Bea ArthurWalter CronkiteFarrah FawcettPatrick SwayzeeRicardo MontolbanSen. Ted KennedyMichael Jackson

Remembering ‘Jacko’

in celebrity jack-o’lanterns

By Unsie Zuege

Never mind the New York City Marathon, we’ve got our own annual marathon right here on the border of Chanhassen and Eden Prairie. For the 21st year, David Mortensen was up at the crack of dawn to begin carving his pumpkins. His Halloween goal: To complete the jack-o’lanterns and have them in place and lit with candles by dusk.

These are no ordinary pumpkins.

These pumpkins are works of art, recreating the images of celebrities and the famous who have died in the past year. This year, his artfully carved pumpkins recreated Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Walter Cronkite, Bea Arthur, Ricardo Montalban, and Eartha Kitt (not only a singer but the original Catwoman from the 1960s Batman TV series).

Friends, neighbors, and others who’ve heard about Mortensen’s annual Halloween display, gathered on Mortensen’ front lawn at his Duck Lake Trail home. He placed the eight pumpkins on pedestals and onlookers can’t help but “ooh” and “ah” over the glowing faces that he carves to achieve a high contrast effect. People take pictures and admire the deft carvings that are meticulous and highly detailed.

It all started 21 years ago when he was experimenting with high contrast images for his Halloween pumpkins. No monster faces or ghoulish images for him. Instead, he hit on the idea of recreating an iconic image of a celebrity who had recently passed. He doesn’t remember the first two that he carved; but based on the successful results, the following year, he carved three. Each year, he added more until he arrived at the ideal number of eight.

He selects his pumpkins from the same Minnetrista pumpkin patch.

“I like them very tall with a fairly flat front without a lot of folds and creases,” Mortensen said. “Several weeks before I select the celebrities and research their images from photographs, and make my designs. I have to figure out how the carvings will hold together. On the day before Halloween, I scrape out the pumpkins and the sides. I use a loop tool used in pottery to scrape the sides really thin and peel the pulp away. I have a needle tool so I can keep checking the depth of thickness in the pumpkin wall. And I use a good old Xacto blade along with toothpicks and nails for the really fine details like pupils.”

This year, he completed the pumpkins by 4:30 p.m., giving him just enough time to arrange the pumpkins for a group photo in his garage, then arrange them on the pedestals on the front lawn.

Once darkness falls, the show begins.

The annual event draws between 250 and 300 visitors each year, Mortensen estimates. “And lots of the people stop by that don’t come into the house — where he hosts an annual open house party. It’s a chance for all the neighbors and the new neighbors to get together and see each other, Mortensen said.

“I guess it’s kind of like our Neighborhood Night Out.”