Rob Sacchetto:Zombie Art

Subject: Rob Sacchetto:Zombie Art Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:42 pm

Rob Sacchetto

He's killed nearly a thousand now, by his count. All he needs is a photograph of the victim and then his mind begins turning and twisting the image, creating horror from the mundane.

Rob Sacchetto examines each new picture and sees past the happy smile and the straight, white teeth. He stares at each one until he sees only death, and decay, and the hopeless despair of the soon-to-be dead.

Customers come to Sacchetto to undergo the painless process of zombification. He takes their image and re-makes them with paint, a brush and a pen. On his canvas, their eyes sink into deep sockets, their lips partially rot away, and untethered skin slides off shiny, blood-red muscle. Pustules group in knotted clumps.

And his customers love it.

In 2006, Sacchetto had two problems. His job as a freelance illustrator gave him some work, but it wasn't enough to manage without a second job at an off-brand adult video rental store. Worse, the work he did get was dry and unfulfilling. His love was horror, and zombies especially.

"One day, I decided to mash my love of horror with my love of art, " Sacchetto told AOL News. "The first (zombie) portraits were of me and my wife. That got the ball rolling."

A friend saw the pieces and made a quick website where Sacchetto could offer to do the same for others.

Rob's Website

"I was swamped overnight."

While it was a relief to know that his idea to make zombie art was commercially viable, the timing was so close to Christmas that he was unexpectedly deluged with work, and the orders kept pouring in.
It led him to create and release a new book called "Zombiewood Weekly: The Celebrity Dead Exposed" (Ulysses Press), which features over 125 celebrities artfully and grossly disfigured. Everybody is fair game, from Lady Gaga to Woody Allen, and Charles Bronson to the queen of England.

Sacchetto said that some of his own favorites in the book include Prince Charles and Sylvester Stallone, but Donald Trump was the easiest to zombify.

"I don't often wince at my own drawings, but this one was just hideous. He just has that face for it I guess, and his hair is mesmerizing ... it's incredible."

The one he found most difficult turned out to be one of the most famous: Mel Gibson.

"It was hard to know how to zombify him. So many people have so many perceptions of him," Sacchetto said. "I'm trying to find out what picture to use, what angle to use. When someone is that exposed, it's difficult."

One of the few celebrities that he hasn't zombified yet is the one he doesn't want to do: Harrison Ford.

"He was one of my heroes for so long. He's sort of, that hero icon. I couldn't find it with him," he said.

While Sacchetto hasn't ruled it out, he's trying to hold off creating a zombie Harrison Ford as long as he can. But he can't hold off forever.

After all, you only kill the ones you love.

» The Evolution of the Zombie
» Zombie America (Not What You Think)
» My Little *Zombie* Ponies