leaving room for things to change and develop. That's the most fun, the happy accidents. It's kind of magical in a way.

I start a lot of paintings at once so I can jump back and forth. I’m constantly lining them up, seeing if which ones look good together and which ones need to be taken out and set aside for later.

There’s an element of consistency that I’m going for even though there’s not any real subject matter or show concept that I’m shooting for.

GE: If there was an opposite to you and your art, what would that be?

CZ: Thomas Kinkade! (laughing)

I always wanted to be trademarked as the “Painter of DarkTM”, since he’s been the trademarked 'Painter of LightTM'. When I first saw a painting of his I thought it was a really great, but recently I saw two at a gallery and they really sucked. It’s like they weren’t even painted by the same guy.

GE: What was different?

CZ: His light wasn’t burning quite as bright. (At this there is riotous laughter all around)

They weren't as rich. They felt rushed and unfinished to me. They didn't even look like they were painted by the same person.

GE: It was probably a print then. Maybe it wasn’t the real thing.

CZ: Well, I’m not knocking good work when it’s good. I love Norman Rockwell. I love good painting. it doesn't matter to me what the subject matter is if it's painted well.

GE: Oh I have a good Thomas Kinkade story. We did the only museum-funded show of Thomas Kinkade down at Grand Central and I got to meet and hang out with him.

It was insane, I saw his painting studio that he never shows anyone. Even his secretary hadn’t even seen it. There’re no helpers or anything for all the real work. But then his giant factory where he works and all that he makes all that money stuff was true! He’s an inspiration. He’s the guy that took the most layman job and then ended up owning the whole business and he has a similar story to most fine artists. He took that mind of painting for himself and re-thought his motto of what he was taught, and instead started painting what he liked painting. And what he liked painting was what he thought everyone else liked.

GE:So Chet, as we close, is there anyone out there that you’d like to thank, anyone that’s your big support team?

CZ: Yes, my wife and two kids.

GE: So she’s always been into what you do? And you’ve got kids?

CZ: Yes, through all 17 years of our marriage she’s been totally supportive of my strange art habit. My boys are vrey cool as well. My older son is studying to be a Medical Technician and the younger one is way into drumming. He plays in a punk band called Domestic Fury.

GE: Domestic Fury? Do they need a rainstick man? (mad laughter and a unanimous round of “noooooooo!”)

At the end of our interview, our Chet Chat, it was incredible to get in with one of the masters of the realm of the dark… Chet Zar, Painter of DarkTM.

Chet Zar lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife Leichen and their two children. For more information, please contact www.chetzar.com

Above: Chet Zar feature spread

Below: Chet Zar "Black Magick"

"Dork"

"Signals"

"Playing Dead"

"Spook"