A Warm Glowing Night at the Pumpkin Pavilion

Last weekend my mom and I went to the annual Pumpkin Pavilion event in Bayview. It was such a nice, warm night that we decided to explore a nearby neighborhood too. I ended up with so many pics between the Pumpkin Pavilion and the neighborhood decorations, that I decided to post them separately. So you'll see some awesome, mostly DIY yard displays in the next post.

Our visit to the Pumpkin Pavilion was "glowing" in more than one way. There were of course the jack-o-lanterns, but also there was an art installation that was glowing with blacklight paint. But first, here are some of my favorite carvings:

I managed to get a few shots of the rows of pumpkins from the side. It was so crowded that I mostly had to zoom in from a distance.

Maybe a pig?

I love this one! It must have taken some patience to carve all those teeth.

This is another one that took some care. Carving all those little star points without making random funky slices is some feat!

This one looks like an alien to me.

Grumpy cat? 

Here's another favorite of mine. What patiently carved teeth! Looking this pic over now, I can't even imagine how someone managed to get a knife in that narrow mouth and carve upper and lower teeth!

This big toothy grin has been carved in that way where just part of the pumpkin is scraped off. I'd like to try that some time. I wonder if it is difficult to do? The pumpkin becomes almost like a lampshade with this technique. There's something extra spooky about there being no eyes above the mouth.

Glamour Girl:

Alien? Minion? Cyclops? 

It would be cool if this one came with a cackling sound effect. It looks like it is saying "Muahahaha!" 

This Creature from the Black Lagoon carving fit with this year's theme. There was a person in a Creature costume dancing to music at the event. I unfortunately did not see that dancing Creature in person but there are some videos online. I also saw some pics of a Creature sculpture someone made near a small lake in the park. I wish we'd seen that, but we must not have walked on that side of the park. It is a pretty large area. Again, I cannot imagine how long it took to carefully carve this!

So here is that blacklight art installation I mentioned earlier. There were neon skeleton pigeons all over the place. They were perched up high, so they really had the look of real birds. I mean, aside from the neon skeleton paint. But, you know how it is when you look up and there is a bird above you on a wire or a tree. Well, they were doing some realistic perching.

Some of my favorite pics from that night were taken looking up at the birds.

I hope they keep this installation or something like it in the future. 

The zombies were back again and looking grosser than ever. I think they were looking grosser because they weren't lit very much. So for the most part, they looked like oozing slime glittering in the dark. 

To my surprise, a number of the up-close zombie portraits turned out well! They must use glass eyes and artificial teeth from medical supply shops on some of these.

This one has more of the glossy ping pong ball eye look.

That backlit tuft of hair adds something.

This one is a hot mess.

Either this one or the first one I shared may be the scariest to me. What do you think?

This one is definitely the most assertive.

There were a few inflatable decorations and random props set up as well. You can walk around the park and see some little different themed areas. 

This inflatable stack of pumpkins was massive, as you can tell by where the stem meets the top of the building.

Behind some of the inflatables was this bright, blacklight painted sign. It goes well with this year's painted pigeons, hey?

Last night, Mom and I carved some pumpkins that are on display with a different group of jack-o-lanterns. It was fun to contribute to the type of event I photograph each year. Those pics will be up soon. 🎃