COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Dublin artist has taken pumpkin decorating to a whole new level with this year’s celebrity pumpkin display.
This is the 35th anniversary of the giant celebrity pumpkin and artist Jeanette Paras has decided to honor one of the biggest names in the news this year: Taylor Swift.
The 399-pound pumpkin painted into Swift was grown by co-workers Jason Johnson and Kurt Rossbach in Dublin, according to a release. The display also nods to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“With so much going on in the news today, much of it disturbing, Taylor SwiftKin stood out. I considered ‘pumpkinizing’ others, but Taylor is a bright star in today’s pop culture,” said Paras. “And then, when she was romantically linked to two-time Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce, that certainly made her more interesting. As I like to say, I don’t make the news, I pumpkinize it.”
Typically, the pumpkins that Paras works on are between 200 and 400 pounds, but she said she has created artwork on pumpkins as big as 1,200 pounds.
She created “Ted LassoKin” in 2021. It weighed 705 pounds and was the largest display on the Paras Pumpkin porch.
Larger pumpkins like the 1,197-pound Carol from “Where the Wild Things Are” were displayed at the residence of then-governor Ted Strickland.
She has also created characters like Baby Yodakin, Trumpkin and PumpKim Jong Un.
“This is top-secret stuff. I have to cover the windows of my studio/garage because no one knows who the subject will be until the reveal each year,” said Paras. “And when I crack up because of one of my pumpkins, that’s when I know I’ve picked the right subject. It’s so much fun to do this every year. I love the reactions from my neighbors and all the people who stop by to take pictures.”