Fire Rescue News - RETIRED FIREFIGHTER CARVES AMAZING PORTRAITS INTO PUMPKINS
VENTNOR--'Tis the season for the time-honored tradition of carving pumpkins, and one local man has elevated the art to a whole new level. We sat down with the retired firefighter to see just how he carves amazingly accurate, picture-perfect portraits into pumpkins.
With a cut here, and a scrape there, Rick Ferrin is working on a masterpiece. "It's...it's getting there," he said looking over his....Continue Reading
glasses. While truly an artist, this retired firefighter prefers pumpkins as his canvas, and for the past ten years, he's been carving amazingly accurate portraits of friends and family members into them. "I can do more than just faces, but I like to do the face thing because people seem to like to see that kinda thing."
Over the years, his technique has evolved and improved, and while he used to use fresh seasonal gourds, he now prefers foam pumpkins, instead. "These don't dry out," Rick explained, "if I do a real pumpkin, this would look nice for a day, maybe two, and then it would just shrivel up."
We sat down with Rick today to see him in action, and to see if he could carve reporter, Phaedra Laird's likeness into one of these pumpkins. It's something he's already done for all of the employees at a café in Ventnor he likes to visit. "It's just amazing how they came out," said George Drakopoulos of Malelani Café, "it looks just like us, so it's really awesome."
"Love my pumpkin, I was so surprised when I saw it," said Maxi Drakopoulos, "when it's not lit up, you can't really see that it's a person, but the second you light it up, it's unbelievable."
"Remember the film days when you would look at film, look at the negative and can't tell what you're looking at or who you're looking at? And then when you print it out you print the positive? Same thing. When this is unplugged, it's a negative, when you plug it in, it becomes a positive."
It's something we got to see first hand, when Phaedra's face literally lit up, revealing her perfect portrait. "I can take a picture and pretty much nail it every time, now," said Rick. He estimates he's carved nearly 100 portraits into pumpkins, and while many have offered, he doesn't accept any money for his work. He says it's not about making a profit, it's about having fun. "I do it 'cause I enjoy it," said Rick, "you know, it's a fun thing to do - I don't wanna turn it into a business. It's an art form."
It takes Rick anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour to carve out one of his magnificent creations, something he only does around Halloween.
