Carve Diem: A Pumpkin Portfolio
To all the gourds I’ve gored before…
When I’m not carving out characters with words, I have in recent years grown fond of literally taking a knife to a pumpkin.
Pumpkins are fruits not vegetables. — some food nerd
Rather than just making scary or creepy faces, I gravitate toward spooky-tangential characters from cartoons and pop culture. I feel my first adult carving experience, back in 2008, best represents the Halloween spirit I embody: Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” He is “spooky” but not truly frightening*.
(*This aesthetic worked in my favor over the last two years with the birth of my daughter. She told me earlier this week not to make a “scary” face, but rather something “happy.”)
Unfortunately, I lost (or can’t unearth) any photos of that original Jack carving. But, I did revisit “The Pumpkin King” in 2014: My friends gave birth to their third child at the beginning of October and aptly named him Jack, so I brought them a Jack O’Lantern.
Painting pumpkins is sacrilege. How DARE you!
Here are some photos of my carvings in recent years:
The Count from “Sesame Street” (2009)
Franken Berry from the General Mills cereal (2010)
Clyde from “Pac•Man” (2011)
Toad from “Super Mario Bros.” (2012)
Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (2014)
Skeletor from “Masters of the Universe” (2015)
This year, to appease both my two-year-old and myself, we agreed upon the slightly scary snow monster from “Frozen” (she insisted I make him smiling). I decided to also use the side of the pumpkin to give her a truer smile with the cute, snowball-like character from the short film “Frozen Fever.”
Marshmallow from “Frozen” and a
Snowgie from “Frozen Fever” (2016)
Want more of my artwork?
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→my flash-fiction/character series Faces Down
