Who needs canvas? A trip to the pumpkin patch is all that American artists Marc Evan and Chris Soria need to put a new spin on the Old Masters. The New York duo and their team of 12 like to work with gourds. And why not? Once the image is drawn onto its surface, the fruit is etched with serrated knives, printmaking linoleum knives and clay loops used for trimming pottery. Stick a 40 watt LED light inside and the end result is eerily fascinating.
Carving pumpkins began as a lark for the pair who studied illustration at the Parsons School of Design but it really took off after Wired magazine discovered them in 2008. Today, their company, Maniac Pumpkin Carvers, will carve anything – portraits, logos, florals, you name it – for corporate get-togethers, fundraisers and weddings. The company even conducts workshops and demonstrations in and around New York state for would-be sculptors.
Their showpiece Artists Series, intricate reproductions of world famous masterworks, was first commissioned by New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2011. Maniac has been supplying MoMA with pumpkin copies of their permanent collection ever since.The pumpkins adorn the lobby every Halloween.
The cost of an original pumpkin piece, in case you were wondering, varies between $150 and $800 dollars. More for a MoMA piece. No-one’s saying how much more. One assumes the Museum gets a discount on an artwork that eventually shrivels and rots. Like Banksy’s Girl With Balloon which sold for over a million dollars at Sotheby’s earlier this month and then partially shredded once the sale was completed, pumpkin art will eventually self-destruct. Only in this case, organically. And it’s cheaper.
