I love holidays—at Christmas I go overboard with cutting snowflakes and hanging lights, and on Valentine’s Day I write love letters to my housemates. But in the past, carving pumpkins has led to painful cuts and disappointment. I inevitably slice my hand at some point and I have to make an impromptu trip to CVS for band–aids. And then when I’m done, I’m almost never fully satisfied with the outcome—the face is never scary enough and the cuts are messy. With my ineptitude with a knife in mind, I chose to try “non–carve” pumpkin decorating this year. Armed with just a paintbrush I drew inspiration from one of my favorite artists, Yayoi Kusama. Summed up in one sentence, Yayoi Kusama is an 82–year–old badass Japanese artist who, among other things, organized public orgies in her youth and is famed for her obsession with polka dots. She's the kind of kook who's lived, voluntarily, in a mental hospital in Tokyo for the past 30 years.
The whole endeavor took me three and half hours. While this may seem absurd, I have to say I don’t regret a second of the arduous process—it served as therapy of sorts. The lengthy time period is on account of obstacles I was forced to overcome. For starters, did you know you can’t use washable kid’s paint directly on a pumpkin? I didn’t. This meant I had to unearth the primer I had bought for a Fine Art class two years ago (one of the benefits of being a hoarder). After priming the pumpkin, it took two coats of yellow–orange paint mix for me to be satisfied with the pumpkin’s new hue. After watching paint dry for about five minutes, I opted to dry the paint with a hairdryer to minimally speed up the process. Next came the dots. My original plan of using a sharpie fell through when I found the sharpie on the not–quite–yet–dry paint didn’t work. Instead, I had to unearth ink from the aforementioned art class and paint each dot on. While my wrist hurt by the end, I am proud of my pumpkin masterpiece... I probably won’t do it again though.
Still, for now, I have a spooky, kooky pumpkin to call my own. Do you?
Inspired to carve? Buy pumpkins at:
Fresh Grocer
4001 Walnut St
Aldi
4421 Market St
Supreme Shop n Bag
4301 Walnut St
Mariposa Food Co–Op
4814 Baltimore Ave
