Pumpkin Werx
Every family has its holiday traditions. One of our was that my dad would carve pumpkins for Halloween. They were always different but you could tell which ones he made. They tended to feature geometric shapes, like spherical eyes or an elongated cube for a nose. And they always had a lot of character. He didn’t really talk much while carving them (actually, he didn’t talk a whole lot in general), but my brother and I learned from him. He didn’t just carve a face onto a pumpkin, he carved the pumpkin into a face. It’s a subtle distinction. His pumpkins were characters, not just a medium to carve an image onto.
Our dad passed away years ago but my brother and I continued the tradition of carving pumpkins. Paul’s pumpkins are much closer in style to our dad’s. I was trying to carve mine to look like a specific face. I’m not completely satisfied as it looks more like a carving on a pumpkin than a pumpkin with a face. But it’s a pretty decent resemblence. Recognize him? Here’s a hint.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Yeah I recognized the face. So you’re doing work on the movie UP too? Man working in Pixar is my dream. I’ll major in Computer Science and I’ll teach myself some art and animation.
October 28th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Pretty impressive carving Mach. ‘Up’ looks awesome. I can’t wait for it to come out.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:06 am
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January 26th, 2010 at 11:54 am
[…] brother and I have a tradition of carving pumpkins together for Halloween which started because our dad always carved cool pumpkins for Halloween when […]
December 11th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Hi Tony! I don’t know if you remember me. We used to be neighbors back when you were in high school. Your mother was my Kumon teacher, and I believe my parents are still your mother’s neighbors on Oxley St. I was the oldest Okamoto out of the 3 little Japanese kids that used to go to your house a lot. I stumbled across this site after I was doing a little googling about Pixar. I had to comment because I vividly remember your dad’s pumpkins. They were the highlight of every Halloween when I was growing up, and it made me so happy to find out that you’ve kept the tradition! I hope you’re doing well!
December 12th, 2010 at 1:06 am
Thanks, Lisa!