Halloween Art and Travel (Kristen Stafford: Halloween Art Collector and Podcaster)

The most recognizable part of the mushroom is its stunning bright red cap with white spots. They also have little cute white skirts on their stems and a bulb at their base. While Amanita Muscaria is commonly thought to be poisonous, they are not fatal. They cause intoxication when consumed. Other members of the Amanita family can cause liver failure and death.  

Amanita Muscaria appears all over in folklore. Many believe they are the source of the legends behind Santa Claus and flying reindeer. They are also associated to magic and fairytales, especially when they grow in fairy rings. 

The North American Mycological Association maintains a mushrooms in art registry. The registry is full of Amanita Muscaria mushrooms. With the influences of the Cottagecore aesthetic and Harry Potter running strong, it’s not surprising that many contemporary Halloween artists are incorporating them into their work. I’m enjoying collecting pieces by @CalamityKim (Kimberly Sherrod), Folk Art by Penny Grotz, Dustin Yoder (bydustin on Etsy), just to name a few.  

North Carolina glass artist, Sarah Band, is inspired by science, anatomy, and creepy stuff. As a sculpture major at San Francisco State, her ambition to create a large kaleidoscope led her to her first encounter with glass. Sarah was hooked as soon as she saw someone blow out molten material.

In a craft medium like glass, the blower needs a strong understanding of chemistry. Sarah explains the process of using different metal oxides to create various glass colors. She also highlights the intersection of science and art in her work, drawing inspiration from scientific discoveries and her upbringing in a family of physicists. Both science and art begin with observation and the desire to learn about the world.

Sarah does two types of glass blowing: furnace and flameworking. The furnace glass is the traditional Venetian style with long metal pipes and a big hot furnace. Flameworking is the process of bending tubes of glass over a flame.

The more skill a glassblower has, the thinner they can blow out the glass and the more colors they can use. Colors are challenging because they heat up at different rates. There are no breaks when creating a glass work of art; the artist is constantly reheating and turning the glass so it doesn’t explode.

Visit Sarah’s web site at: https://www.sarahaband.com/

Mentions:

·        Cat Viera (@catvierapottery), teacher at the North Carolina Pottery Center (Seagrove, NC): https://ncpotterycenter.org

·        Sawtooth School for Visual Arts (Winston-Salem, NC): https://www.sawtooth.org

·        Starworks Gallery/Studio (Star, NC): https://www.starworksnc.org

Sheila Bentley is creating one-of-a-kind hags, witches, zombies...everything creepy and Halloween. While Sheila will create young hags, her heart really is for more experienced ones.  Her motto is the more wrinkles the better.  She doesn’t plan or sketch; she works intuitively and never knows who is going to emerge from the clay.  

The weirdest character she ever made was a rat witch with a human face. One of her favorite things is creating the small companions for her larger pieces. Sheila is known for the detail and styling of the clothes on her dolls. She makes her own patterns and sometimes paints on the clothes because it is tricky finding fabric with patterns in the right scale.  

She started her career in the early 1990s doing craft shows. She created whatever was trendy, then moved on to Santas, and finally found her place in Halloween. Sheila loves that there are no rules with Halloween; you can be as sweet or as dark as you want.  

Her home studio is a “hoarder’s delight” with “hag parts everywhere.” Sheila lives on a farm with her husband, who grows pumpkins for wholesale. Farming and art are a family affair and Sheila’s sisters have assisted her with booth duties at Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween. 

Sheila is passionate for dog rescue. She has four dogs of her own and always has a foster dog or litter unless it is high Halloween creation season.  

She recommended the collage work of Janice Lowry and wickedly whimsical works of Lurena Williamson.  

You can find her work at: https://sheilabentley.com 

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 loved coloring in a book of Brothers Grimms tales. Avery was drawn to creepy and weird shows like the Addams Family, Dark Shadows, The Twilight Zone, and more.

Avery enjoys working on jewelry because it enables her to tell stories with all the small things she’s collected over the years. For example, an old belt buckle can become a frame for a photograph.

Avery shared her sources. When she is out in nature, she looks for things that call to her. She is often found hunting in thrift and antique shops.  She got her job at Rusty’s Antiques because she shopped there so much. People will drop off things to her. Once she came home and found an old typewriter on her doorstep.

The rarest and most valuable items in her collection are pieces of Victorian mourning jewelry. Victorians would take hair from a deceased loved-one and have it made into jewelry.

The weirdest place Avery has ever searched for antiques was an old privy (outhouse). People used to throw trash down their privy like bottles and crocks. To clarify -all the nasty bits were fully decomposed by the time Avery dug around in them.

Abandoned houses call to Avery. She gets permission to explore them now after being arrested for entering one without permission back in her college days.

Avery connects with the people in old photographs. She is especially drawn to the eyes. She collects photographs, tin types, and daguerreotypes. She passes by a lot of pictures – she doesn’t connect to them all. She thinks the people from the past would be appalled to know their photographs are now being cut-up for art. Avery met Wes Cowan from the TV show, Antiques Roadshow. She was wearing a tin type she had made into a necklace. She asked Wes what he thought about it. He said old photographs should be kept out and enjoyed.  Avery has a sense of humor about couples. If they don’t look happy, she has no issues using them in separate art pieces.

The first Halloween art show Avery attended was Ghoultide Gathering. As a diehard, she would get in line at 3:00 a.m. In 2016, she showed the organizer, Scott Smith, some of her work. The next year the show transitioned to Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween and Avery was invited to be a participating artist.

One of her favorite pieces is a hand-blown eyeball from a German doll. She set it in the center of a 1940’s circle pin. The collector who purchased it wore it on his black tuxedo.

The name Mourning Glory is a nod to Victorian mourning, which has always fascinated her. She likes the ritual of that period, but she’s thankful she lives in our time. Some Victorian death rituals are reemerging, like green burials, post-mortem photography, and family involvement.

Follow Avery on her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/mourninggloryjewelry/. She also sells through Indigenous Craft in Cincinnati.   She will also be a Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween artist this year.

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. He is the Creative Director and Co-Creator at the Curioporium, New England’s Premier Haunted Shopping Experience in Hartford, CT.  

The Curioporium is an immersive, 5 senses experience (some say 6) brought to fruition by Joey and owner/co-creator Nathan Nunez. Guests leave the normal world behind and become part of the story. The experience blends the stories of Nathan’s Havisham Society (a family of collectors of the strange and unusual) and Joey’s Dr. Grymm steampunk character. Guests can shop oddities and spooky goods and participate in everchanging theatrical experiences. In this episode, Joey gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into running this experience and how light and sound drives the tone and timing of the shows.  

As history buffs, it’s Joey and Nathan’s mission to entertain as well as educate. When you pull in from history and other cultures, it’s important to be respectful and accurate. Throughout the Curioporium are QR codes guests can use to look up stories behind the objects – or ask any staff member. 

To make darkness more palatable, the Curio team mixes in humor. Their Grim Reaper is from New Jersey and part of a union. He’s merely a hard worker with a job to do, and at the Curioporium he adds in a little song and dance. In all his years of haunting, Joey hasn’t lost a guest.  

Joey was originally on the October 31, 2020 release of this podcast. Check out that episode to learn more about his steampunk, theme park, and other haunt work.  

 You can find the Curioporium at https://www.curioporium.com. 

Check out Joey and his work at http://www.grymmstudios.com.  

LeeAnn Kress, is the color loving artist behind Charmed Confections. Her candy shop of sculpted art invokes Willy Wonka, childhood memories, and Halloween magic. She aspires to evoke happiness and nostalgia in her collectors. 

Details unknown to collectors hold special significance to LeeAnn, like the number 13 representing her father's birthday. Art is not just about creating visually appealing pieces; it's about sharing a part of herself with the world. Every piece is infused with inspiration from her life or her family.

 
A switch from a telecommunications job to artistry wasn't a difficult decision. Her passion had blossomed after work hours, eventually becoming her dream job. In addition to Halloween, LeeAnn has also created fairy art. She’s honored that her work has been reproduced by Bethany Lowe.

 
LeeAnn is exhibiting at the All Hallows Art Fest in Petaluma, CA this year. In this episode she shares a preview of the wonders collectors will find in her booth.

 
“I want my art to give collectors back those memories of Halloween and trick-or-treating... I want them to feel the love and care that I put into the details and to really love it.” - LeeAnn Kress

Please visit her website at: https://charmedconfections.com 

Other mentions: 

• All Hallow’s Art Fest in Petaluma, CA: https://www.halloweenfolkartsociety.com/about-the-show-1
• Autumn Brillance Magazine: https://www.autumnbrilliancemagazine.com/
• Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland, CA: https://www.bishopspumpkinfarm.com
• Holiday Pizzazz Shop: https://holidaypizzazz.com 

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 her work. He understands her obsession for using mismatched David Bowie style eyes. Trips to antique markets with the kids are a common weekend event. Her 5-year-old daughter helps her curate materials for her work-in-progress dolls. Her studio is in her home so the whole family is always connected to it.

The materials used in her work are sourced from all over the world. She lives in a 100-year-old house filled with antiques.  She dips into her personal collection for doll materials when the timing is right.

2017 was the first time Jennie and Joe produced Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween. The show has 50 artists from all over the United States. It is more than a show – it is a community. Artists and collectors leave the show charged up for weeks! The show will be hosted in Marshall, Michigan for first time in 2018. Producing a show and art work at the same time is her biggest challenge. The show is like a having a wedding every year – it needs to be magical and beautiful, so it takes a lot of planning.

Jennie is obsessed with side-shows and oddities. Her favorite side-show personality is Jo-Jo the Dog Face Boy. All of us have something inside us that we think is odd. Jennie loves this about people; our quirks make us interesting, embrace them.  If Jennie could run off to the circus, she would be the Bearded Lady.

Jennie loves cryptozoology, a subculture of folklore creatures (for example: jackalopes and the Loch Ness Monster).  Jennie’s favorite creature is Big Foot – she said, “I’m totally into hairy little beasts…that’s what I love.” That is just one of many reasons to love Jennie and her work.

To learn more about the Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween show, visit the show web site at: http://www.bewitchingpeddlersofhalloween.com. For more on her work, visit http://www.primpumpkin.com/.

Thank you for listening to episode 1.  Please check out our website at www.halloweenartandtravel.com and subscribe to the show.

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 currently lives in Charleston, SC. Gina recommends these places in and around Charleston to Halloween lovers:

• Magnolia and Bethany Cemeteries
• Bulldog Ghost Tours
• The Charleston Museum and Gibbes Museum of Art
• Fort Moultrie and Poe’s Tavern and the Edgar Allan Poe Library at Sullivan’s Island
• NeverMore Books in Beaufort, SC

You can find out more about Gina and her work at https://www.instagram.com/mementos_entwined/ and https://the8thhousecollection.com/mementos_entwined/

My website is https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com.

Alycia Matthews creates joyful papier mache Halloween sculptures. Her process starts with a terra cotta base which gives her characters a distinctive warm vintage glow. She proudly declares orange her favorite color. She loves to wear orange clothes and Halloween socks all year. 

Alycia turns to old black and white movies for artistic inspiration. She can lose herself in studying all the wonderful props. She’ll watch with a sketch pad in hand to capture interesting facial expressions. One of her favorite things to sculpt is the moon. George Melies’ “Trip to the Moon” movie has inspired several of her pieces.  

She is a member of the Eclectic Halloween Artist Guild (EHAG) and uses her graphic design skills as part of the promotions team. This juried group of artists has an art sale on the last day of the month, January – November on their blog. Each month there is a new theme. Her favorite was “Creepy Carnival.”  

Alycia is recharged by nature. When she’s not creating in her studio, she loves to watch the birds at her feeders, ride her bike, and walk on the beach with her dog, Tucker. She is infatuated with all four seasons and even enjoys shoveling snow.    

As a believer in magic, Alycia believes anything is possible. She ended the interview by encouraging us to share kindness and smiles.  

Mentions: 

• Autumn Brilliance Magazine: https://www.autumnbrilliancemagazine.com/ 
• George Melies’ Trip to the Moon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon 
• Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum: https://www.pem.org/ 
• The EHAG Emporium: https://ehagemporium.blogspot.com/ 

Please visit Alycia at: https://alyciasart.blogspot.com/.  

 
Did you notice my new logo? It’s evolved from its original US passport inspired design to one that harkens back to luggage stickers from travel’s golden age. Speaking of travel, with events coming back, I’m excited to add more travel into the show. 

This season, I’ll be releasing new episodes on the 13th and 30th of each month, from now to October. I’ll also drop bonus episodes in-between those two dates. Subscribe and follow in your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss a single one. 

This season I’m bringing you new artists, that are creating work that ranges from bright and cute to dark and creepy. I’ll have a former guest return to catch us up on his immersive experience project. There’ll be new mediums, like neon! We’ll also examine some of the folklore behind popular visuals in Halloween art, like poisonous mushrooms.  

At the end of June, I’ll launch my first ever monthly companion newsletter. Visit www.halloweenartandtravel.com and put your email address in the subscribe box so you don’t miss a single edition.  

Now, go forth and start getting ready for Halloween. Now that we’ve passed Halfoween, it’s just around the corner.  

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 student, she worked as costume assistant with a local theater group. That is where she honed her sewing and discovered a passion for period clothing.

She was the go-to friend for bang trims in high school. After graduation, she went to beauty school. She spent the 1980s creating big hair styles and inhaling a lot of Aqua Net. She loved helping people achieve their desired styles.

She left the salon to stay-at-home with her son. When he was 3, she started working at a frame shop/art gallery. It was time to get serious about her art career. She worked at the shop by day, and learned art at night, mostly though books. At the shop, she met artist Nancy McDonald, who mentored and encouraged her. Recently Nancy invited Joyce to participate in a studio show.

As time went on, she got into sign work. She progressed into murals so large she needed to use scaffolding. In 1998 she started doing local art shows. She decided it was time for a studio name, which was the birth of Enchanted Productions. The name was inspired by Stevie Nick’s “Enchanted” CD set.

In the beginning Enchanted Productions was paintings, many of them wildlife. They were infused with magic, moon, and stars. She wasn’t aware of the world of Halloween art yet. She also did illustration and design part-time.

 She created her own primitive print line. One of the shops that carried her work was the Village Gift Shoppe. The Shoppe is where she met owner Lori Davis. Joyce had been experimenting with clay and made a Ghost of Jacob Marley (from “A Christmas Carol”) doll.   During a trip in 2006 to restock prints, she showed the doll to Lori. Lori told her she needed to sell it on eBay. Lori was tapped into the art doll world. Lori showed Joyce the work of Scott Smith, Sheila Bentley, and some other doll artists. Joyce was blown away. Jacob sold quickly, and Lori told Joyce she needed to make more dolls. Lori became her assistant and best friend.

Joyce found doll work thrilling and created a doll a week the first year. In the beginning, Joyce created for all the holidays. After 2 years, she narrowed it down to Halloween because she had too many Halloween characters she wanted to create. Around this time, she developed her signature eye-style. She knew she was on the right path when her husband called one of her dolls “creepy.”

Joyce doesn’t own any of her dolls. Some of her favorites were Edgar Allen Poe, Cobbie the Cornfield Creeper, and Winston the Werewolf. She created a whole family, The Ravenson Family, in the feel of the Addams Family.  

Joyce loves to put a Halloween filter over pop culture. She’s done a Staying Alive skeleton and an agent inspired by Get Smart. She loves history. Her favorite periods are the 1960s and 1970s.

Lori and Joyce loved attending the Halloween art show, Ghoultide Gathering, as collectors.  She leaves Halloween art up all year. Her ravens get tinsel decorations for Christmas.

 After 2 years of creating her dolls, Joyce was invited to participate in Ghoultide. She was over the moon with joy.

Tragically, Lori passed away from cancer 4 years ago. Joyce still hears her voice guiding and encouraging her. Joyce always includes Lori’s witch hat in her show booth. You’ll easily find it in pictures from this year’s Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween.

Every job Joyce has done comes together in her dolls. As she looks ahead, she plans to do more 2D painting and create a book of poems about her characters. She also wants to revisit some of her early characters in her current style.

If you are interested in Joyce’s work, follow her on Instagram (@joycestahl1031) and/or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EnchantedProductions/).

Joyce sends enchanted blessings to all!

Please subscribe to the show to hear more Halloween art stories!

Visit us at https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com

Jeannette Leary thinks of her art dolls as “little art treats for grownups who don’t ever want to grow up.” When she started Sugar Bright Studio she pictured a colorful candy store, but instead of candy, one filled with bowls of pocket-sized art dolls.  

After growing up in Ohio, Jeannette and her twin sister moved to Florida and commenced working at Disney. Her role as a backstage tour guide helped her grow her confidence and swept her into the Disney magic. Another favorite job was painting eyes and lips at a mannequin refurbishing shop. 

She has always been interested in art and has tried just about every medium out there. The book “Dollmaking” by E.J. Taylor introduced her to the world of art dolls. Now she is “held hostage by my dollmaking because I love it so much.” She enjoys working in spun cotton and paper clay. Interior design works its way into her work – a color scheme from a beautiful room can become the color palette for a doll. 

Travel obsessed Jeanette is always planning her next trip. One of her favorite adventures was in Vietnam, where they had a firsthand encounter with leeches. She once stayed at a haunted hotel in Virginia City, Neveda, only to come up against arguing humans – no ghosts. She used to make fairy dolls out of vintage travel postcards.  

Jeannette encourages all of us to make our homes “magical places to be” during Halloween season.  

Mentions  

• Arbutus Hunter-Spun Cotton Ornament Co  
• Maria Paula – Spun Cotton Girl   
• Sarah of Curious Pip 
• Stephanie of Leather and Jade  
• Book: Dollmaking by E.J. Taylor 
• Travel: Markoff’s Haunted House in Maryland and Silver Queen Hotel in Nevada 

Visit Jeannett’s Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/sugarbrightstudio 

Jeff Osgood’s bold line of pottery features historic gravestone art that thrills collectors of Halloween, cemetery, and macabre art. His distinctive work is black and white, and filled with gravestones, skulls, crypts, willow trees, and epitaphs. His business name, Clay of the Dead, is a pun of the George A. Romano zombie movies.  

How did an Ohioan fall in love with New England gravestones? During middle school, Jeff took a field trip to Boston which included historic cemetery tours. Jeff instantly fell in love the history, craftmanship, and messages of old gravestones. Today you’ll find him taking his students and own kids on cemetery tours. 

Jeff worked as a groundskeeper and gravedigger at Wooster Cemetery in Ohio. In college, he majored in film making and created a documentary on a trip he did with his now wife and mother-in-law to collect New England gravestone images. He still uses those images as reference materials and inspiration today. 

Collectors flock to his work for a variety of reasons. Some are interested in cemeteries, art, and history. Others cherish his pottery as mementos of deceased love ones. New Englanders have told him it reminds them of home. 

His work serves as a memento mori – reminding us to live a rich life. In this way, he finds his work as inspirational, not dark. Creating helps him process the loss of his father. Carving clay is mediative and brings him a feeling of serenity and peace.  

Jeff actively seeks out opportunities to collaborate with other artists. He craves how it pushes his craft, and enables things to come into the world that wouldn’t have come out in his solo work. Through collaborations, he’s expanded his work to wheel thrown mugs, urns, figures, jewelry, and linocuts for book covers. 

His favorite cemetery symbol is the skull because it commands attention. Jeff ended the interview with his favorite epitaph: “Memento mori. Redeem thy hours. My glass has run and so must yours.” Jeff encourages us to cherish our moments and to be intentional every day.  

Mentions: 

• Author Stephen Graham Jones: https://www.demontheory.net/ 
• Ceramic Artist Curt Hammerly: https://www.hammerlyceramics.com/ 
• Potter Mark Rossier: https://www.markrossierpottery.com/ 
• Jeweler Star Strung: https://www.starstrung.com  

• Podcasts: Spooked, Strange and Unusual, and Pleasing Terrors  

You can find Jeff at http://clayofthedead.com and https://www.instagram.com/clay.of.the.dead/ 

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 damaged her back. As an active person, Zan felt miserable and lost. A lover of learning, Zan started to investigate different art mediums. An interest in working in 3D lead her to functional ceramics. A kind pottery shop owner taught her how to make hand-built pottery. Her friend Carolee Clark validated her pottery was on the right path. She will be participating in the Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween art show this year.

Last October, Zan’s home was damaged during Hurricane Michael. It is still under reconstruction. The garage with her kiln has no lights yet, so when she works at night, she needs a flashlight. Her studio is crammed into her bedroom. Many of her art supplies are still in storage.  

To wrap up the show, Zan shared with us a Hungarian hedgehog fairytale. She encourages us to make life as colorful as possible and to take risks.

Check her out at https://www.themagicalvagabond.com/. She is on Facebook and Instagram as “themagicalvagabond”.  

My website is https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com.

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 ones that grow in the dampest part of the field - those are the more twisted and dark ones. 

Kevin is a collector and hoarder. One of his artist friends sends him boxes of pumpkin stems. Local quilters save scraps from him. The oddest thing he was gifted was the preserved hide of a pet alpaca. 

It took Kevin a while to find his niche with art shows. He didn’t quite fit in at local, comic-con, and art doll shows. One of his fellow artists, Cassandra Graham, introduced Kevin to the Ghoultide Gathering art show. He may have wet himself from excitement when he got into that show - is he kidding or not? Kevin now participates in Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween (BPoH). His career highlight was when a young girl purchased one of his sculptures with money she had earned herself. Kevin almost cried right in his booth. Kevin also loves to participate in the Merry Krampus show in Columbus, Ohio. Kevin enjoys studying Christmas legends and mythology. 

Kevin’s town of Troy, Ohio, is blessed with history and ghosts. Ghost tours are a popular event - and visitors can actually go into many of the haunted buildings. Kevin highly recommends the Haunted Ohio series of books by Chris Woodyard. 

Please find him on Instagram –he’s https://www.instagram.com/kevin_buntin/ or on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/World-Of-Kevin-Buntin-16406553974/. 

My website is https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com.

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 cemeteries tell. She incorporates cemetery imagery and Victorian mourning rituals into her work. When she was little, her grandparents lived next to a funeral home. She loved looking at an old Victorian funeral carriage in their garage.  

Recently she created a witch doll she named Mary. Amazingly, she was purchased by a descendant of Mary Easty, a victim of the Salem Witch Trails. Stacey shared two encounters in Salem that may or may have not been from beyond the veil.

Stacey is expressing a more primitive flair in her current work. Each year she challenges herself to grow and get better – one of the things she is working on this year is hats. No matter what, she’ll always be inspired by Victorian mourning, the Puritans, and Salem.

You can find Stacey on Facebook, Instagram, Etsy, and her blog. She will also be a participating artist at the Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween art show.

My website is www.halloweenartandtravel.com.

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 what a spirit animal is. There are several names: spirit animals, totem animals, but she prefers her term, cosmic animals. It is the wisdom that we can learn from observing animals. It doesn’t matter how we observe animals. It could be through mediation, watching them in nature, or looking at them in books/videos. Thorough these observations we can take lessons for better actions in our lives.

The cosmic animal one identifies with can change over one’s lifecycle and some people resonate with more than one animal at a time.

Next, we transitioned to talking about a few animals associated to Halloween and what we can learn from them as cosmic animals. Note: the animals we discussed are primarily black (or other dark shades). The color black is associated to darkness, night, shadows, and mystery – which fits perfectly with Halloween!

One of the most common Halloween images is a hissing black cat. In Ancient Egypt, cats were cherished and worshipped. But in 1233, Pope Gregory IX identified cats, especially black ones, as being in league with Satan.  Soon after cats became associated with witches; suspected with being their familiars.

The independent nature of cats likely contributed to those associations. Cats are grounded and clever. What can we learn from them as cosmic animals? Black cats can invite us to explore areas that are hidden from sight, but in a wise way to keep us protected. Color does matter when it comes cat symbolism. Each cat and each color has a different message and meaning. For example, black panthers are associated with the moon. Cheetahs are associated to intervals and speed.

After discussing cats, we moved to on to the creepy, crawly spider. After being admired in ancient times for their web building skills, spiders, also became associated to witches. There is a superstition that if you see a spider on Halloween, it is a deceased loved one looking over you.

Tanya loves spider messengers. They are creative; their webs are symbols for spinning stories. They teach us to look at our life stories. Are our stories helpful or are we getting stuck in our own webs? Spiders teach us to clean up the cobwebs in our lives. Spiders are patient. They create beautiful webs and wait for nourishment to come to them.  Their infinity symbol shaped bodies symbolize the balance of masculine and feminine energy.

Many of the creatures associated to Halloween fly – like bats. Picture ancient Celtics celebrating Samhain (pronounced Sow-WHEN, the holiday that is the origin of Halloween) around bonfires. The bats would be attracted to the insects that were attracted to the light of the fire. Stories like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, further cemented the association of bats to Halloween and horror.

 Bats are excellent communicators – they have a unique skill of echolocation. They can go into the dark and come out unharmed. They teach us to not fear darkness - it is a way for us to grow and learn. Bats give birth while hanging upside down. Their babies are born being pushed up into the world. They show us to be independent and do things in a non-traditional way. Bats are one of the best controllers of mosquitos. They can show us not to let annoying pests get to us.

Like bats, most owls are nocturnal. Owls would be seen during Samhain bonfires. They have big mysterious eyes and scream and screech in the darkness. They have also been associated to witches. There is a myth that seeing an owl means someone will die soon.

Owl has similar themes to the other animals – navigating the dark. Owls can be a messenger to help people transition. You can feel sympathy and support from an owl. Different owls have different messages. What it is doing is more important that what it looks like. If an owl is flying silently, it can be telling us to be quiet – that we don’t have to be so loud about what we are doing.  A loud owl may be telling us to speak up for ourselves.

We can give Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock major credit towards unifying crows and ravens to Halloween. They are scavengers and will feed on dead things. In some cultures, they take the soul to the underworld.

Tanya groups ravens and crows together – she playfully calls them “cravens.” Raven is considered a trickster animal. The trickster helps us transform manipulative tendencies into a way to empower and transform ourselves and others. They can give us tricks to help us get around egos and help us get around difficult challenges.

Lastly, we covered vulture. Vultures are easy to associate to Halloween. They show up in large numbers when something has died. They eat dead animals. In Persian lore, they guard the gates to Hell.

On a positive note, vultures symbolize purity, harmony, and preventing the spread of diseases. They show us that small quiet tasks are important. Without someone to help clean up, we would be in a disgusting place. Vultures are humble and just do what needs to be done without fanfare.  

It was an inspiration to learn more about these animals from Tanya. If you would like to learn more about her work, visit her web site https://www.tanyacasteel.com. There you can see her paintings, read through animal profiles, buy paintings and prints, learn about her partnership with Wild Messengers, and more.

Support the show subscribing to the podcast and by following us on Instagram and or Facebook. Join us next month for more Halloween inspiration! Our web site is https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com/.

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 time she encountered several artists that sparked her interest in papier mâché.

After curating, Laurie dove back into painting. She started selling at local art shows, many of them in the fall. She did fall florals which lead her to start painting Halloween figures. Her adventure in Halloween papier mâché figures was launched when she got the bug make her figures come alive in 3D. She was proud of her first figures at the time, but now laughs that "they were pretty bad." Her husband, Kelly, still puts out Petey, one of her first figures.

A cracking issue lead Laurie to start researching solutions. During the search she found Johanna Parker, a well known artist who loves Halloween. She made several artist contacts which lead to an invite to join EHAG (Eclectic Halloween Artists Guild). EHAG opened many doors for her and put her into an enthusiastic Halloween community.

Halloween and Vine in California was Laurie's first exclusively Halloween show. She and Kelly were overwhelmed with the positive response of the collectors. Laurie's Halloween sales outpaced her Christmas work. Halloween allows her to create virtually anything while Christmas is more restricted to Santas, snowmen, etc.

Laurie's collectors make her giggle almost everyday. It helps her work harder to bring a great collection every year. The joy Laurie's collectors bring to her is reflected the distinct smile that is a hallmark of her work.

Laurie's lastest work has a strong cirus influence. Laurie has loved the circus ever since visiting one for the first time as a child. Mike Wolf and Frank Fritz's personal vintage circus collection at the American Pickers store amazed her.

Laurie shared some trends she is seeing in Halloween art. Johanna Parker is adding a 1940s minty green into her palette. Popular commercial palettes are being worked into both Halloween and Christmas art. She's also seeing a lot of anthropomorphic work, the mixing of human features into animals. Photographers like Victor Vague are bringing back historical photographic processes.

The name Monkey-Cats Studio is inspired by their two cats, Jake and Elwood (yes, like the Blues Brothers). Jake and Elwood were naughty kittens. They had tiny bodies and long tails. When they would walk by, all Laurie and her husband would see was their oversized tails. Laurie and Kelly started calling them the "monkey boys." The name stuck and evolved into "monkey cats." Jake and Elwood are key members of the Monkey-Cats team. They play with paint brushes, climb Laurie, and drink paint water.

Laurie doesn't have a favorite Halloween character. She loves to make pumpkin figures, skeletons (she calls them skellies), Frankensteins (and his bride), and cats. One of the most unusual characters she made was a baby monkey.

Her most treasured Halloween childhood memory was making popcorn balls with her mother. Her mom's popcorn balls were so fabulous neighborhood kids would go home, change, and come back for a second round. Laurie and Kelly still love handing out candy for trick or treat. She loves to give out handfuls of candy.

If you are interested in Laurie's work, visit her blog (http://lauriehardinsaccents.blogspot.com/) and find her on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MonkeyCatsStudio/).

Thank you all for joining this Monkey-Cats adventure today! Visit my web site at www.halloweenartandtravel.com for more details on the show. Support the show subscribing to the podcast and by following us on Instagram and or Facebook (linked off the website www.halloweenartandtravel.com). Join us next month to meet another surprise artist who exhibits at Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween!

Meet artist Stephanie Tiongco of Stevi T Fiber Art. Stevi’s needle felted animals look so real, you’ll swear they are breathing. In this episode, you’ll hear how Stevi creates anthropomorphic dolls and her unique approach to incorporating antiques into her artwork. She discusses her involvement with doll organizations, giving valuable insight into the world of doll making and collecting.

Stevi’s artistic journey has taken her from making dolls for her daughter to showcasing her work on national television and art shows. Her creativity and tenacity knows no bounds – from dying her fiber in a cauldron to transforming her home into a haunted house.

Stevi’s work blurs the lines between art and reality and is driven by her love for animals. Many people who come into her booth at shows mistakenly think her work is taxidermy.  She stated, “I love the art of taxidermy. My animals are not, but I want them to be as real as possible. So, if you think it's real, then I have done my job well.”

Mentions:

• George Dante Taxidermist: https://wildlifepreservations.com
• New York Faerie Festival: https://www.nyfaeriefestival.com
• Old Mill Village, New Milford, PA: https://www.oldmillvillage.org
• Original Doll Artist Council of America:  https://www.odaca.org
• United Federation of Doll Clubs: https://www.ufdc.org/
• Wunderkammer Taxidermy Show (NYC): https://wunderkammernyc.com

Visit Stevi online:

• Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stevit
• Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/stevi.tiongco
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Stevit_alpaca_encounters

Interweaving her skills in photography, sculpture, writing, design, and history, Alyssa Thorne is creating still life compositions that will transport you to other worlds. Her photographs are heavy with symbolism, rich colors, duality, and flowers.  

Historical still lives have a language of symbolism that is easily decoded with a bit of knowledge. Alyssa is passionate about teaching this language and shares a little “Still Life Appreciation 101” in this episode. Still lives can document anything from trade routes to warnings that earthly pleasures will fade away. 

Alyssa’s work is heavy in symbolism. She uses butterflies and moths to symbolize transformation. The skull is an obvious symbol of death. She doesn’t see it as creepy; it’s an educational tool. A burning candle stands for life and one that has been snuffed out represents death.  

Her writing cannot be separated from her photos. Each has an artist statement that explains the story and symbolism of the piece. However, Alyssa welcomes all viewers to apply their own stories to her work. 

Every piece of her work is a portal to another world. Sometimes the work will have an actual window or doorway in it, and other times the photo itself is the portal.  

Death is a recurring theme in her work. She uses art as a tool for processing grief. She is honored to be part of the death positive movement. She finds the more she expresses death in art, the less she fears it. While she’s still goth, she doesn’t dress that way anymore. She found the more she put grief into her work, the more she wanted to wear pink and fairytale type clothes.  

Alyssa gave us a peek into her process. Once an idea pops into her head, she’ll research and plan the story. Next, she gathers props from her extensive collection. If she needs new props, she contacts one of her antique friends. Once everything is together, she shoots the work, using only natural lighting. Editing takes 3-12 hours and consists of using a digital paint brush to bring out the desired colors.  

Alyssa encourages ALL of us to try the art of still life. You don’t need to be skilled or a professional to use it to document an event or tell a story. She suggests starting out by watching some natural lighting tutorials on YouTube. Grab some posterboards and most important of all, HAVE FUN.  

Mentions: 

• Antique Dealer Roses and Rue: https://www.instagram.com/rosesandrueantiques/ 
• Artist Elisa Vita: https://elisavita.com/ 
• Author Lyndall Clipstone: https://lyndallclipstone.com/ 
• Author Sarah Elizabeth: https://unquietthings.com/ 

• Dark décor of Star Strung Manor: https://starstrung.com/ 
• Paper butterflies and moths: https://www.moth-and-myth.com/ 

Visit her at her web site: https://alyssathorne.co/ 

Dorann Nelson is a lifelong creative who found her artistic groove fashioning Halloween figures in the Appalachian Mountains. Her art took a backburner while she raised her family and worked as an interior designer/architect for the Department of Defense. Dorann worked on everything from designing a general’s office to expanding an aircraft hangar. She only had time to do art in the wee hours of the night, hence the name of her business, Moonlight Artistry. 

After years of career relocations, Dorann and her husband settled in the Asheville area of North Carolina. Dorann designed and built her dream studio and got to work creating mixed media. She started out in Christmas, but found Halloween is her true calling. She describes her version of Halloween as quirky, mysterious, and whimsical.  

She cofounded a figurative artist group, GoFigure Guild, which has become her creative tribe. GoFigure pushes each member to continuously grow their skills. Their desire to educate and delight is evident in their exhibits at the library and show-and-tell sessions with kids.  

Dorann is enamored with using unique materials such as: old wigs from Goodwill, rotten picket fences, and paper towels. She sees faces in trees and scepters in roots. Her daughters tease her that’s she’s a Druid.  

Dorann was one of the producers of the Spirits of Autumn art show. The show was paused because of the pandemic, but Dorann hopes it can return someday. While it’s difficult to produce a show and make work for it, Dorann admits she works best under stress. Dorann ended the interview by encouraging ALL of us to not be afraid to succeed.  

Please visit Dorann’s web site:  https://www.moonlightartistry.com 

Some of the things Dorann mentioned during the interview: 

•  Art Doll Special Edition Magazine Fall 2021 
• Arthur Rackham artist 
• Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick Plant 
• Mood Fabrics 
• Sabrina Gruss art 
• Southern Highland Craft Guild 

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 to life, he would just wreak havoc…ripping up my studio doing naughty things…”

Nicole and her husband Sean created The Horrified Chicken podcast. Sean doesn’t like horror, but horror-loving Nicole makes him watch them for date nights. Hellraiser was the movie that hooked her into the genre.  

Nicole would love to get into writing but right now her time is going into her monsters and kids. Her family celebrates Halloween by turning her yard into a full graveyard with life-size monsters, many of them made from her kids’ old Halloween costumes.

Nicole advises us to embrace what we are good at, “don’t be afraid of it.” She put herself under pressure to do fine art, but things didn’t click for her until she embraced her cartoonish whimsical side.

To see Nicole’s work and see a list of her shows, visit https://www.mealymonsterland.com/. From there you can jump to her Instagram and Facebook accounts.

This is the last episode of Season 1. Join me on Friday, March 13, 2020 for the debut of Season 2.

Subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app and follow me on Social Media so you don’t miss any new episodes. My website is www.halloweenartandtravel.com.

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 gourd that she couldn’t decide what it should be worked into. Cara took one look at it and saw a turtle, the first step in her gourd artist path.

Her biggest challenge in creating art out of gourds is finding the right shapes for the sculpture. She said they are like working with wood. Some gourd artists are purists and like to leave the natural brown color and not add any other objects to the gourd. Cara loves to add clay, wire, and paint, and combine gourds together.  The biggest gourd sculpture Cara ever made was a 5’5” tall baby giraffe, composed of 11 gourds.

Cara’s “gourd hoard” contains over a thousand gourds, ranging from 3” tiny ones, to one the size of a table. Cara grows her own gourds and purchases at shows. Gourd vines can reach 40’ to 50’ long and will climb on anything. Serious gourd growers attend to their gardens daily.

There are 3 types of gourds. The decorative colored ones popular in Halloween decorations will rot like pumpkins. Another type is the loofah, which are grown for use as sponges. The last kind is the hard-shell type, which are dried out and used for art.

Gourd conferences provide a place for gourd lovers to come together and make art. Cara teaches technique classes at these conferences.  Gourd people are all “crazy art people” who love to share ideas.

Halloween is Cara’s favorite holiday. She has plenty of macabre monster ideas waiting in her sketch book.  She collects skulls, skeletons, skull art, and creepy things. She will be doing more anatomical work in the future.

Cara has a passion for storytelling and illustration. She recently did the artwork for “Born to Soar” a book about a vulture raised by turkeys (by Bill Barnes). Cara recently completed a commissioned vulture sculpture named Infinity made of 7 gourds, the largest bird she’s made so far. She loves tedious details so carving each individual feather was relaxing.

You can find Cara on Facebook, Instagram, and her web site. If you are in Winston-Salem, NC, look for her cosmic turtle scaled to 44 feet on a billboard on Highway 52 until July 2020.

My website is www.halloweenartandtravel.com.

Artist Danielle James (DJ for short), is conjuring up neon lights in her Durham, NC shop. Under the name Hex Neon, she creates custom work, restorations, and teaches classes. Her shop name and logo were inspired by the hex signs on Pennsylvania Dutch barns in Lancaster, PA.  

DJ studied metalsmithing and jewelry making in art school. As a student, she got the desire to make small wearable neon pieces. This desire took her to a neon company in Atlanta, where she discovered neon is a VIP pass to really cool historic places. She also loves that she can make a big impact in the neon industry since it is so small and it needs more skilled artists. Besides the lack of skilled artists, another contemporary challenge is clients not understanding the difference between LED and neon signs. DJ gives us a good primer so you’ll know the difference. 

Neon workers are called benders, because they bend premade glass tubes. DJ likens it to manipulating spaghetti. Benders skillfully curve the glass, avoiding shrinking the diameter of the tube. Sign colors come from the combination of the gasses pumped inside and glass tinting.  

Neon work is exciting and dangerous. DJ uses two different types of torches: a crossfire and a ribbon burner. While neon and argon aren’t poisonous, some signs do contain the poison mercury. Benders must be knowledgeable of safely protocols for working with electricity to avoid serious injury and death. 

She gave an overview on the glowing history of neon, from the pioneering French inventor, Georges Claude, to the golden age in the 1950s, to its downfall in the 1980s and 1990s, and the niche renaissance of today. Historically neon has been a secretive art, since some benders only trained family so they weren’t risking training future competitors.  

DJ lives a Halloween lifestyle. She makes at least one Halloween piece of work a year. She worked for many years at a haunted attraction doing set design, make-up, and acting. Her favorite haunt job was being a crowd walker, entertaining patrons as a creepy clown. She collects retro horror posters and loves watching horror movies.  

DJ closed out the interview by sharing a touching sign restoration she worked on for The Echo Project. This non-profit is transforming a building with a deeply racist past into a civil rights museum.  

Mentions: 

• Alleson Buchanan, bender: https://www.radiantneon.com/ 
• Eric Franklin, “The Body Electric” art: https://ericfranklin.com/ 
• Frightland Delaware: https://frightland.com/ 
• Hex Signs of Lancaster Country, PA: https://lancasterpa.com/shopping/hex-signs/ 
• Leticia Maldonado (Tiza), bender: https://www.leticiamaldonado.com/ 

• The Echo Project, Rehab Hate: https://www.rehabhate.com/   

To learn more about Danielle and her work, visit: https://www.hexneon.com 

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 looking for new homes. Amy is the neighbor and best friend of Halloween artist, Avery Applegate, my guest in episode 5.

Amy has always loved Halloween. Her birthday is near Halloween; she often had a Halloween themed party in lieu of a birthday party. Her dad loved to pretend to be a ghost and freak out her friends. Her mom is a wonderful decorator, who is skilled at haunting their Victorian home.

Amy inherited the collector gene from her parents. Her mom collects vintage Ouija boards and her dad collects veterinary antiques. They’ve always had strange things like Victorian hair art. Her aunt would take her on trips and encourage her to get a piece of art to commemorate the trip.

Amy loves her “odd” pets. Her wonderful dog, Homer, is missing an eye and has an overbite. Her cat is missing a leg, and the office cat is missing an eye. Amy sees joy and beauty in things that others might think is weird.

Amy may have slept in the same bed as famous conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker. They visited a hotel in her town. After the hotel closed, the furnishings went up for auction. Amy’s mom purchased the most beautiful bed in the auction. Amy’s mom concluded it must have been from the room the Bunker twins stayed in. They still have the bed in Amy’s childhood bedroom.

Amy gets excited when she thinks about getting new art. She loves knowing that a piece is the only one in the world. She’s a connector – she loves pairing up people with art.

She is always on the hunt – that’s how you curate a good collection. She purchases all year and finds Halloween and creepy art at regular art shows. One of her favorite finds was Genevieve Geer, who she nominated her to be in the Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween show.

Amy’s collection includes commissions, many of them featuring her dog, Homer. Nina Vivian Huryn did an incredible one for her, transforming a plain antique rocker into a masterpiece. She painted a skeletal body on it. The skull of the skeleton is on a throw pillow. Nina encouraged her to use the chair all the time – and that wiping Cheeto hands on it will only make it look better.

Amy gets in line in the middle of the night during shows - there’s so much fun in that. Collectors need to run from artist to artist in a total frenzy to get their favorite pieces.

Amy loves to see the new artists first. In Sam Keck’s first year, she purchased conjoined emu twins in a vintage baby carriage from her. The first time she met Stacey Walsh, she purchased a “sweetest thing” anthropomorphic lamb dressed as a witch.

Every year she does a featured room and moves decorations around. Usually she starts decorating in August.  One year she turned her living room into a side-show. Last year she converted her living room into a Victorian funeral parlor featuring an ouija board by Isaac Bidwell.

Amy hosts several open houses a year, welcoming people of all ages. Amy once changed a woman’s mind about Halloween. She came in saying “I don’t think this will interest me.” At the end of the evening she admitted she really did like her collection.

Amy sees photography as an extension of her memory. As the Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween photographer, she will capture pictures of the artists with their favorite pieces and showcase happy collectors.

Everywhere she travels, she looks for something Halloween related. New York City is one of the best places to score treasures. Amy and Avery are planning a trip to the Mutter and Edward Gorey Museums. She encourages all of us to collect original art during our travels.

Follow Amy on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/halloweenartcollector/.

My website is www.halloweenartandtravel.com. Tell a friend who loves Halloween to give us a listen.

For over a quarter century, Halloween art fans have flocked to Petaluma, CA to collect exquisite pieces from their favorite artists. The original show, Halloween and Vine, has evolved into All Hallow’s Art Fest. In this episode, you’ll meet the show producer, Stephanie Sherratt.  

Stephanie is driven by nostalgia.  She loves helping adults relive the excitement of their trick-or-treating days. Stephanie has witnessed the importance of marketing on social media go from being a novelty to a necessity. Even with the rise of social media, in-person shows will always have a place. She said, “when you become a true lover of Halloween art, it is important to see the pieces in person.”  

The Petaluma community has embraced Halloween. Not only is it the host city for the show, it is briming with pumpkin patches, apple picking, wine, and residents who go all out with their decorations. The town is seemingly frozen in time with antiques galore.  

Stephanie’s whole family is involved with the show. Her husband puts up with the house being swamped with swag bags and glitter. Her sisters and friends help with logistics. Her teen daughters know all the artists and enjoy selling tickets and drinks. 

In addition to producing the show, Stephanie also does marketing, staging, antique dealing, and she owns a vintage holiday favor and décor business called Paper Fabric Glitter. She loves having a mixture of creative jobs, especially after having spent 25 years in corporate.  

Stephanie encourages us all to continue the magic of Halloween art by supporting artists.  

Visit Stephanie’s web site at:https://www.halloweenfolkartsociety.com 

Mentioned in the show: 

• Artist Nily Nicef: https://www.etsy.com/shop/nilyfer 
• Artist Sharon Bloom: http://www.sharonbloom.com/ 

• Round Top (TX) Antiques Show: (https://www.roundtoptexasantiques.com/) 

Meet Kymmburleigh Clark, upholstery teacher, designer, and restorer of furniture. When her dogs destroyed two of her chairs, she taught herself how to restore them. This started her on the path to learning the craft of upholstery. As a co-owner of a furniture fabrication shop, Kymm learned about the dire state of the upholstery field. Demand far exceeds the number of people with the skill. 

After their successful business closed due to a lack of skilled labor, Kymm made it her mission to teach as many people upholstery as possible and Lullco was born. Today you can find Kymm teaching in-person and virtual classes, taking on her own clients, and developing new techniques to keep dated furniture out of landfills.

Kymm offers cautionary advice and inspiration for dealing with furniture, making this interview relevant for upholstery enthusiasts, DYI adventurers, and people who sit on chairs. You’ll hear about scary things found in chairs and other secrets they keep.

Our conversation also delves into Kymm's love for Halloween, with a haunted cemetery travel tip, and all about her upcoming spooky mansion vendor show, showcasing her unique furniture collection.

Mentions:

• Allied Aethernautics Art and Design by William Kevin Petty: https://www.alliedaethernautics.com
• Maker Works (Ann Arbor, MI): https://www.maker-works.com
• Sunset Hills Cemetery (Flint, MI): https://929nin.com/flint-michigan-cemeterys-haunted-crack-the-whip-sculpture-may-come-to-life-at-night

Visit Kymm’s web site at: https://lullco.co/