October 28, 1998
Barnard stays true to artistic form
By Garret Leiva
Herald staff writer
Tracey Barnard rolls her eyes and turns up her nose at the idea. While the Traverse City resident normally shies away from such expressions, this is one aspect of pumpkin carving where she can't keep a straight face.
"It's a new millennium of pumpkin carving. It's like everyone can do it now so the uniqueness has been taken away. It's frustrating," noted Barnard, a pumpkin carver extraordinaire lamenting on how store-bought carving kits have spoiled this fruit based art form.
While others might simply connect the dots to create their pumpkin masterpiece, Barnard stays true to her artistic upbringing and creates each carving with a steady hand and her own vivid imagination.
Like any true artist, Barnard enjoys getting elbow deep in her medium of choice. Scooping out stringy gourd "guts" and slippery seeds is a necessary part of preparing each pumpkin -albeit a sticky one. Before getting her hands dirty, however, Barnard must carefully select the right shape and size to create a great work of art from a garden variety gourd.
"Ultimately you'd like the pumpkin to last as long as possible, so you look for things like color since the darker orange it is, the thicker skin it is," said Barnard, who started her craft 10 years ago after taking part in pumpkin carving contest that offered a grand prize of dinner for two at Bower's Harbor Inn - a contest she won.
After picking out her pumpkin, Barnard begins the "arjewast" task of transferring the design from paper to pumpkin. Using a sketch for a template, she works with an image that is purely black and white - there are no shades of gray in pumpkin carving.
"I'll draw it out on a piece of paper to see if the design will work," noted the Michigan State University graphic design graduate. "It can be very intricate, right down to the pimento of an olive."
While the intricate designs set her apart from the average jack-o-lantern carver, so do the tools. No bent table spoons or paring knives here. Instead, Barnard uses an assortment of Exacto blades to slice and scrape out elaborate haunted houses, dancing skeletons, spider webs and cackling witches.
Aside from these traditional Halloween icons, Barnard's customers have requested everything from pimento accented business logos to log cabins with chinking.
"Sometimes the designs can get so complex I'll sit there and think, 'This just isn't going to work.' But I can honestly say that I have never messed a pumpkin up," noted Barnard, who creates up to a dozen pumpkins each year, including several for the restaurant Windows where she works as a waitress.
"Pumpkin is a very amicable medium. It's always happy to work for you."
Although its good natured texture may make for smooth sculpting, it also leaves an artist with a body of work that can start to smell after a week. But Barnard never regrets her choice of materials; even when her artwork starts to implode.
"It gives the artist a chance to come back with another piece because it's not made of stone or bronze, said Barnard, who has worked with art forms such as watercolor, clay, Origami paper folding and acetyl tank welding.
Even her mother, Jean, is not bothered by seeing her child's wonderful works of art end up in the compost heap.
"An artist friend of mine described Tracey's pumpkins as 'disposable art,' said Jean, of Traverse City, who displays one of her daughter's pumpkins each year for Halloween trick or treaters . "A lot of people are very into that idea."
While the present store-bought pumpkin kits inspire her to stretch the limits of pumpkin skin and creativity, Barnard also takes inspiration from her artistic upbringing.
"I remember that my father, the late Talbott Barnard, was quite the master pumpkin carver. He was the first person I ever saw put ears on a pumpkin. He was really good at capturing just the right expression."