CHET ZAR
By Sami Montague
Chet Zar uses the classical medium of oil paint to create amazing portraits of other worldly and surreal looking creatures. Reflecting an aesthetic honed and influenced through long years working in the US film special effects industry on sci-fi and horror movies his art has an impressive but particularly creepy power. MNI? spoke to the ‘Painter of Dark’ to find out more.
San Pedro, California is the small harbour town Chet Zar calls home. Although he now lives an hour or so north of there, San Pedro is where he grew up in a family where art was a constant. Chet views his stepfather, James Zar, also a painter, as his artistic mentor, the man who paved the way for him, as Zar beams: ‘He was a super cool guy and a working artist. I think that had a big impression on me, as well as growing up around all that painting, I learned a lot just by watching casually.’ He says that his parents were always very supportive of him and ‘never put any limits on creativity.’ A childhood of making things, drawing, painting and sculpting ensued.
This early influence coupled with a healthy interest in comic books, horror movies and make-up effects – through his interest in making films with his dad's super-8 movie camera – led him to get into the film industry as soon as he could. He started working in the industry about a year after he graduated from high school, his first big job being the 1988 remake of The Blob, as he recalls: ‘I had a lot of fun on that film. The FX shop was divided into two with one crew creating the actual Blob effects headed by Lyle Conway, and the other creating the Blob's victims, headed by Tony Gardner. I was on the Blob’s victims’ crew starting out as an all-round guy in the shop, doing things like moulding and casting. But, as the show went on – I think it lasted about a year – Tony gave me more and more responsibilities and by the end of the project, I was pretty much the lead painter. I was also able to head up a couple of effects gags – Little Eddie and Sheriff Geller – and got to design and sculpt those as well.’
The FULL interview with CHET ZAR appears in issue 6 of Mynameis? magazine - click here to purchase your copy www.graphotism.com/Subscribe-Graphotism-or-MyNameIs-Magazine.74.0.html
