This is a mirror of a video originally posted on Odysee:

https://odysee.com/@artvarious:4/jol_slideshow_2023:c

About my jack-o-lanterns, and their absence:

1999 or 2000 - This was the first time I wanted to do a more sophisticated design. My model was Goliath from Gargoyles. I didn't know how to do advanced carving, so I carved gradients from the inside, which was pretty hard and didn't quite work. It still looked like Goliath, and you could sort of see subtle gradients.

2003 - Taarna from the movie Heavy Metal. There is no photo of it lit up in the dark.

2010 - I had a pumpkin that I was carving up in a Murdoch Mysteries design, but the design was poorly planned and too intricate, so it fell apart and I ended up with nothing usable.

2013 - Walter White, who unfortunately ended up looking like Bruce Willis.

2014 - Murdoch Mysteries redeemed from 2010.

2015 - Canadian voters finally got rid of Harper, who was ruining the country. I celebrated by doing a maple leaf. Now it's Trudeau who's ruining the country. If it isn't one crazy authoritarian, it's another.

2016 and 2017 - I was busy and stressing over other things, so no jack-o-lantern. I recall leaving a pumpkin under my bed until it rotted, and throwing it out after Halloween.

2019 - Ankhs are symbols that represent human slaves. When ankhs are physical rings, you can pull on them just like you can pull on the hair of a human slave. I thought it was an appropriate theme for Halloween. I couldn't get a pumpkin this year, so I used four squash.

2020 - The ship from Star Trek: Enterprise. I must not have planned the design well, because it looks terribly sad. I could barely identify it when I was digging through my old photos. Too bad, because the Firefly ship turned out really well in a previous year. This one looks like roadkill.

2022 - Julian Assange. The previous design was great, but I just wanted to do it again. The face does look softer and more human. A mother and her daughter came to the house dressed as mimes, and the mom broke her character to compliment my pumpkin. I have no idea if she knew who he was, or if she just thought it was a nice face.

2023 - Taarna redeemed from 2003. Now I can see it in the dark. My mom showed it to her friends and family, who were impressed. One friend of a friend liked it - someone who does warrior women artwork that's leagues ahead of my own drawing skills. I erased and redrew the face over 10 times, but it didn't quite turn out to be Taarna. My version of Taarna has dark hair and a cute baby face. That wasn't the plan, but it's still nice. Also, I grew the pumpkin myself from seed.

It's typical for me to finish my jack-o-lanterns late in the evening, when the number of trick-or-treaters is winding down. Very few people see them. Even when I try to start early, it's never early enough. I think a decent number of people saw Lilo & Stitch, because I remember someone commenting on it, and also Julian Assange #2. I'm not sure that many people saw Julian Assange #1, but a boy was staring intently at it. My area will get 25-60 people stopping by.

Music used:

London Philharmonic Orchestra - Symphony No. 5: Adagietto

London Philharmonic Orchestra - Slavonic Dance No. 2

London Philharmonic Orchestra - Hungarian Dance No. 5