Halloween Art and Travel
Kristen Stafford: Halloween Art Collector and Podcaster
Subscribe
This podcast connects artists and collectors of Halloween art. You will experience the stories and inspirations behind some of the best Halloween art being created today. You’ll hear from dedicated collectors who capture their dream pieces. You will add to your Halloween travel bucket list as we explore Halloween-centric destinations.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Apr 29, 2021
Sharon Bloom: The Joy is in the Connection
Sharon Bloom is a visual artist and teacher who LOVES Halloween. While her education is in painting and print making, today she is best known in the Halloween art world for her vivid Halloween themed hand-built ceramics. She enjoys clay because it gives her a chance to work dimensional.
A life-long learner, Sharon is always trying out new technology, tools, and techniques. She’s had such variety in her creative journey: painting t-shirts at Nordstrom, painting thousands of cards and buttons by hand, wholesaling, painting animals in renaissance type costumes, and more.
Sharon wants her art to help people feel a sense of joy, hope, and make them smile. It’s more important that people connect to her art than anything else. She is touched that so many of her patrons come back to see her year-after-year.
Halloween is one of her favorite things in life. Her passion started in childhood while trying to fill pillowcases full of candy during trick-or-treating. She spends time with her Halloween collection on a daily basis. She believes that collecting is a way to surround herself with her Halloween friends.
She recommended the succulent, Black Prince Echeveria, and the work for her late friend, Christine Phelps.
Check out Sharon and her work at http://www.sharonbloom.com/
Oct 30, 2020
Joey Marsocci: Creating Immersive Spooky Experiences
Artist Joey Marsocci is a story teller who uses the mediums of theme park and haunt design, creature fabrication, illustration, writing, acting, cosplay, and more to tell his stories. He’s passionate about building immersive experiences for those who enjoy his strange worlds.
Joey knew he wanted to be in arts and entertainment since childhood. He loved watching scary movies like Jaws and figuring out how they were made. Authors like Jules Vern and Mary Shelley put his imagination into overdrive.
Teaching keeps him evolving as an artist. Art is therapy for him, and he infuses this into his lectures and classes. Students leave his classes with both technical and storytelling skills.
Joey explained theme parks are stories that you can directly interact with. Studying at CalArts gave him the opportunity to work on revisions to the Disney Haunted Mansion and the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction.
Joey’s favorite haunt is located at Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow, NY. It naturally feels creepy, foreboding, and dreadful to him. He’s had his own paranormal experiences there. Everything in the haunt is connected back to author Washington Irving and his time period. Joey is an actor at the haunt and creates custom monsters for it. Joey doesn’t break character when he is acting. He reminds himself that “monsters don’t get sick of being monsters” to keep himself from getting fatigued.
Joey finished the show by giving us an overview of his latest secret project at the Curioporium.
Check out Joey and his work at http://www.grymmstudios.com
You can find the Curioporium at https://www.curioporium.com
Oct 30, 2020
Ellen Gee: Producer and Publisher of the Macabre
Ellen Gee has dedicated her life to Halloween. It manifests in her music and fashion choices, home decorating, and career. Ellen is an artist, publisher, writer, and event planner – all in the theme of Halloween and horror.
Ellen has embraced goth since childhood. As a child, she identified with the strong female leads in The Addams Family and The Munsters. Lily Munster and Morticia Addams served as fashion muses to her. In middle school she fell in love with Alice Cooper and started dressing like him. She grew up a rebel, just north of Hollywood. She would run away from home and enjoy the wild life.
Ellen blended her publishing experience and passion for Halloween to create Autumn Brillance (AB), an online magazine dedicated to showcasing beautiful Halloween art. AB focuses on all mediums of Halloween art and spooky stories. Her intention was to do one issue a year, but she’s already decided to add in a Christmas issue.
Ellen’s art business, Macabre Webs, aims to “delight and disturb” collectors. She uses paint and clay to bring odd and strange characters to life. Pumpkins are some of her favorite things to create.
Ellen is obsessed with Halloween art shows around the country. Since there wasn’t one in her hometown of Nashville, she got busy and started her own. Monsters and Merriment started with seven vendors and now is up to over thirty. While mostly known for country music, Nashville has a large horror art and rock scene. In addition to Halloween and horror art, the show has live music (such as the Celtic Secret Commonwealth), storytellers, and movies. Ellen is super excited to commence planning for the 2021 show.
Connect with Ellen:
Her art: http://macabrewebs.blogspot.com
Monsters and Merriment: http://www.monstersandmerriment.com
Autumn Brillance: https://autumnbrilliancemagazine.blogspot.com
Oct 20, 2020
Kristen Beason: Bright and Colorful Halloween
Kristen Beason is creating cheeky folk art for Halloween merrymaking. She desires to make the holiday memorable for collectors, friends, and family.
Kristen traces her fascination with witches back to childhood. She enjoyed dressing up as Witchiepoo from the TV show H. R. Pufnstuf. She constantly drew witches on her handwriting paper in elementary school. She loves the illustrations in the children’s book “A Woggle of Witches” by Adrienne Adams. In it you’ll find long and lanky witches flying around and having feasts.
Her mother-in-law recognized her talent for art and taught her to paint over 3 decades ago. She also introduced her to gourds, which Kristen still uses in her art today.
Kristen loves to play in the dirt and garden. At one time she even had a Halloween-themed garden. She recommends the following plants for a creepy look: Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick, black pansies, fiber optic grass, and bat faced cuphea. She recommends the book “Wicked Plants” by Amy Stewart.
Kristen orchestrates an annual family Halloween dinner that we can all take inspiration from. Some of her themes were: Witches Dinner, Harry Potter, Gala in the Graveyard, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Full Moon Feast. The whole family gets in on the preparation, assisting with both the food and decorating.
Kristen loves the style of Tim Burton. Every year on Halloween, she watches the Nightmare Before Christmas. She will only watch it once a year to keep it special. Kristen encourages all of us to create our own holiday traditions and to save room for dessert.
Visit Kristen at https://kristenbeason.blogspot.com. She’s also on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kristenbeason/.
Oct 13, 2020
Susie Krichbaum: Creator of the Peculiar
Artist Susie Krichbaum loves to create peculiar creatures with a twist. Not satisfied to create a standard mermaid, Susie sculpted one and gave it anglerfish head. This desire to mix things up is no surprise given Susie’s career history and diverse arts and crafts endeavors.
Susie started her career as a nurse. After she became a mom, she took a break from nursing to be home with her two kids. During that time, Susie was creating part-time and selling at local craft shows.
Instead of going back to nursing, she took a position helping in a special education classroom. She fell in love with education and eventually became an office manager at a high school. While working in education, she became a certified yoga instructor.
Susie loved her job and the people, but it was stressful. Encouragement from a close friend and the support of her husband helped Susie make the decision to resign from the school at do art full-time. Towards the end of her time at the school, creative ideas started to arrive to her more frequently.
Susie still has a hand in education. She loves being part of the Creative Paperclay Design team. She creates tutorials to help new and experienced sculptors create seasonal projects.
Susie’s creative outputs are diverse: sculptures, dolls, bags, floorcloths, and more. She’s been told it is better to specialize, but she craves the variety. She is doing what fulfills her right now, and if that stops working, she’ll adapt.
Jack-o'-lanterns are her favorite Halloween characters to create. She loves to create art dolls that have a sense of movement. Susie has drawn and sculpted mushrooms since she was a child. Some of her mushroom caps look like witch hats. Any witches she creates are friendly and nurturing.
Susie’s love of Halloween shows up in her travel bucket list. She would love to visit Ireland (her ancestors are Irish), Wales, and Salem. She often listens to Irish music while she is creating.
Please visit Susie’s web site at: https://www.artbysusiek.com/
Sep 18, 2020
Nancy Malay: Spooky Sweet Creator
Minnesotan artist Nancy Malay has earned her nicknames of “The Christmas Lady” and “The Halloween Lady.” Early American Life magazine named her as one of the best artists in the country. She’s been published in multiple magazines, including five covers of Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts. She describes her Halloween style as “spooky sweet.”
Nancy loves writing craft tutorials. She strives to simplify the artistic process for beginning creatives and to help them avoid pit falls she’s experienced. She loves when people send her pictures of their creations.
One of the defining aspects of Nancy’s work is her rich, detailed clothing. She got her start in creating doll clothing as a child. Her home ec teacher commissioned her to create dresses. Nancy has worked in a bridal shop and theater costuming.
Nancy enjoys collecting Santas. She’d bring them home and make little improvements to them, inevitably leading her to create her own. There are many similarities between creating Santas, wizards, and witches. They have pronounced noses, lots of wrinkles, and defining clothing. Nancy says you can have a conversation with her witches over their cauldrons, but if they offer you tea, inspect it before you drink it.
Nancy won a Department 56 Village decorating contest with a spooky water scene. The prize was presented by Olympic Gold medalist Dorothy Hamill and a relative of Charles Dickens. This was the genesis of her spooky scene creation. There’s always a bit of mystery in them – like a door you cannot see behind.
Nancy loves stories. Some of her favorites are Harry Potter, the works of Charles Dickens, Grimm's Fairytales, and the Time-Life Enchanted World book series. Victorian artist John Atkinson Grimshaw’s dark nightscape paintings provide a visual inspiration for her scenes.
She teamed up with artists Joyce Stahl and Laurie Hardin to create the Artistry of Three. They provide each other encouragement and honest feedback and bond over their shared love of chocolate. They have a plethora of collectors in common.
Nancy has two studio assistants, her dog Zoey and a life-size skeleton, Delta Dawn. Delta Dawn was inspired by the country song about a faded southern belle. Unfortunately, Zoey ate Delta Dawn’s rose!
Nancy has been licensed by four companies. The process is time consuming with grueling deadlines but totally worth it. It’s a thrill for her to see her work in stores. She loves meeting collectors at signing events and shows. She is filled with gratitude that people are willing to come see her. She appreciates her collectors because they enable her to do what she loves.
You can find Nancy’s web site at: https://nancymalay.wixsite.com/mysite-1
The Artistry of Three is found at: https://artistryofthree.blogspot.com/
Find the podcast web site at: https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com/
Aug 30, 2020
Melissa Belanger: Art Quite Contrary
Artist Melissa Belanger's desire to be contrary is rooted in her childhood. Her mother was supportive but didn't like candy, Halloween, and dolls, which Melissa adores. Melissa created all of her costumes. One of her most memorable was cardboard butterfly wings paired with a snowsuit. Halloweens were often cold in her Wisconsin hometown.
Melissa loved her time as a middle school art teacher. She pushed her students to explore as many mediums as possible and to focus on process over outcome. She was amazed by the skill of her students and how open their minds were. Before going full-time in art, she also worked in a bookstore and an art gallery.
Melissa is passionate about travel. She enjoys checking out places she's seen in movies or heard about in songs. In Ostend, Belgium, she checked out the resort from the 1971 European vampire classic, Daughters of Darkness. Watching tourists on the boardwalk reminded her of Edward Gorey's paintings. She's a fan of artist James Ensor (1860-1949), who painted carnivals, puppets, and masks. While in Belgium, she visited his apartment and his mother's curiosity shop. It was there she spotted her first Fiji mermaid.
Her parents bestowed upon her a love of history and literature. Both find their way into her paintings. The twisted stories of Elizabeth Bathory, Fox Sisters, witch hunts, and the Donner Party inspire her to create.
Melissa admits it is tricky to describe her paintings. They are so cute she almost wants to dislike them. Her paintings have playful colors and textures. Melissa enjoys playing around with different themes and eras and mashing them all together. Her characters often hint that they are about to do something naughty. An outfit, movie, or song will help her focus on a theme for an art show.
Melissa loves cocktails and to entertain. She intentionally sets up her art show booths as lounges to encourage people to hang out. One of her favorite drinks is a Corpse Reviver. Her husband, Joe, is a great booth assistant. He'll even wear short lederhosen to get into character.
Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts magazine has included Melissa's work in multiple issues. On episode 20 of HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast, she shared how to make a black cat bobblehead and a pumpkin pillow. Melissa shared the secret that several dolls played the part of the black cat. You can see the show at: https://watch.hgtv.com/tv-shows/crafters-coast-to-coast/full-episodes/bobbleheads-zombie-dolls-faux-tombstones-pumpkin-pillow.
Melissa wrapped up the interview with two of her favorite quotes:
"Remember, never take no cut-offs and hurry along as fast as you can" - Anna Khomina (Donner-Reed Party and the Winter of 1846)
"No matter what, expect the unexpected. And whenever possible BE the unexpected" - author Lynda Barry.
Visit Melissa’s website: http://www.melissabelanger.com
Aug 13, 2020
Sian Ellis: Ghosts Everywhere
In this episode, you’ll meet British artist Sian Ellis. Sian is excited to be a full-time artist after years working concurrently in charity events management and art. Sian’s favorite events to produce were Halloween ones. She organized a children’s event that featured the crafting of monster lanterns out of tissue paper and birch. Once the children completed their lanterns, they put fairy lights in them and paraded around to the beats of a steel drum band. One of her favorite grown-up events to plan was a scary movie night in the woods.
Sian has been drawn to spooky stuff, history, and art since childhood. She loved buying ghost books from her school bookfair (she still has the books). She would set up ghost traps around her house (she never caught one). She’d use up her drawing pads and then start drawing in the family books, much to her parents’ dismay. She still loves ghost stories now, in addition to true-crime and horror. She highly recommends the No Sleep Podcast (https://www.thenosleeppodcast.com).
With the exception of ceramics, Sian is completely self-taught. She recently moved into a studio in a community artists’ area – she likes it much better than her previous home attic studio. Her studio is filled with cheerful colors and ghosts. Dot is her 4-legged studio assistant. Dot helps remind Sian to stay healthy by encouraging her to not just work all day.
Sian loves to illustrate haunted versions of regular family homes. She feels honored that people trust her with such personal work. One of her favorite commissions was capturing the yard of a passionate home haunter in the US.
Sian is participating in a new quirky makers web site, https://happy-emo.com. She recommends it for browsing for alternative UK-made goods. Halloween isn’t as big in the UK as the US, but it is growing. Her hometown (Sheffield, England), has a festival in October called Out of this World, filled with cosplay, creepy movie cars, and Halloween. The city dyes the water in their fountain radioactive green.
Sian’s web site is: http://sianellisillustration.co.uk
Find the podcast web site at: https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com
Jul 13, 2020
Karen Steinkraus: Heirloom Victorian Witch Hats
Artist Karen Steinkraus, of The Victorian Witch Hat, uses her experience in theater costume design to create one-of-a kind, jaw-dropping witch hats. Karen started by creating big Victorian hats for theater plays like “Hello Dolly.” She discovered it was a joy to make them. A group of women wearing crazy witch hats for a girls’ night out inspired her to start creating them for use outside the theater.
Karen sews without patterns. This skill commenced in childhood when she learned to make her own Barbie clothes. In addition to sewing, Karen creates using a variety of skills including weaving, sculpting, and painting.
She is enchanted with Victorian handiwork. She loves to stash antiques to put on her hats, using items like jet, feathers, taxidermy, and jewelry. She creates three kinds of hats: typical Halloween, pretty, and authentic hats with antiques/taxidermy. She offers full and fascinator sized hats. The signature of her hats is the ruched style and the curly stems. The ruching alone takes 4-6 hours to do.
Karen enjoys doing taxidermy mice. She makes her own body forms out of cotton and sculpts the tails. All of her mice are ethically sourced. While taxidermy is not for everyone, they are her best sellers. She lives near a forest and enjoys finding things like plants and animal bones for her hats. She recommends checking out the work of Polly Morgan and Walter Potter.
Collectors will often send her things that are precious to them to include in a hat. One of her most exciting commissions was for a college professor who wanted a witch hat to wear to commencement. She also created a beautiful starry hat for Tony Award winner, Alice Ripley. She said, “if you have it in your head, I can probably make it for you.”
Her hats have gone all over the world including a theater in Paris. It is fun for her to be in an audience and see her creations in action on the actors and actresses on stage. Many of her hats have been worn at the Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball.
Karen participates in art shows throughout her home state of Michigan, including Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween. Her goal is to start doing more shows around the United States. She loves being the Halloween artist at regular shows.
Find her elegant witch hats at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheVictorianWitchHat
Find the podcast web site at: https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com/
Jun 30, 2020
Tom Taggart: Making Monsters and Mischief
A man of many talents and skills, artist Tom Taggart is creating monsters and myths. Tom has a long list of artistic experience, including comic book covers (including Batman, Swamp Thing, and Doom Patrol), toy fabrication, movie sets, mini-golf design, and more. A New Jersey native, he currently lives in North Carolina.
Self-taught, Tom stands out because he always puts his own take on characters. He loves coming up with this own designs and stories. When he was younger, he didn’t think he could make art his career. His friend Dave Devries (author of “The Monster Engine”) helped him realize that art could be his career.
Tom is creating bookshelf monsters, a natural progression of his clocks. These are one-of-kind monsters sculpted into boxes, that can be displayed in between books a shelf. The monsters love to reach outside their barriers. They may transport us to another dimension.
Tom is a fan of classic horror, fantasy, and science fiction. There is a beauty to old monsters – they are metaphors, showing us things you cannot show with human characters. His latest bookshelf monster was inspired by the 1950s Vincent Price movie, “The Fly.” To Tom, there’s just something funny about a man with a fly-head.
Tom shares his processes and techniques online. He offers painting and sculpting workshops in his studio. Tom is a strong advocate for other artists. He created a group on Facebook, The Troll Market, for artists to help each other and promote each other’s work. Tell the artists in your life that you appreciate them.
Tom has a wide-variety of non-art related job experience also, including cheese consultant, pool boy, nursery worker, and movie usher. He could write a book on how fun it was to work in a theater. He and his coworkers enjoyed reenacting the end scene of the movie “Footloose.”
One of Tom’s fantasies is to create an art-based haunted house. He would get his art friends together to make a spooky house – with cool art, monsters, and more. Each artist would be given a room to go wild. One room might have all tentacles, the next a gothic design, a funny one, etc. We’d love to see this fantasy come to life someday.
Here’s where to find him:
https://www.patreon.com/tomtaggart/
instagram.com/tom.taggart.146
etsy.com/shop/tomtaggart
Visit the podcast web site at https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com
Jun 13, 2020
Isaac Bidwell: Thrills, Chills, Monsters, and Fun
Isaac Bidwell is a designer and illustrator. The inspiration behind Isaac’s business name, Pickled Punks, comes from side-show specimens that were displayed in jars. Isaac is into side-show gaffs, an example of one is the jackalope. He plans his road trips around weird museums and attractions.
Isaac is inspired by spook shows. Spook shows started in the 1920s as live magic shows with creepy stuff. They eventually evolved into late night movies wildly popular with teenagers. All kinds of crazy stuff went down such as turning off all the lights and squirting the audience with water and telling them it was blood.
Isaac gave some great tips for collectors: get to shows before they open, ask if there is anything in the back, share your interests with the proprietor, and try out multiple search terms online. Isaac collects cryptozoology specimens, horror clippings, oddities, Halloween items, and spook show posters. One of his favorite pieces is a Fiji mermaid sculpture by Cody Ryan.
Isa…
May 30, 2020
George Coghill: Life of a Monsterologist
George is a monsterologist who studies creatures, creeps, and cryptids. His web site is https://monsterologist.com.
Ever since childhood, his radar has been on to look for Halloween stuff. He doesn’tremember a time he wasn’t completely obsessed. He would even put skeletons and bats on cards he drew for his mother. He dreamed of working for Mad Magazine and illustrating heavy metal covers.
After studying art in school, he did freelance illustration. Unfortunately, he became burnt-out and considered leaving art for landscaping. A musician friend and he made a pact to reboot their creativity by vowing to create something every day and share it.
He started to draw everything that would make 8-year-old George happy – including Halloween, monsters, and skulls. He drew a Big Foot patch which caught a lot of attention online. He originally thought the patches would be a one-time deal. However, he found success with sharing his patches on Kickstarter. This was his gateway to becoming…
May 13, 2020
Kevin Buntin: It All Started With Clay on a Stick
Today you’ll meet artist Kevin Buntin from Ohio. Kevin creates fantasy, seasonal, and Halloween based sculpture.
Kevin’s childhood Friday nights were spent watching Indiana horror host, Sammy Terry. While watching the movies that gave him nightmares, he would create clay monsters complete with internal organs.
After high school, Kevin wasn’t college bound, so he dismissed going into art as a career. Kevin worked multiple factory and labor jobs, including cleaning up roadkill. After her health crisis, Kevin’s wife helped him remember at one time all he wanted to do was create and write. She encouraged him to go for art full-time.
One of Kevin’s favorite pastimes is researching mythology and fantasy. These help him conjure up his characters. He is a writer and his experience includes writing background information for Dungeons and Dragons.
Kevin loves to create with gourds. When he looks at them, he sees faces. Many of his gourds come from Fulton Farms. Watch out for the on…
Apr 30, 2020
Amber Leilani: A Doorway to Her World
Meet artist Amber Leilani, a creator of folk surrealist paintings and mixed media. When I met Amber, she was sculpting. Repetitive wrist injuries made sculpting painful for her. She discovered painting is better suited for her wrists and she is obsessed.
Amber recently changed her main focus from Halloween and Day of the Dead to nature-based topics. This change was deliberate. She still likes to have her gothic look come through. One of her favorite things to paint is ladies with skull faces which she often revisits.
She is using her stay-at-home time as an opportunity to take classes, practice, and experiment without the pressure of selling.
Amber reads daily. Her love of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire inspired her favorite piece of all time. Two of the characters from the books are twins named Jack and Jill. Amber interpreted them as Frankenstein's monsters, with a twist. She made them conjoined (even though they aren’t conjoined in the book).
You'll find her lis…
Oct 28, 2019
Nicole Johnson: Have Monsters Will Travel
Meet artist Nicole Johnson, monster specialist. Since childhood she has been drawn to creepy stories and things – she doesn’t know why. She jokes that “something’s wrong with me.”
She wanted to make realistic art when she was a student. She tried religious art, but it ended up looking creepy. With experience she came to the realization she is better at making cartoonish art. She has devoted herself to full-time monster making. Her favorites are the classics like werewolves and vampires.
Some of Nicole’s monsters were inspired by environmental disasters. She imagined what chemicals in Lake Erie and Love Canal, NY would look like if they were brought to life as monsters. Love Canal was a housing development built on a chemical plant dumping ground. Tragically the chemicals seeped into the water and inflicted serious illnesses on the townspeople.
It would be bad news if one of her monsters came to life. She said, “…my monsters are kind of mean, if you were to bring one…
Sep 30, 2019
Gina Iacovelli: The Modern Legacy of Victorian Hairwork
Hairwork is the art of making jewelry and other sentimental objects out of hair. If you like Halloween or history, you’ll start noticing it at oddities shows, incorporated into Halloween art, and at historical museums.
In this episode, we meet hairworker Gina Iacovelli, who helps us experience the sentimentality of this artform. Gina taught herself hairwork from Victorian journals and then created her business of making sentimental and memorial jewelry. She loves expressing the past in modern way.
Hairwork is about sharing love. Just think of how we still save hair from children’s first haircuts today. Gina recommended the book “Love Entwined: The Curious History of Hair Work in America” by Helen Sheumaker to those interested in learning more.
In addition to her hairwork, Gina is an interior architecture designer and creator of The 8th House Collection, a modern mourning and memorial emporium.
Gina grew up outside Gettysburg, PA which helped spark her love of history. She c…
Aug 31, 2019
Zan Asha: Fairy Tales, Nature, and Halloween
Meet Zan Asha, an artist who is blending fairytales, nature, folklore, and Halloween into her art.
Zan is friendly, fun, and has one of the most interesting family and career stories I’ve ever heard. Zan has done time in corporate life, been a vet tech, directed a dance troupe, written, traveled, illustrated, and kept bees.
Zan’s family is a blend of Hungarian (Slavic), Romany, and Middle Eastern roots. Her childhood was full of fairytales and folk songs from her parents. In addition to fairytales, Zan loves mythology, ancient knowledge, secrets, Alice In Wonderland, Halloween, and forest animals.
Zan grew up in New York City and moved to Florida when she was a teenager. She returned to NYC to study film and theater at NYU. After school, she spent a decade running a dance and theater troupe. After the 2008 recession, Zan moved from dance to bee-keeping as part of an initiative of bringing bees back to the Bronx.
Zan moved back to Florida to care for her parents. A car accident…
Jul 16, 2019
Cara Bevan: Gourd Life
Listen to this episode to peek behind the vines of gourd life with award-winning gourd artist, Cara Bevan.
I saw Cara’s work for the first time at the 2018 North Carolina Gourd Society Arts and Crafts Festival. I was floored to find such a passionate group of gourd enthusiasts. I knew people made crafts out of gourds – but I didn’t know the extent of it…the creativity includes everything from kids crafts to fine art. Cara brought several amazing Halloween-type pieces of work to the show, including a skeleton that won First Place in the Halloween category.
Cara grew up on an animal rescue farm which sparked her love of nature and animals, the subject of her work. All the animals she creates come across as beautiful and admired, even those traditionally thought of as creepy.
Cara started her career doing acrylic paintings of animals and fantasy creatures. Cara’s grandmother is a gourd lover, having over 3 decades of art and growing experience. In 2007, she gave a Cara a gour…
Jun 11, 2019
Stacey Walsh: Lover of Old Cemeteries, Handmade, and History
Artist Stacey Walsh is a lover of old cemeteries, handmade goods, imperfection, and history – just some of the things that have led her down the path of Halloween artistry. Stacey creates sewing patterns under her Raven’s Haven brand and art dolls as the Goode Wife of Washington County.
Stacey’s father was instrumental in helping her develop as an artist. He taught her techniques and how to evaluate, critique, and grow. As her family moved around during his military career, they were constantly being exposed to new artists and locations. Stacey’s father once modeled for artist Norman Rockwell.
Surprisingly Stacey was graded “D” on some projects in her Home Economics class. As an adult, Stacey was inspired by her friend and business partner, artist Netty Lacroix, to try making sewing patterns. Her business name, Raven’s Haven, comes from her connection to ravens – her spirit animal. Her Goode Wife name harkens back to colonial days.
Stacey loves the stories old cemete…
Apr 29, 2019
Amy Schneider: Obsessed Curator and Photographer
Curious about the destinations of Halloween art pieces? The story doesn’t end with the artists finishing the pieces of art…their stories continue in the hands of collectors.
I’m pleased to introduce you to Amy Schneider, one of the most Halloween obsessed people I’ve ever met. Amy has collected Halloween art for over two decades. She is a passionate advocate for original Halloween art and artists.
Amy loves collecting Halloween treasures and oddities and using them to build magazine-cover worthy displays. Each year she conjures up a new theme. Once the display is up, she welcomes community groups, students, friends, artists, and more to come enjoy her collection. You may also see Amy capturing the magic at Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween this year – she’s the show photographer!
When she isn’t busy with Halloween activities, you may find her with her husband and sons, working at the town veterinary clinic with her dad and brother, or taking pictures of shelter pets loo…
Apr 12, 2019
Avery Applegate: Mourning Glory Jewelry
Avery Applegate is a jewelry artist who loves hunting for forgotten treasures with a dark twist. She mixes these findings into assemblage art jewelry. Avery explores nature, sidewalks, and thrift/antique shops to collect treasures such as photographs, vintage jewelry, bones, and typewriter keys.
Her original jewelry line, Just My Type Jewelry, features vintage typewriter keys. After attending the Ghoultide Gathering Halloween art show, she was inspired to add a darker, more serious line. She named it Mourning Glory Jewelry.
Avery taught art for three decades.
As a child, Avery’s mother needed to check Avery’s pockets before doing her laundry. Avery would bring home shells, bones, nightcrawlers, and more from her explorations of the small family farm. Avery’s mother nurtured her collecting habit. She taught her how to make a ring out of a bone, which Avery still has. Avery’s mother sparked her love of Halloween, reading her bedtime stories that spun-up her imagination.
She l…
Feb 26, 2019
Tanya Casteel: Painter of Cosmic Animals
My guest for episode 4 was artist Tanya Casteel, painter of Cosmic Animals. Tanya helped us explore what we can learn from animals that are associated with Halloween. I first met Tanya when she was creating beautiful sea-creature pottery through her business, Cephalopod Ink. She wrote and illustrated her first children’s book “Waiting Just for You Lullaby,” after having her daughter. Tanya now works in watercolors and paints animals in a cosmic, galaxy style. She lives in Asheville, NC.
Tanya has been creating since childhood. In college she majored in photography and took ceramic classes. She started her career working in pottery. She does not miss working in pottery; she did it to her fullest and was excited to transition to painting. Her transition to painting was inspired by her mediation practice. During her practice, she was visited by a raven who appeared in the cosmic style she paints in today. Tanya loves animals. Her favorites are raven and octopus.
Tanya explained wh…
Nov 28, 2018
Joyce Stahl: 20 Years of Enchantment
Episode 3 is a special 20th anniversary celebration. My guest is artist Joyce Stahl, of Enchanted Productions. Joyce’s whimsical dolls are the stitching together of her experiences in theater costuming, 80s hair, teaching, painting, illustration, and a love for Halloween. Joyce will share with us a retrospective of her art journey so far, including two of her mentors who are invaluable to what Enchanted Productions is today. Joyce’s work has been exhibited at Roger’s Gardens, Ghoultide Gathering, and Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween. You may have seen her doll, Mary Venom the Widow Queen in the Fall 2018 issue of Art Doll Quarterly. In addition to her role as an artist, Joyce is a wife, mother, and Ohioan.
Joyce was creative from her beginning. Even from the age of 3, she was drawing all the time. She knew she wanted to be an artist. She learned to sew in home economics class. She still isn’t good at functional sewing (like hemming pants) - her love is in creative sewing. As a…
Sep 27, 2018
Laurie Hardin: Smiling Halloween Art
Let’s meet artist Laurie Hardin of Monkey-Cats Studio. For over 14 years, Laurie has been creating playful Halloween papier mache figures and paintings. Her work spans from traditional characters like jack o’lanterns, to non-traditional ones like foxes. She has been featured in Art Doll Quarterly magazine and quoted in the book "Halloween Nation" (by Lesley Bannatyne). Laurie has exhibited at several national level Halloween Shows - Halloween and Vine, Ghoultide Gathering, and Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween.
Laurie was an art major at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (undergrad and grad degrees). She started college painting and drawing, but ended up finding fiber arts with a focus on weaving. After creating art and teaching for a few years, she became the curator at the Museum of Nebraska Art. As the curator, she built exhibits by focusing on materials and processes used - while many of her peers were curating from a perspective of philosophy, time, and place. During this…
Aug 29, 2018
Jennie Hepler-Takens: Affection for Oddity
My guest is artist Jennie Hepler-Takens of Prim Pumpkin. Jennie creates dolls using vintage fabrics and found objects. Jennie's work is beloved by collectors and has been featured in magazines – including the cover of Art Doll Quarterly in Autumn 2016. In 2017, Jennie and her husband, Joe, produced their first Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween show - their take on the magic passed to them after Scott Smith and Bill Gilmore retired the Ghoultide Gathering show.
Jennie creates from a place of childlike wonder. She loves Halloween because it takes us back to a magical time in childhood. She is 100% dedicated to Halloween; even if she tries to create for other holidays, she always finds herself swinging back to Halloween.
Jennie’s work is a family endeavor. As a child, Jennie’s mom took her to a circus side-show, which continues to inspire her. Jennie and her grandmother owned a Victorian gift shop, where she earned her chops in antiques and sourcing. Joe creates the glass eyes for…