thechainsawmafia.com - Carnal Cadaverous: The Zombie Edition!

Check out the Chainsaw Mafia's most recent featured Artist! Zombie Portraits will ROT your world!

Zombies, we all love to watch them eat those who owe us money and piss us off, groan with monosyllabic video game mallrat cogency, and we all want to become one..Yes, you know it's true. Well for a small fee, and perhaps some arcane stinky herbal salted Voodoo metaphysical rituals, you can. Welcome to the art, and zombification of Rob Sacchetto. Within an age where art is depersonalized and mechanized by computers armed by often equally uninteresting people, Rob remains true to old world natural skill. The zombie portraits created by Rob are done with eyesight and ink to paper! Yeah you heard me right. The zombies Rob creates are created by actual HUMAN talent, not machines and repetitive practice with software. Well, Rob has taken some time from his attempts at world zombification to sit down with me within the crimson stained chambers of The Chainsaw Mafia for a revealing interview. Read on for more (duh)...

Necro: Who has been the most famous person you have zombified artistically? Has anyone famous requested your work?

RS: I did about a dozen images for a documentary called “Zombiemania”. I was interviewed for the show, then was asked to zombify myself and everyone else in it. So, I got to do George Romero, Tom Savini, Greg Nicotero and Max Brooks. As for having it requested, I did an order for Scott Ian, from Anthrax, Kirk Hammett from Metallica, Brian Peck from Return of the Living Dead, and Brian Posehn.

Necro: What has been the strangest request you have gotten in regard to your work?

RS: Probably a family portrait I did, with a husband, wife and infant. They were the total all-American family-next-door types, and here I am making all three of them zombies… And of course, I did a huge painting 22” x 30” of two little boys for their mom to put up for their Halloween/Birthday party.

Necro: What started you on this artistic zombie quest?

RS: Recently, I looked at some of my old drawings from way back. I realize that I’ve always drawn zombies and monsters. The whole zombie portraits thing, though, I did a ‘Know Your Zombies’ poster, which is available on our website, kind of for fun, around Halloween 2006. It was just after I had finished a commission for a client who wanted a regular portrait of his two small children. I think that there was some overlap… that is to say I perhaps started the zombie poster before finishing the portrait or vice versa. I guess my brain was in a weird place at that point and I thought why not make this fun and combine the two, portraiture and zombies… and there it was.

Necro: When transforming an image into a zombie, how do you find their inner zombie?

RS: Well, I don’t know about ‘inner zombie’ per say. What I do though, is look for a part of their face that is very much theirs, a distinct feature that the person has, like a great smile, striking eyes, a certain type of hair. Whatever it is that makes that person unique, and I stay away from zombifying that for the most part. I want to keep their likeness. So I’ll look for something that I can mangle while still having the image true to the person being painted.

Necro: Do you invoke any certain form of consciousness when transforming images?

RS: Yeah, I do. I get into the ‘zombie zone’ and literally think of pealed flesh, and try to visualize flesh being pulled off, bone, cellulose deposits, how hair hangs off pieces of flesh, how liquid flows down surfaces like blood, pus, how an eyeball would feel. I really try to invoke those feelings of texture every time I draw a new image. Sometimes, when I’m drawing teeth, I find myself grinding my teeth, just to feel more what I’m drawing.

Necro: If you could transform into a zombie existentially, would you do it and what would you do?

RS: Oh yeah, I would do it. I would probably go all out in a flesh ripping orgy of mass carnage. It would be cool to have bullets ripping through you but you can’t feel them. You can just kill with impunity, not be responsible for it, or have to deal with any of the ramifications of it. You know, that boss that always gave you a hard time, that annoying neighbour, etc…

Necro: Have you worked in any other horror genre related mediums?

RS: Well, I’ve done some horror art, monsters, zombies, demons and such for tattoos that are available at Tattoofinder.com. Apart from that, I wrote and illustrated my own comic book creation titled ‘Rob Sacchetto’s Cape Fear”, which has yet to be published. Other than that, pretty much just my own stuff for personal enjoyment.

Necro: Do you have any favorite horror illustrators, comics, etc that have inspired you on your path?

RS: My favourite horror artists are William Stout, who did the character designs for ROTLD, and is an amazing illustrator. Also, Bernie Wrightson who did Swamp Thing, Freakshow, and Frankenstein, and finally Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy.

Necro: Have you ever had such a difficult task that you could not transform them into a zombie?

RS: I have yet to find something that I haven’t been able to zombify. I am still waiting for someone to send me a picture of some inanimate object like their car to turn into one.

Necro: Have you, or would you ever draw anything of an adult zombie nature?

RS: I’ve actually had a couple of inquiries about doing nude zombies. I’ve agreed to do them, no problem. Haven’t had any actual orders placed yet though.

Necro: What is the average time it takes to draw the transformation? What has been the longest and shortest time it has taken to create a zombie portrait?

RS: The zombie portraits range from 3-6 hours to do. I think the longest was probably about 14 hours or so for a couple painting. It was huge, 22 x 30 inches, a custom piece. When you’re working on that big of a scale, the details still have to remain true to a regular couple’s portrait, but you’re working on a sheet about 4 times the size.

Necro: With all of the computerized and CGI technology utilized in horror, do you feel that the hands on ink to paper medium will ever die out?

RS: Never, because I feel that the hands on will always be the truest, purest art form medium. You can actually feel the texture, smell the paint and ink, it’s tactile. It looks and feels like work, honest manufacturing. And especially with zombie portraits. It’s so customized. There is a certain quickness and staying power to my hands on approach. If anything I think it’s getting a resurgence in popularity because when you have something you can actually feel with your senses, versus an electronic image or printout, you can’t even compare the two.

Necro: What are your personal beliefs on the reality of zombies and zombification?

RS: Honestly, to me, there are two schools of thought when it comes to zombies, one is religious and the other is man-made, and I believe both to be firmly rooted in fantasy, being unlikely candidates for reality. The way I see zombies (as actual rotting corpses coming back to life) I just don’t see that happening. However, when it comes to a plant, or herb being able to produce that effect it’s possible. I think that’s what makes it so fun, you can basically do anything you want with those concepts. I think having that in the back of your mind though, that there’s even a slight possibility of it being a reality is fun. You get to scare yourself, your mind plays tricks on itself.

Necro: Zombification has some real esoteric significance. How do you feel about the possibility of your portraits containing magickal significance as voodoo fetishes?

RS: That’s probably one of the best questions I’ve ever been asked because I’ve actually thought about it when I’m drawing. I’ve played little games in my head where I thought that what if all the zombie portraits I’ve done have met real life tragic ends and I’ve just not known about it. Or, what if someone’s using the portrait for some weird ‘Dorian Gray’ type of thing, or using it to try to put a curse on someone or even give someone eternal life… You know, if they’re using it for something other than just a painting or a gift. It’s funny, in every couple’s portrait I’ve done except for maybe the first few, I’ve always made sure that one of the people is eating the other. It’s a weird superstitious thing that I do, almost to ensure they have a long lasting relationship… Like when I get someone that’s really pretty or handsome and someone else wants them turned into the living dead? You have to wonder if there’s some strange reason behind it…I had this whole movie plot in my head about the government finding out that my paintings were responsible for people dying, so they come to my door to get me to stop. I offer to draw terrorists or wanted men, like Osama Bin Laden for them, and end up working as a government assassin. Drawing zombie portraits is a weird profession, I’ll tell you that much.

Necro: What are your ultimate aspirations for your craft?

RS: To hold the Guinness World Record for zombifying the most people in the world. Actually, I really aspire to become really known in the whole horror industry or business. That and to keep being the guy who’s able to live out his childhood dream of drawing monsters for a living. There’s nothing more self-actualizing than that.

Necro: What top five celebrities would you love to turn into zombies?

RS: Hmmm, well, celebrities don’t really do much for me. But my favourites out there to do would probably be Harrison Ford, Jeff Golblum, Vincent Cassel, Gary Oldman, and either Lena Olin or Pamela Anderson.

Necro: Besides transforming people into zombies, what else do you like to do for fun?

RS: Well, I’m a huge movie buff and comic book geek. I’m a big fan of Giant Monster movies. And I still love to play with Legos: I have an entire Lego city built in my basement. Sitting at an art table all day can be a pretty sedentary life, so I like to walk around my city though different neighbourhoods and look at houses, scenery. Also, since my wife and I both work from home, we like to spend as much time as we can working in our yard, and enjoying our patio during the summertime.

Necro: Have you ever thought of expanding into doing weddings in case someone wanted wedding zombification instead of a traditional photographer?

RS: Well, because of the process I’d need to take photos. I don’t just sit down and get someone’s likeness down. It’s so involved. I’d love to do an entire wedding album of paintings from photos, but the paintings pretty much have to be done in studio. I don’t go on site to do caricature-like drawings. Because it takes a few hours to do just one painting it’s not feasible. But traditional wedding photos are great to zombify, and I’ve done quite a few already.

Necro: Have or will you, ever set up at the horror conventions?

RS: We’ve done two conventions so far; the World Horror Convention and the Festival of Fear, both in Toronto, Canada. But we’re trying to get more readily available products launched before we consider doing another. We have a line of Zombie T-Shirts coming our and a Zombie Daily book, which are easier to sell at a convention. The concept of zombie portraits is a little more complex and hard to grasp just sitting there trying to sell the idea. So, none coming up in the near future, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be attending any. Things can happen very quickly with the zombie business, believe it or not, so we’ll have to see.

Necro: What’s in the future for Rob Sacchetto?

RS: The future for Rob Sacchetto? Well, ideally, I want to be known for the quality and quantity of my work. I want to establish very high quality products that I myself would purchase if I saw another artist do. And I don’t want to be a passing fad for someone who just gets on by a ‘name’. I want to consistently be someone who’s love you can see in his subjects and not just stamp them in an assembly line fashion. I yearn for the ability to gather new experiences and material to facilitate my art. And for that I hope I prosper in this milieu. So, in a nutshell, the chance to do all of those things is what I work toward every day and hope the future holds for me.

For more information on the art of Rob Sacchetto and Zombie Portraits, visit his zombie filled crypt at:

http://www.zombieportraits.com/

-Written by Necromagickal