Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin sculpting

pumpkin sculpting with my daughters

Art Pumpkins: American Gothic

 Here is my second American Gothic pumpkin for the Jack-o'-Lantern Spectacular. The first one, drawn by another artist, had its face (or more specifically, the farmer's face) eaten by a squirrel. I created a replacement, but it was eaten by a deer. Here is yet another. I haven't seen it lit up.

It's a little hard to see in the photo, but this time, I gave the farmer a widow's peak and fangs.

Those are the phases of the moon framing the image.

Clinton and Trump Pumpkins

Here are two pumpkins, both drawn by Edward Cabral, and carved by me (because they needed to go out for the show but Edward wasn't around).  Edward did a great job, and I hope my carving skills did them justice.  In my humble opinion, the eyes on both really sing.

artists: Edward Cabral and Mark Tabler

artists: Edward Cabral and Mark Tabler

White House Pumpkin

White House Pumpkin. Artist: Mark Tabler

 Drawn and carved for the Jack-o'-Lantern Spectacular at Iroquois Park

Wyoming Pumpkin: unlit vs. lit

Wyoming pumpkin

Drawn and carved for the Jack-o'-Lantern Spectacular at Iroquois Park. This is, at least so far, my favorite one I've done this year.

polymer clay

My daughters wanted to get out the polymer clay last weekend, and I joined them. I really like making stuff...but it is also sorta useless. I don't care to make jewelry and don't need game pieces or light cord pulls. So these things are just sitting around on my desk looking neat.

It did occur to me today that I could make a crokinole game with it. Hmm. Maybe someday.

Natural Bridge

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Natural Bridge salamander

Salamander

sinkhole

Yesterday, at Natural Bridge State Park

Trump pumpkin

I made this smug mug with alcohol ink and acrylic paint.

Wyoming Pumpkin drawn but uncut

Wyoming pumpkins - Jack-o'-Lantern Spectacular

Here is the first pumpkin I drew for this year. The cowboy is based off a Charlie Russell painting (I did a report on him my junior year in high school and have had a fondness for his artwork ever since.)

I took the photo from two angles to try to work around the awful glare.

Jack-o'-Lantern Spectacular preparations

Lots of pumpkins and artists hard at work. I think I took this photo on the first day of drawing (Sept. 21).

Central State Hospital Cemetery

I was at a cross country meet at E. P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park last weekend, and before the race I was there to watch, I went on a short hike to find old cemetery grounds I had seen on a park map.  It sounded like just the thing to do on a cool, overcast, slightly rainy first day of October.

In researching the place, I found that I guessed correctly that this was the cemetery for the old Central State Hospital, which was demolished a couple of decades ago.  The hospital served as a home for the mentally ill, the mentally retarded, and abandoned and impoverished elderly people.  Graves there date from 1873, but the cemetery was no longer in use by the early 1950s. Apparently, there are no records to show how many people were buried here (estimates look to vary between 600 and 5,000).  Many of the grave markers were wood, and rotted away; remaining stone markers were moved when the overgrown yard was cleaned up and “restored” sometime in the 1950s.

It sounds like there might be more stone markers in other spots; a news article from the 90s describes some as being piled up near the creek.  After foliage dies back, I might go for another look.