Timelapse video shows artist turning pumpkin into ‘Taylor Swiftkin’
Artist Jeanette Paras turned a 399-pound pumpkin into “Taylor Swiftkin,” while also giving a nod to Travis Kelce.
Each October, traffic begins to crawl past Jeanette Paras’ house to gawk. Delivery drivers hop out of their trucks, not to drop off packages, but to get a closer look.
“Sometimes, I even catch a police car out front taking photos,” the Dublin resident said with a chuckle.
She isn’t the only one laughing. Amusement brightens the faces of passersby as they recognize the famous faces staring back at them in pumpkin form.
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Drawing from headlines and memes, Paras has painted “celebrity pumpkins” for the past 36 years. The zesty, gregarious 69-year-old’s main reason for carrying on the tradition for so long is simple: It’s entertaining.
“I started doing this because I think it’s fun and funny. The first year that I did celebrity pumpkins, we had two — one was 94 pounds, which I consider a baby, and the other was 118 pounds,” she said.
The inaugural creations for Paras Pumpkins were then-presidential candidates George H. Bush and Mike Dukakis. The pair paved the way for noted figures including Brutus Buckeye, Barack Obama, Baby Yoda, Kanye West and the mega-popular Donald TrumpKin and Taylor SwiftKin.
“My pumpkins are a snapshot of who’s getting a lot of media attention at the time. They need to be timely and relevant, so I start playing around in my mind about the end of September,” Paras said.
“I don’t make the news, I pumpkinize it.”
But Paras does make the news — all over the world. Her Halloween handiwork has gone viral on social media and captured the attention of CNN, NBC News, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, as well as media outlets in the U.K., Asia and South America, among others.
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Her pumpkins are also collecting kudos from the namesakes who inspire them, with the most recent accolades coming from “Saturday Night Live” cast member Bowen Yang.
On Oct. 21, Paras revealed her latest masterpiece, Bowen YangKin as Moo DengKin — a tribute to Yang’s pygmy-hippo parody on “SNL.”
About an hour after she posted the photo on Instagram, Yang commented with a brief but glowing endorsement of his gourdy twin: “This is incredible!!!!!”
Paras was awestruck — and perhaps a little starstruck, too. “That was me you heard screaming,” she said.
Her James CordKin merited a mention on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and Jimmy Fallon cracked wise about Taylor SwiftKin and Kanye West’s PumpYEkin.
Additionally, actor Jason Sudeikis and his mother liked the 700-pound likeness of his TV character, Ted LassoKin, on social media. “I lost my little mind when that happened,” Paras recalled.
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Self-entertainment aside, there’s another, more sobering reason why Paras has devoted so much time to her pumpkin passion: It helped her through two battles against breast cancer.
“It gave me something else to think about. I think it was God’s way of timing things,” said Paras, who considers herself not as a “survivor” but a “thrive-r.”
October is an important month for Paras. Not only is it pumpkin time, it’s her birthday and wedding anniversary month.
“And most important, because it’s close to my heart, it’s also Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” she said, adding that early detection through a mammogram saved her life.
Paras Pumpkins has teamed up with the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. With an immediate goal of raising $5,000, Paras will match dollar for dollar the first $2,500 in donations, which can be made at paraspumpkins.com.
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“Hopefully, along with this attention I’m getting for the pumpkins, I can do a little good,” she said. “Even if one person who’s been putting off a mammogram gets one, it’s worth it.”
Despite her painting and decorating skills, Paras insists she’s no artist.
“I’m not a trained artist. I consider myself a comedian. I raised three kids. You’ve got to have a sense of humor raising kids,” she said.
“That’s what’s so funny — I don’t know what the hell I’m doing with this. I was in the automotive business for years. I do this pumpkin thing every 11 months.”
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When she does her “thing,” it’s a very hush-hush operation during which she covers the windows of her garage studio to thwart the prying eyes of potential “pumpkin-peekers,” including husband Peter.
Paras procures her pumpkins from “the nicest people in the world” — giant pumpkin growers from around the area. The health of the pumpkins determines how long they’re displayed on Paras’ porch; they can last from two weeks to two months, she said.
Bowen YangKin as Moo DengKin will be on view for a limited time. The baby hippo and his pumpkin kin also can be seen on the Paras Pumpkins website.
When each pumpkin has run its course, Paras gives the seeds to the grower and disposes of the gourd in pieces, sometimes in creative ways.
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Taylor SwiftKin ended her iconic “Paras Tour” at a pumpkin drop with WCOL morning show hosts Zuko and Kayla. From 70 feet in the air, SwiftKin was dropped into a pile of smaller pumpkins emblazoned with the word “cancer,” symbolizing smashing the disease itself.
More than anything, Paras hopes her pumpkins give people a much-needed dose of life’s best medicine, laughter.
“This pumpkin thing really makes a lot of people laugh. There’s not many opportunities in life to do that to so many different people of all different kinds. That gives me joy,” she said.
So next October, if you see Paras’ garage windows covered and she’s wearing her special black and orange pumpkin socks, “that means it’s really getting serious,” she said.
Those are sure signs she’s in the midst of her next big creation and you’ll have to wait for the reveal.
After all, no one likes a pumpkin-peeker.
