Chet Zar (born November 12, 1967 in San Pedro,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

) is an American artist notable for his dark visual

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

, make-up effects, and digital animation. He is most widely known for his work with

Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...

's music and live videos. He is the stepson of American

fantasy art Fantastic art is a broad and loosely defined art genre. It is not restricted to a specific school of artists, geographical location or historical period. It can be characterised by subject matter – which portrays non-realistic, mystical, my ...

ist James Zar.

Life

Zar was born in

San Pedro, California San Pedro ( ; Spanish: "St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located wi ...

. His interest in the "darker" aspects of art began as a young child, described as a "natural fascination with all things strange fostered within himself a deep connection to horror movies and dark imagery." He spent his entire childhood sculpting, drawing and painting. In high school, Zar began his work in the makeup effects industry, gaining full-time employment a year after graduating. After years of being unimpressed with politics in the film industry, Zar took the advice of horror author

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...

, and decided to pursue his passion of producing original works and oil painting.

Works

Zar's works vary according to the medium he is using. His interest in art and horror movies led to a career in the motion-picture industry. His contributions to the industry were in the form of sculpture and make-up effects. Zar designed and created

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

effects for such movies as '' The Ring'', ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is an American science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a world in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control. The franchise is based on Frenc ...

'', and '' Darkman''. His canvassed works are generally oil-based portraits. He considers his works to be extensions of his

doodle A doodle is a drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract lines or shapes, generally without ever lift ...

s, and describes the figures in his art as "very ugly and freakish on the surface" while still retaining "innocence about them". In addition to creating digital animations for Tool's live shows, Zar has created his own DVD of digital loops, entitled '' Disturb the Normal''. His 'animated paintings' are made using

Lightwave 3d LightWave 3D is a 3D computer graphics program developed by NewTek. It has been used in films, television, motion graphics, digital matte painting, visual effects, video game development, product design, architectural visualizations, virt ...

and

Adobe After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc., and used in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Among other things, After Eff ...

. On December 18, 2007, Tool released a DVD for their single "

Vicarious Vicarious may refer to: * Vicariousness, experiencing through another person * Vicarious learning, observational learning In law * Vicarious liability, a term in common law * Vicarious liability (criminal), a term in criminal law Religion * Vic ...

", which contains a documentary with an appearance by Zar as a key member of the "Vicarious" video team. On 2010, he made the album cover artwork for

Charred Walls of the Damned Charred Walls of the Damned is an American heavy metal supergroup formed in 2009 consisting of drummer Richard Christy, bassist Steve Di Giorgio, vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens and guitarist Jason Suecof. The band was formed by Christy after a fiv ...

's self-titled album. In 2015 a documentary directed by Mike Correll examines the life and career of Chet Zar titled I Like to Paint Monsters.

References

External links

Chet Zar HomepageChet Zar: And The Monsters Inherit The EarthChet Zar's paintings at Beinart Gallery
*
Deviant ArtBeinart Gallery interview with Chet Zar

Catalogs

* 2012
Black Magick: The Art of Chet Zar
* 2008
Chet Zar - Ugly American
* 2007
Metamorphosis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zar, Chet 1967 births Living people Artists from Los Angeles Sculptors from California