This week, Meyer Library is hosting Carve & Cackle, a pumpkin decorating contest between the faculty and staff members in various departments. All of the pumpkins were decorated based upon a book in the Meyer Library collection. Students, faculty, and staff who enter the library are invited to vote on their favorite pumpkin displayed in the lobby. The ballots are being counted by student workers Gabi Martin and Evelyn Kerr from the Marketing and Communications department. A winner will be announced Friday around midday.

Let’s take a closer look at the eight competing pumpkins.

#1 Twilight by Stephenie Meyer – Designed by Resource Management and Discovery

Paige Harp, content strategist, was the primary designer and painter for Resource Management and Discovery’s pumpkin. She chose Twilight and Raegan Wiechert, faculty librarian, suggested she paint scenes from all of the covers in the series. Ashley Morrill, a part-time librarian who works in Special Collections, painted the flower based on the New Moon cover.

“They’re fast cozy reads,” Paige said regarding why she chose this theme. “Sometimes you just need something that’s fluff to get your mind off the world. Read about vampires and love. It’s great. It’s escapism.”

One very important question for Paige: Team Edward or Team Jacob? 

“Team Charlie,” she said, referring to protagonist Bella Swan’s father. “I like him in the movies. I think he adds some funny moments, some levity when things are really serious and very dramatized. He’s got a cool mustache, too.” 

#2 The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft – Designed by Library Information Technology

“Honestly, we were trying to think of something that we could use the 3D printer [for],” said Joshua Brotherton, Distributed User Support Specialist. “We printed the tentacles. We thought it would be fun to print them.” 

Joshua glued them on and Nathan Neuschwander, technology strategist and interim head of LIT, engraved Cthulu’s face on it. Joshua was originally going to carve Cthulu’s face with a knife, but Nathan suggested they use the laser in the innovation lab.

“I’ve never lasered a pumpkin,” Joshua thought. “Let’s do it.”

 

#3 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving – Designed by Research and Instructional Services

When asked about his team’s pumpkin, faculty librarian Joshua Lambert gave all the credit to fellow librarian and department head Tracy Stout. 

“Tracy painted it all,” he said. “She took it home and did it.”

According to Tracy, she used acrylic paint and chose the theme because of nostalgia.

“Sleepy Hollow just came to mind when I was thinking of classic spooky literature,” she explained. “Probably also because Disney would play the cartoon after school around this same time when I was growing up.”

#4 The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe – Designed by Special Collections 

This team’s pumpkin was a joint effort between librarian Ashley Morrill, archivist Tracie Gieselman-France, and library associate Jeffrey Lawson. 

“We have two books that were inspired by Poe’s works and that’s what made us want to do something about Poe,” said Tracie. “It kind of developed on its own. We talked about what we might do and we put a mustache on and realized you could recognize him as Edgar Allan Poe without anything else. So we read through the tales, picked the most recognizable tales, and found props for them.”

This pumpkin was designed with a “minimalist approach.” Many of the supplies were gathered at local craft stores and Halloween-themed stores. The wig was originally longer but Tracie cut it and Ashley curled it. 

“We did use some Special Collections material,” Tracie added. “The cravat is [made from] display materials that we have on hand.”

#5 The Art of Alfred Hitchcock – Designed by Library Administration

Several ideas were put forth in a meeting between the members of the Library Administration team. In the end, it was administrative assistant Vanessa Lockhart’s idea for a Hitchcock-themed pumpkin that won out based on a book in the Meyer collection with synopses of the movies and pictures and critiques.

“I started out with sketching the design on a piece of paper and then I sketched it on the pumpkin,” Vanessa said. “Over four or five days, I went between doing my job and painting the pumpkin. I used acrylic paint, paint pens, there’s cardboard on it, we used the 3D printed knife and we added little accoutrements.”

Her favorite movie scene to paint was either The Birds or Psycho. 

“I really enjoyed it,” she said. “It was super fun and I think it turned out good.”

#6 The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum – Designed by Access Services 

This gorgeous green pumpkin is the brainchild of Shirley Moentnish, circulation and shelving supervisor. According to her team, it took some time before a suitable theme was chosen.

“We tossed around the idea of a Santa. I think Karen came up with Santa because it’s scary that he watches you all the time,” said library associate Sue Reichling. “We had a ghost for a while. I came up with the idea for the ghost as a joke. I thought we could put a sheet on it.” 

Part of the difficulty, said library associate Chansouk Ragsdale, was finding a book that was actually housed in Meyer’s collection. 

In the end, Shirley took the pumpkin home and settled on the Wicked Witch of the West, also known as Elphaba from the spinoff novel Wicked. 

“I have always loved The Wizard of Oz and so many of the projects and movies that have come from the book,” Shirley said. “Especially the latest movie, Wicked. I thought about it more recently because my eight-year-old niece had a Wicked-themed birthday party.”

Shirley spray painted the pumpkin with green acrylic paint and used modeling clay for the eyes, nose, and chin to make the witch look like she was melting. After that, she added the eyelashes. She found the hat, board, and parts of the broom at Walmart. She bought a yellow posterboard and used pencil to make the yellow brick road.

#7 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – Designed by the Testing Center

Visual art is something student worker Rocky Standiford has only recently gotten into, making his rendition of Frankenstein all the more impressive. 

He got the paint and paintbrushes at Walmart and then got to work after approving the project with his coworkers. 

“I went on Google images and typed in Frankenstein and I looked at it while I was drawing it,” Rocky said. 

Rocky’s team is impressed with the work he did. 

“He did a really good job,” said library associate Scott Fischer. “I didn’t know he had the art bug in him.”

“I’m very proud of it,” said Campbell Piercy, student proctor.

#8 The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe – Designed by Marketing and Communications 

And last but not least–Marketing and Communications is the team behind the Carve & Cackle competition. Two student workers, Evelyn Kerr and Cade Olson, picked the theme and painted the raven for the team. 

On Monday, Gabi Martin and graphic designer Sarah Curl set up the table with everybody’s pumpkins. And this team is doing more than designing a pumpkin, setting up the display, and counting the votes. They actually put together the first place trophy as well! The trophy was a joint effort between Sarah Curl, Nathan Neuschwander, and coordinator of public services Holly Kouns. Be sure to read the next edition of LibNotes for a snapshot of the winner and their prize!

At the end of the day on Wednesday, a middle school English education student named Teresa Morgan stood in front of the table, deciding who to vote for. In the end, she voted for pumpkin #3. 

“I think that the horse on it looks so cool,” she said. “And the painting is really well done.” 

May the best pumpkin win! Happy Halloween!