Three artists take on our pumpkin-carving challenge

OK, so here's the scoop.

Three local artists volunteered to carve pumpkins for The Capital. The idea was to see what professionals could do in the way of jack-o'-lanterns, given no time or creative constraints.

The results were illuminating, to say the least.

John Jensen provided the venue at his Homewood Pottery studio in Annapolis and invited fellow artists Jonnie S. Friedman of Pasadena and Deborah Banker of Annapolis.

All three teach art and have a combined 100 years of experience in the field, yet pumpkins aren't exactly their preferred medium. Jensen and Friedman, who works out of Jensen's studio, are more used to clay. Banker works with stone.

Until last week, their pumpkin carving was restricted to their families as a pleasant Halloween tradition and nothing particularly fancy. "Oh yeah," quipped Jensen. "If you have a child, you've carved many, many pumpkins."

But after we asked them to put their thinking caps on and provided three uniformly-sized pumpkins picked from the patch at St. Martin's Lutheran Church (where proceeds go to help the Light House shelter), the artists really went out of their gourds.

Jensen provided lots of tools and even brought along a few assorted smaller squashes for them to accessorize with, should they choose to incorporate them into their designs. As Hawaiian ekuele music played in the background, they set to work.

"OK , little pumpkin, speak to me," Jensen said with a laugh, as he prepared to start. "Tell me about your soul."

He didn't go into the assignment with a set game plan, though all three had at least thought about the task before accepting the challenge a few days earlier.

Jensen began by cutting the top off and scooping out the guts.

Friedman first turned her pumpkin on its side, already thinking of creating a creature. This way, she explained, she could use the stem as a nose. After that, she started hammering home her point, driving nails into the pumpkin to make everything from feet to eyebrows to spiked hair. Friedman used a couple small vents Jensen had lying around for eyes.

Banker arrived last, but came with a sketch in hand. She intended to transform the pumpkin into one the monsters from "Where the Wild Things Are," a favorite book that's now a movie. Like Jensen, her first move was to clear out the guts of the pumpkin.

"Usually, I'm doing this at 4 p.m. on Halloween," she joked. "You have to have it for Halloween."

Carving out a niche

Banker's "Wild Thing" took shape mainly from her carving skills, though at the very end she used pieces of a few small squashes to augment her work for the full monster effect.

Jensen started out that way too, but soon affixed two small squashes to the sides of his pumpkin, creating a "Princess Leia" look.

It quickly vanished as his creation got more and more sinister looking. He added a large purple gourd to the front for a nose and cut an evil set of eyes and a jagged mouth.

"I'm trying to scare the kids away so I can eat all the candy myself," he joked.

Friedman, meanwhile, was still going "heavy metal," as more and more nails were incorporated into the piece.

"It's kind of fun to pound a nail into a pumpkin," she said with a grin. "It's a nice feeling."

"There's just something wonderful about pumpkins," added Banker.

As they spoke, the workspace was definitely beginning to smell like pumpkins as well.

After about 75 minutes, all three were putting the finishing touches on their work. "Be afraid, be very afraid," said Jensen, as he placed a candle inside his pumpkin and lit it. He made some adjustments once he saw how the light reflected through the surface.

Friedman, who dubbed her creation "Heavy Metal Pig" finally hammered in enough nails to suit her tastes, was next to shine a light on her talent, so to speak. Asked more about how she came up with the idea, she said, "Think outside the pumpkin!"

Banker suggested an alternative name for her friend's work, given all the protruding metal. "Porcu-pumpkin," she opined, making Friedman laugh. So, just what school of art did their pumpkins fit into?

The folk tradition, suggested Jensen. Dada, opined Banker.

After she finished her work and put a candle inside, all three pumpkins were lined up next to each other for a photo shoot.

"I think they're wonderful," said Margaret Duke, a Los Angeles resident visiting Jensen, who watched the entire process. "They all compliment each other; very playful."

For more information on Homewood Pottery, visit the Web site http://homewoodpottery.com. The studio is one of six stops on a holiday pottery tour on Dec. 5 and 6. For more information, go to http://mdpotterytour.com.