UMATILLA, Ore.- Halloween season is in full swing, which means it is time to grab a pumpkin and start carving! But, don’t be discouraged if your pumpkin doesn’t look like Roger Pope’s.
By day, Pope works for the Hermiston School District, but this time of year he trades in textbooks for tools turning pumpkins into works of art.
“It all started just like anybody else,” Pope said. “I carved pumpkins with my daughters when they were little. About 15 years ago, a TV show called Halloween Wars came out, and we made it a Halloween tradition. We’d carve pumpkins together while watching the show.”
Those family moments sparked a passion that has since taken Pope to a national stage, even earning him a spot on season 13 of Food Network’s Halloween Wars.
Pope unveiled one of his newest creations, Umi the Alien, which will be on display at the City of Umatilla’s Trick or Treat on Sixth Street event Friday, October 24.
Fans eager to try their hand at professional-level carving, Pope is also teaching a class October 24 in Echo, Oregon. The workshop begins at 4p.m. with $35 admission.
His skills have even attracted national attention, including a collaboration with Pokémon on a special ASMR pumpkin-carving video.
“That was kind of surreal,” Pope said. “I got this email and I honestly thought it was a prank, but it turned out some of their employees were fans of Halloween and had seen my work on social media.”
Filming the ASMR video came with a new kind of challenge, silence.
“When you’re filming an ASMR video, it’s dead quiet,” he said. “There are sound technicians, makeup artists, cameras and you can hear a pin drop. They’re capturing every scrape of the tool on the pumpkin.”
