thechainsawmafia.com - The Slaughter Shop's October Featured Artist...Chris Waters!

Welcome my chainsaw swinging fiends to the featured artist of the month here at the Chainsaw Mafia. For the month of October, that wicked month ending with the great holiday of Halloween, we have someone who encapsulates the very spirit of the macabre season. Welcome to the versatile art of Chris Waters. Chris has agreed to take some time out of this busy month to sit down and discuss both his love for art and his passion for the macabre and Halloween. Read on for insight into just what is behind his creations....

TCM_Necro: What do you see as the origin of your creative endeavors?

CW: My earliest possible memory that I can account was Halloween night 1971. I was two years old, and I remember my two older sisters holding each of my hands as they were walking me down the street Trick or Treating. It was ever since then that I showed a personal interest in Halloween. As far as I was concerned, Halloween was a big holiday for me. My Mom encouraged the fun of all holidays, but Halloween seemed the most special to me besides Christmas. Also, my older sisters and my older brother would let me watch scary shows like Creature Double Feature, and Night Gallery with them. My older brother Bill is directly responsible because he used to fill my head with all sorts of creepy ideas by torturing me with all kinds of tricks. For example, when I was five, he would hide under my bed and whisper in a ghost voice, "Chris, this is your conscience..." When I was six, I drew out elaborate plans on how to catch a witch. I had covered one side of my brother's bedroom wall with magic marker, and got in a lot of trouble with my parent

TCM_Necro: What attracts you most about Halloween?

CW: It's tricky to describe. I think it may be the feeling of uncertainty that comes with the season. Things that are scary or creepy usually give you a cold feeling, but Halloween has always given me a warm feeling like most people attribute to Christmas. Halloween is a very unique holiday. It is a celebration of fear. It's about the isolated feeling of going out into the cold, dark night, getting wigged out on adrenaline, and then coming back to your safe warm home to eat a whole bunch of junk, and then the next day everything is back to normal again. To me, Halloween is a holiday even though no one gets the day off from work. One good aspect about Halloween is that out of all the holidays, Halloween seems to be the most laid back. It comes without the stressful baggage that goes hand-in-hand with holidays like Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. There's no real set rules for celebrating it besides Trick or Treating and making sure you had good candy at home to hand out so your house didn't get egged. Also, I love fictitious witches

TCM_Necro: What is your involvement in the Halloween industry?

CW: I began carving life-size gravestones out of foam back in 1993. For the next couple of years following, I managed to hand-carve close to 4,000 gravestones that reached various corners of the globe. In 2004 I began to mass-produce gravestones out of polyester resin under the name CWC. Clients have included Anheuser-Busch, Busch Gardens Tampa and Dustin Diamond. Recently, I've been promoting myself as a freelance designer of a creepy nature, working with groups such as the Living Dead Girlz.

TCM_Necro: Do you feel that the celebration of Halloween has lost its mystery due to the mass commercialism and popularity?

CW: I don't think that Halloween will ever lose its mystery. I do in fact think that Halloween, like Christmas is starting to be a little over-commercialized. Generally, I'm a big fan of anything of a creepy nature, but there's an influx of people that see Halloween as only a moneymaking opportunity, scrambling to come up with something new and sometimes not original and not necessarily high quality, so they can make a quick buck. That's when you see the monotony of mass-commercialism. Not saying it's all bad, because there a lot of artists out there that are extremely talented and I'm a big fan of, who keep the spirit alive, no pun intended.

TCM_Necro: Being such a Halloween enthusiast, do you find your creativity is greater during the October season?

CW: My creativity is definitely enhanced during the October season. Usually during this time I like to try new concepts, whether it be sculpting, music, illustration or writing. I use everything that I see as inspiration. One aspect of this season that really inspires me is the fall foliage. This is one of the best things about living in the Northeast. The smell of the dead leaves and fireplaces really gets my imagination kicking into high gear. Pumpkins are another motivator. I've been growing my own for the last couple of years.

TCM_Necro: Do you have a favorite artistic medium?

CW: I have three favorite mediums. Photoshop, because you can make cool stuff and there's no mess to clean up, Styrofoam because it's easy to cut and it's lightweight, and my old synthesizer because it makes wicked sounds.

TCM_Necro: What five horror films do you wish to be burned or buried with?

CW: Army of Darkness - Bruce Campbell decimating armies of skeletons

Rob Zombie's Halloween (Loved the original, but after seeing it a million times, there's nothing new to see. I liked Zombie's version because it was a new spin on the story; it gave you an explanation of why Michael became what he did; background information that I always wanted to know but never got in the original.

Peter Jackson's The Frighteners, because it was light-hearted and cold-blooded at the same time

Silence of the Lambs -"Put the lotion in the basket!"

Nightmare Before Christmas (I wouldn't consider it horror, but it is macabre) and I saw it the theaters 11 times in 1993. The animation was a work of art, as well as the music.

TCM_Necro: What is your ideal vision for Halloween night?

CW: My ideal vision is what I used to envision as a little kid at Halloween. Ghosts floating around everywhere, devils jabbing you in the ass with pitch forks, goblins running around the neighborhood, skeletons making that xylophone sound like in the old cartoons and witches swooping down at you on brooms: that sort of thing.

TCM_Necro: What can you tell us about Rock You Inc?

CW: RockYou Inc. is the number one innovator, creator and distributor of widgets and applications on social web sites such as Facebook and MySpace (http://www.rockyou.com). If you've spent any time on either Facebook or MySpace, you have probably have come in contact with one of their applications or widgets. I've been working with them as a freelance graphic designer for over a year, and I have to say that I have never enjoyed a job as much as my job with Rock You. I don't consider it a "job". It's extremely challenging, but everyday it challenges me to be a better artist.

TCM_Necro: What are your ultimate aspirations in regard to art?

CW: My ultimate aspiration is to write, direct, compose, perform, art direct and act in my own film. Only if it were as easy as it sounds...

TCM_Necro: Are their any artists that you are influenced or inspired by?

CW: I'm a huge Walt Disney fan. I try to get my hands on any history about him. I am also influenced by my older brother Bill Waters, who’s been a tattoo artist for almost two decades. Bill was an art prodigy, whose drawing seemed like it was effortless to him. I always watched him in amazement and wished that I could draw as good as him. To this day, I still haven't caught up with him and don't really plan on it.

TCM_Necro: If you could become the physical incarnation of any fictional horror icon or creature for 24 hours who would it be and what would you do?

CW: I would be Chucky, and I wouldn't kill anyone, I would just mess with people and make them poop their pants.

TCM_Necro: Do you have any formal artistic training and/or do you believe art is an innate talent that cannot be learned?

CW: Most of my art classes were taken at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, RI. There I've studied figure drawing, 3D modeling and animation with Maya, and right now I'm taking an Introduction to Flash Animation so I can make my own cartoons. To answer the second part of the question, there are rudimentary concepts in art that you need to understand when you are trying to create visually pleasing art. I believe that every human being has the innate talent of being artistic, but the individuals that discover their interest in art and focus on it more frequently are more likely to be good at it. You have to have the interest in art to really want to delve in and experiment and practice.

TCM_Necro: Where can we find your work?

CW: My work can be seen in games on Facebook such as Zombies, Vampires, Slayers, Werewolves, Hug Me and Super Hug Me. Also, my portfolio can be seen at http://www.chriswaters.com.

TCM_Necro: Any last words for our readers?

CW: I am interested in all sorts of creepy or interesting projects. Feel free to contact me at: cwaters13@gmail.com or visit my site at: http://www.chriswaters.com for samples of my work.

The Chainsaw Mafia would like to thank Chris Waters for his participation as the October Featured Artist. For more information on the work of Chris Waters check out his various crypts as mentioned above...