Here are the Jack-O-Lanterns I created for the Minnesota Zoo in my second year on the show. There were a lot of pop-culture pumpkins in the show this year that piqued my interest, but I still did get a red panda done as well (they are, after all, my favorite). The designs I picked generally took quite a bit longer than the animal pumpkins I did last year as they had a lot more small details. I used the darkroom and projector at the studio a lot more this year for image placement, sometimes combining multiple images to create a composition. I pushed myself to use a larger surface of the pumpkin and wrap the design around more, so it was tricky to try to capture all the details into a still image!
Grogu was definitely the “viral” pumpkin of this year’s batch, and it’s not even close. I got to walk the trail while it was on display, and it was a really fun experience hearing so many people call out “Look! It’s baby Yoda!!!” and point it out to their group.
The Legend of Zelda is my favorite video game series, and I got to carve not one, but TWO Zelda jack-o-lanterns this year! I’m especially happy with the Skyward Sword pumpkin because it was a custom composition combining four different images. I think it came together really well and the detail and contrast lit up great.
The D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) jack-o-lantern has a story behind it that showcases some of the challenges of working with pumpkins as a canvas. I had completed the draw stage very early in the season (long before the show opened). When it was time to carve it a few weeks later and I was repositioning it on the bench, I found out that it had already rotted! Unfortunately, it happens. Artists are paid per pumpkin in two stages: draw and carve. When something happens to a pumpkin after the end of either stage that is outside of the artist’s control (rot, chipmunks, gravity) — the artist is still paid for the work that was completed. But losing a pumpkin is still a sad time.
Fortunately I was able to give the same design another go — and as it turns out, I found a bigger, better pumpkin for it and was able to get a lot more detail into the draw! It was a great feeling being able to put something even better out on the trail than I would have done had I been able to carve the first pumpkin.
If you want to learn more about the show and the process of creating these Jack-O-Lanterns, see my post All About Pumpkin Carving!