1 / 12

Pumpkin Nights artist Ashlen Clark sits in front of two carved "funkins," foam pumpkins, as part of the 2019 Pumpkin Nights event which opened Oct. 10, 2019 and runs until November 2. 

Courtesy Ashlen Clark

2 / 12

A close-up of pumpkins lit up at Pumpkin Nights.

3 / 12

Pumpkins hang as lanterns at Pumpkin Nights.

Provided

4 / 12

Pumpkin Nights is held at the Utah State Fairgrounds in Salt Lake City.

5 / 12

Giant pumpkins on display at Pumpkin Nights.

6 / 12

Entertainment at Pumpkin Nights.

7 / 12

Displays light up the night at Pumpkin Nights.

8 / 12

A group visiting Pumpkin Nights.

9 / 12

Pirate displays at Pumpkin Nights.

10 / 12

A pumpkin dragon at Pumpkin Nights.

11 / 12

Stacks of pumpkins are on display at Pumpkin Nights.

12 / 12

Visitors walk on a path surrounded by pumpkin displays at Pumpkin Nights.

❮ ❯

Pumpkin Nights is a magical festival that runs for a little less than a month. The first official Pumpkin Nights was in Twin Cities, Minnesota, five or so years ago, but the company that runs the event is based in Utah and wanted to keep growing in Salt Lake City.

This year, Pumpkin Nights has expanded to Dallas, Texas, and Santa Rosa, California, in addition to Los Angeles, Denver and Salt Lake City. Thousands of foam pumpkins, or “funkins,” make up seven magical lands for patrons to walk through. Perhaps the most incredible thing about the carved pumpkins on display, however, is they are mostly the work of just a small handful of artists over the span of several months, like Saratoga Springs resident Ashlen Clark.

Clark got into theater as an actor with her twin sister when she was 17, and also took her first art class where she discovered she had a “knack” for it.

“My art teacher just used to let me sit in the back … and do whatever I wanted,” Clark said. “That’s where I kind of picked it up. I’ve just been self taught.”

Clark attended BYU-Idaho, where she majored in cultural psychology and minored in theater so she could continue to learn from the prop master and the shop master, which taught her a lot about 3D sculpture, a big part of what she does for Pumpkin Nights.

Despite her love and talent for art, when Clark moved to Utah she didn’t intend to pursue art as a career. She managed a doctor’s office shortly after graduating from college in 2016 after being taught by an Idaho family about business management. The people she worked with were great, Clark said, but she just didn’t love what she was doing.

“So I quit willy nilly and just decided to find something else,” Clark said.

Clark’s mom is friends with another artist who worked on Pumpkin Nights, who recruited Clark just last year. This is Clark’s second year working on Pumpkin Nights and this year she’s the lead creative director.

“It was my giant leap into the abyss of becoming a self-employed artist,” Clark said. “It’s been amazing. I’m so happy with it.”

Clark spends around nine months of the year designing, carving and painting thousands of funkins for Pumpkin Nights. This year, every design had to be duplicated five times over because the displays are generally the same in all the different cities. Clark describes herself as a “generalist” artist, meaning she pretty much does everything, including sewing, embroidery and woodwork. Working on Pumpkin Nights, she said, gives her a chance to use a wide range of skills. She’s also had the opportunity to work with other artists who are hired to do Pumpkin Nights commission work throughout the year.

“Everything is so big and there’s so much that goes into it,” she said. “You kind of use it all and you learn a lot.”

Despite the term “artist” being fairly broad, Clark said people still tend to be surprised by what she does, in part because it takes up the majority of the year.

“My boyfriend likes to tell people, ‘I’m dating a professional pumpkin carver,'” she said. She doesn’t get tired of being surrounded by Halloween for her job, but by October, Clark said she generally declines invitations to pumpkin-carving parties.

“Hand carving real pumpkins is a lot messier and time consuming,” she said.

Using power tools, Clark estimates she can carve a standard jack-o-lantern in 15-20 seconds. In the course of three days, she carved 902 funkins, just a couple of weeks before Pumpkin Nights opened. It’s still pretty messy work, requiring Clark and fellow artists to wear goggles and masks.

“(There’s) a lot of pumpkin dust which sounds magical,” Clark said. “(It) doesn’t feel that way when you’re coated head to toe.”

Despite the dusty, sweaty work involved, Clark loves what she does and hopes to stay with Pumpkin Nights as long as she can, just living out the artist dream.

“It’s my passion. I never get tired of it,” Clark said. “It’s fun to make things like this where the community gets involved.”

Pumpkin Nights runs every night from 5:30-10:30 p.m. through Nov. 2. Tickets can be bought online at http://pumpkinnights.com/. In addition to the seven magical lands with thousands of pumpkin carvings and sculptures, Pumpkin Nights plays host to other local artists and musicians, even including some fire dancers.

“It’s an amazing art collaboration, and it is very family friendly,” Clark said. “There’s something for everybody … it’s an amazing way to support local artists.”