Pumpkin carver celebrates 40 years of Halloween artistry

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 26 Oct, 14:57 · Archive

Mike Valladao, known as 'Farmer Mike', has spent four decades carving elaborate designs into pumpkins.

Mike Valladao, a systems engineer at a cybersecurity company, has spent more than four decades carving elaborate designs into pumpkins. When autumn arrives, he adopts his alter ego 'Farmer Mike', known as the 'Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers', donning trademark orange overalls and a farmer hat. He has sculpted hundreds of gourds into ghoulish faces, seaside landscapes, witches, dragons and pop culture figures such as Yoda and Charlie Brown.

Valladao began the hobby by accident in the mid-1980s after growing large pumpkins at his San Jose home and deciding to carve faces into them. He approaches the work as an engineer might, viewing it as 'building something the same way I would build a piece of hardware, one layer at a time'. Despite having no formal artistic training, he draws inspiration from art in museums and from observing people, noticing details like teeth, ears and how nostrils flare.

This year Valladao celebrated 40 years of Halloween artistry at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, held in mid-October on the coast south of San Francisco. The festival is best known for its giant pumpkin weigh-off. At the two-day event, Valladao works on stage, allowing spectators to watch his process. The New York Post reports that festival organisers first saw his work in 1986 and invited him to showcase his skills in Half Moon Bay, where his family had opened the town's first feed and seed store in the 19th century.

How it is being reported

• Pumpkin ‘Picasso’ celebrates 40 years of carving creatures — shows off spooky skills at annual Halloween eventFarmer Mike Valladao has showed off his pumpkins everywhere from "The Tonight Show" to the Texas State Fair.New York Post · 26 Oct, 14:42
• Meet the pumpkin-carving 'Picasso' celebrating 40 years of Halloween artWhen the leaves change color, Mike Valladao becomes ‘Farmer Mike,’ renowned for his skill with a chiselIndependent World · 26 Oct, 11:36

In this story: Mike Valladao · Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival · San Jose · Half Moon Bay · San Francisco

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