Look Park in Northampton will host ALLURA Pumpkin Art Spectacular, a family-friendly outdoor pumpkin art trail, over the course of 15 nights beginning next week.
The trail features pumpkin art set up in 13 scenes with designs that include, among others, fantasy creatures like fairies and dragons as well as images based on movies like “Edward Scissorhands” and “The Wizard of Oz.” The trail will be open from Friday, Oct. 9, to Sunday, Nov. 1, from 6:30 to 8:45 p.m.
The pumpkin art, however, isn’t actually made from real pumpkins — it’s made of foam molds carved by creator Peter Savigny, lit from the inside by LED lights. Real pumpkins, he said, would be at risk of rotting or being eaten by wildlife, but these pumpkins have more longevity.
To make his creations, Savigny imports pumpkin molds from China. He’s “more of a craftsman” than an illustrator, he said, and “very good at manipulating, but I’m not so much of an originator.” He finds designs on Shutterstock, Pinterest, and Etsy, or he will ask illustrators he knows in New York City for work he can use, then sets up those images on a projector before he starts carving.
“I build the pumpkins to the illustration, so I’ll pick the biggest one for the head. … Sometimes I’ll do the hands, the feet, the head, anything that sticks out, and then I’ll make the others just fit in, which can be challenging because you’re working in three dimensions on round surfaces that have to intersect,” he said, “so it’s a lot of individual slices, very thin cuts, until it feels like it’s right.” Sometimes, he needs to do additional carving to give a pumpkin texture, like that of the lizardlike skin on a demon orc.
“If I go in and I’m like, ‘I’m just gonna knock this out,’ the pumpkins resist. They don’t give me the art I want. They fight me. And it’s almost like I have to zen out a little bit and get into the zone and say, ‘I’m here to serve the image. It is already in here. I need to bring it out,’” he said.
Savigny works from a shed at his house in Granby, where he moved last summer. Before that, he had a long career in television art direction, primarily in New York City. He worked for big-name networks like ABC, HBO, Showtime, and Discovery Channel, and he designed interstitials for the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Games. He later became an independent design director, however, working in both New York City and California, and he won five Emmy Awards.
With the introduction of programs like Adobe After Effects, however, Savigny’s industry shifted, and he “bounced around,” he said, working for Apple, then as a roadie for a music company. He also did set design for schools in New Jersey.
Then the pumpkin art opportunity came along. In 2019, Savigny carved a pumpkin — a real one — for his son’s school play. Afterward, someone from the Hudson Valley pumpkin art show “The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze” approached him and asked if he’d be open to creating work for them. He said yes, but with some apprehension.
That first year, he carved images of dogs, and the organizers invited him back. In 2020, his designs celebrated first responders; in 2021, they featured imagery of New York City, like pedicabs, a hot dog stand, and people feeding pigeons on a bench.
“The first show I did, I think that’s what made me want to do my own show. … I saw kids laughing and pointing, ‘Check that out, that’s so cool! Look at that! Look at this, look at that!’ I just felt such a pride that I could bring that up in somebody,” he said.
Other people found his work in a pumpkin carving group on Facebook and asked to create works for them as well.
“I started selling pieces around the country, and then I finally went, ‘Light bulb — why am I doing this for other people for an hourly wage when I could be having my own show?’” he said.
Now, Savigny is retired, and ALLURA is his day job.
“Once I found this, I kind of went, ‘You know what? I enjoy this. And if I can make it somewhat lucrative, it would be a good retirement thing’ — keeps me busy, keeps me off Netflix, and [stops me from] hiking every single day,” he said.
When he spoke to the Gazette, Savigny was two weeks away from installing his work at Look Park.
“It’s a fabulous experience, it really is. The reward of seeing it come to life and pulling it out of just plastic with lights … All I’m trying for is that I want to make people go, ‘Cool!’” he said.
In a chaotic day and age like this one, he said, there’s value in creating feel-good experiences.
“If I can create an evening of escapism and wonder and awe,” Savigny said, “then I’ve done my job.”
Tickets, not including fees, are $19 general admission for visitors 16 and up, $16 for seniors age 65 and older, $14 for children ages 3 to 16, and free for children younger than that. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit lookallura.com.
