Jack O' Lantern Spectacular to light Iroquois

At the start of last year's Jack O' Lantern Spectacular in Iroquois Park, show producer Travis Reckner lost pumpkins faster than he'd ever seen.

Temperatures hovered in the 80s, too hot for the thousands of carved, lit pumpkins lining both sides of a path in the park. Mold began to show within three days on pumpkins that should have lasted at least a week. Reckner said he started praying, "Please cool down."

So this year's show, "A Journey Through Time," will include at least one weather-related change when it opens Oct. 9. About 1,000 foam pumpkins will be perched in trees and fill the background — to prevent local artists from having to carve more than the $100,000 of pumpkins the company has already purchased.

"When you knock 1,000 pumpkins off the list, it's amazing how much easier it is," Reckner said.

On Thursday, Reckner, who with Paul Cadieux owns a business called Passions for Pumpkins, monitored a handful of local artists designing some of the 145 intricate pumpkins for the show. The pumpkins will be displayed in 23 stations representing different time periods, starting with dinosaurs and moving through the decades. They'll be cleaned every three days and changed out with fresh pumpkins during the 25-day event.

Planning for the show, a yearlong process, is approaching crunch time, and Reckner admits he's a little frantic. You don't just fill a path equal to the length of 12 football fields with thousands of pumpkins without stress.

Reckner and Cadieux moved to Louisville from Massachusetts in December and immediately jumped on planning this year's show. They constructed sets in the winter and reviewed portfolios, choosing about 30 artists to design and carve pumpkins through October.

The artists include illustrators, painters and sculptors. They may design one pumpkin or stick around to finish 50.

"Ink doesn't react like it does on canvas," Reckner said of painting a pumpkin. "Some people inevitably get frustrated, and I never see them again."

Matty Sciannameo has worked with Passion for Pumpkins since 2003 and is teaching artists how to work with the intricate gourds.

"It's heart and soul. It's passion," Sciannameo said. "... Passion for Pumpkins really is a true name for everybody here. Everybody is putting everything they have into creating creations that will impact every being that comes by."

Abstract painter Megan Kociscak, 27, used a paintbrush and Q-tip on Thursday to detail John Lennon's face. She worked on the show last year and plans to have a larger part this year, spending six or seven hours — or until she "can't look at a pumpkin anymore" — at the park each day.

Designing one of the pumpkins can take three to six hours, but Kociscak said the harder part comes when it's time to carve.

Artists dig a hole in the back of the pumpkin and carve it through to the design on the front. Kosciscak will carve the pumpkin shallower for Lennon's hair and deeper for his face, without breaking the skin. She'll then sand the pumpkin's front on Lennon's cheeks, chin and forehead so that light shines through the thin layer of skin.

"I think I'll mess it up," Kociscak said. "When we're just drawing, it's easy to erase it. You've just got to go slow."

Graphic designer Katie Schreiner, 24, said she thought the first pumpkin she carved last year was great. Then she put it on a light.

"And I thought, 'That's terrible,' " she said. "I had to completely recarve it."

Schreiner designed about 50 pumpkins last year. She's back full time this year and has already created a flapper, Darth Vader and a saber-toothed tiger. She picks designs that sound fun at the time.

Schreiner said last year's show was breathtaking, and she walked the path "maybe 100 times."

"It never got old," she said. "Artists never like to do the same thing twice if they can help it, so it's a different show every week."

Reporter Bailey Loosemore can be reached at (502) 582-4646. Follow her on Twitter at @bloosemore.

JACK O' LANTERN SPECTACULAR

When: Oct. 9-Nov. 2; dusk to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and dusk to midnight Friday and Saturday.

Where: Iroquois Park, 1080 Amphitheater Road

How much: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $9 for children on Sundays through Thursdays; $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, $12 for children Fridays and Saturdays.

More information: Sixty-percent of the show's proceeds will go to the Louisville Metro Parks Foundation and will be used to build inclusive playgrounds, designed for kids with all abilities. The first playground is planned for California Park.

VOLUNTEER

Find more about volunteering for the event at www.jackolanternlouisville.com/volunteer.