By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

MARENGO, Ohio — Pumpkin festivals are plentiful this time of year and so is this year’s Ohio pumpkin crop. That combination is music to the ears of Gus Smithhisler, a professional squash carver from Marengo who uses the fruit as if it were his canvas. Smithhisler carves the fruit professionally.

“I’ve always drawn and doodled, but never done any type of carving or sculpting before this,” Smithhisler said. “Pumpkin carving for me came about by accident.

“During a pumpkin weigh-in at the 2002 Indiana State Fair me and some friends were sitting around and came up with the idea of carving one of the large pumpkins. Some women from the Ohio Gourd Society handed me some wooden carving tools and I gave them a try. That squash must have weighed 500 pounds. I’ve been carving ever since.”

Smithhisler has been carving squash for nine years. And while he calls carving his hobby, he’s a professional carver. He gets paid to carve at fairs and festivals throughout the state. Businesses of all sizes have requested his talents. He recently was paid to carve at a show in Las Vegas.

“All of the giant pumpkins are technically squash,” he said. “Squash have a soft stem, not so with pumpkins. You can cut squash with a butter knife.”

Smithhisler sketches his design using a crayon before using his cutting tools.

“A design is somewhat dictated by the pumpkin and somewhat dictated by the client,” he said. “Generally, I’ll carve based on some photos given to me. I do subtractive sculpting, same as wood sculpting or stone cutting. If you happen to make a mistake, you dig deeper and reinvent it.

“When I’m designing a three-dimensional work I try and carve things that are closer to me first, then carve the background behind it. That way I don’t accidentally cut something off I might need later. I tried using power tools but they just made a mess of things. I now have a case full of small tools.”

With his strong hands Smithhisler pares away the fruit’s skin with surgeon-like precision, always being careful not to dig too deeply for fear of having to start all over again.

“You don’t always know where the center of the pumpkin is and you must be careful,” he said. “Once the pumpkin starts to get stringy you know you’re getting close to the center. The edges are very thick and smooth. Sometimes I’ll be carving and reach the center and not realize it.

Most of his creations take four to five hours to complete. Some take as long as nine hours to finish.

“I don’t know if I have a favorite subject, but I do enjoy creating animals and kids do love those,” he said. “I also like creating flowers. I normally don’t carve the same thing twice. When I carve things twice I try and improve on those. Some people see me and they’re really amazed, other people walk on by as if there’s nothing happening. The best reaction comes from the kids.”

Unlike artwork on canvas, Smithhisler’s creations don’t last long.
“Since pumpkins and squash rot from the inside out, these designs will usually last as long as an uncarved fruit,” he said.

“Depending on the conditions, this can be from two weeks to more than two months.

This makes the work much more appealing to more corporate clients interested in using this as a form of advertising.”
Smithhisler is an engineer for the state of Ohio, helping to maintain roads and bridges in the state parks. His recreation is turning large fruit into pieces of artwork.

“Unfortunately, this is a decaying medium,” he said. “I can either look at this as a piece of art that has gone by the wayside or I can see it as a performance that’s lasting longer. That’s the way I like to look at it. But in the end, he says, they all end up in the compost pile.”