Wowing and sometimes disgusting, these artists make the MN Zoo's Jack-O'-Lantern Spectacular shine

Each fall, around 150,000 visitors trek through the Minnesota Zoo’s Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular , a month-long event where thousands of carved pumpkins are lit up along a quarter-mile path through the zoo.

The massive quantity of jack-o’-lanterns is impressive, but what truly wows are the hundreds bearing detailed scenes of spooky vistas and familiar characters from film and TV. Those showstoppers require a team of around two dozen artists diligently carving original designs for nearly two months in a warehouse on the zoo's backlot.

Approaching a warehouse used for snow removal during the winter months, pumpkins large and small are piled in cardboard bins and scattered across pallets under a canopy as artists diligently draw and carve Parisian vistas, animals portraits, and movie scenes destined for the nighttime event.

A labor-intense and sometimes disgusting process

Each year, around two dozen artists work throughout a nearly two-month period to keep the jack-o’-lanterns coming, spending anywhere from five to 35 hours on a single piece, Brian Christensen, the Zoo's Pumpkin Artist Studio Manager, tells Bring Me The News.

While most visitors come to the trail once and see one set of ornate jack-o’-lanterns — termed "intricates" by the team — behind the scenes, both the intricates and the traditional jack-o'-lanterns must be changed out regularly.

At any given time, about 100 intricates are on the path with 500 to 600 made throughout the event's run. Some designs emerge from the minds of artists, while others, like animals from the zoo’s menagerie, are thematic necessities.

Christensen walks the path nightly, inspecting every jack-o’-lantern to build a list of what must be replaced due to rot and critter-related destruction. How often they have to be changed out changes from year to year. Last year, the weather worked in the team's favor, with some intricates lasting up to 10 days on the path. That's quite a bit longer than the roughly five days they've lasted this fall.

"It’s disgusting," Christensen says of the inspection and removal process where fruit flies, animals, and general rot mark when a pumpkin’s time has come.

Related: The best family-friendly Halloween events around Minnesota

How the jack-o’-lantern sausage is made

Inside the studio, the process starts with a list of ideas centered around each year’s theme, Christensen explains. Wanderlust, this year's theme, has been interpreted through world travel, time travel, or even traveling through books and TV.

New ideas are continually added to the list through a loose pitching process. "Artists are like, I really want to do, say, Beetlejuice , and it’s not on the list,” Christensen says. If it fits the theme and isn’t too scary for the family-friendly trail. "It goes on the list."

Artists, who handle a single jack-o'-lantern from start to finish, select a pumpkin from under the canopy and, with a little help, move it to a workstation. Each artist has their own process. Some sketch right onto their pumpkin. Others sketch elsewhere before using a projector to place the scene onto the pumpkin.

Sharpies are used to finalize the design along with alcohol and brushes to thin the ink for shading. If the design looks good, the pumpkin is gutted and carving begins.

That's when things can get tricky, as the intricates aren’t carved traditionally, but are shaved down just enough to allow light to pass through the pumpkin’s flesh.

Sophie Dudley, a video artist in her third year of working on the Zoo’s Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, says it was one of the hardest things to learn. “I was going too deep when I started,” she says. "It takes finesse."

Once the carving is done, the jack-o’-lanterns are taken into a dark room in the back of the warehouse to be "put on a bulb." It simulates the trail’s nighttime conditions ensuring light comes through as intended.

Christensen shows off an Anthony Edwards portrait he'd just finished touching up because too much light was coming through the eyes.

After that edit, the jack-o'-lantern is ready for the trail.

It's a challenge that keeps artists coming back

The operation draws artists from around Minnesota and even some from further afield who travel in for the short but one-of-a-kind gig. Most artists are returnees from years past, with only a couple of new hires added to each season's roster.

“It’s unique. The artists need a mix of skills, painting and drawing and relief carving," Christensen says, adding that it's fun but it's not easy.

“Not everyone sticks around because it’s a unique process and there are people who have been doing this for years and are good at it,” he adds. “It can be intimidating.”

Nonetheless, artists from a variety of backgrounds, including muralists and graphic designers, come back over and over for a job that lasts only weeks. That's even the case for Christensen, who pauses his career as a tattoo artist to run the operation.

The passion is obvious in the finished product. Walking through the warehouse, artists point out designs, noting that they can see each other's style and pick out the artist just by looking at the jack-o'-lanterns.

Greer Coffman, who designs concert posters and video game backgrounds when they're not carving pumpkins, says seeing those styles develop in the unfamiliar form is part of the fun.

Now in their second year at the zoo, Coffman adds that it's a freeing way of working as well. The essential temporality of working on pumpkins isn't something artists often deal with.

“If it’s good or bad, it’ll rot,” Coffman says.

Related: The best Halloween events happening around the Twin Cities

The Minnesota Zoo's Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular runs through Nov. 2, and tickets are available now .