Carvers: Making Art with a knife

The SyFy channel is always on at the Lovett’s nest, largely due to really bad B horror flicks and my obsession with monster make up.  Yes, I did just look off longingly into the distance wishing I had followed my heart to become a special effects artist.   We all have dreams, mine are usually crushed, that’s why I blog.  Anywho… So Tuesday, March 4^th’s face off ends (you can read my review below if you missed it… and catch my weekly take by following my blog *hint hint*) and what flashes on my screen but a SyFy Channel First: Carvers. 

This show follows a pair of master sculptors, Ray Villafane and Andy Bergholtz, who have made a life for themselves by making fantastical works of art chiseled from an array of mediums including chocolate, pumpkins, ice, the list goes on…  The creative side of me would not let me change the channel, yes I sat through an hour of people making monsters and now I was going to sit through an hour of people sculpting creatures, welcome to Tuesday.  So how does one get into the carving game?  Well this whole venture started with Ray’s love of art, and abilities to pick awesome friends.  Ray taught k-12 art for many years before deciding to go all in on the sculpting venture; thankfully he had his trust partner Andy to follow him into the battle.  Remember kids, good friends will help you move your art, great friends help you make it!

The first challenge the boys faced was to create a chocolate Medusa bust for the screening party for Face Off Season 6 at Mackenzie Westmore’s beautiful estate.  You had me at German chocolate, oh and you have over 50 pounds of it to use?  Curse you television for showing me that everyone has the sweet treats I crave. 

So how do they pull this off?  Well first they need a model, for that they enlist the help of Andy’s wife.  Andy’s wife has got to be one of the best sports I have ever scene as they take a capture of her face in plaster and silicone.  This is a long and “pressing” process where she is practically entombed in this stuff for hours.  How does she keep from killing him?  Flat out, he would be very, very dead.  After he completes the mold, and Andy is released from her plaster prison the duo can begin tempering the chocolate to get their tasty base.  The goal is to detail a bust and then fabricate the snakes out of foam to be covered in chocolate.  The difficulty?  Chocolate melts as it gets warm, so essentially, you can’t hold or handle the medium like you would normally do.  The two soldier on in pursuit of chocolate deity fame as they prep for the reveal, bonus? We get a beautiful view of both Mackenzie and her exquisite home; I guess when you spend time around monsters you need some beauty to balance out the beast.  This is exactly why the bust is a perfect addition to her home as they present a gorgeously scrumptious demi-goddess entombed in decadence, she’s positively good enough to eat, and Mackenzie does with a chomp on the nose.

The next half of the show finds our carvers in a battle for pumpkin supremacy overseas.  The pair has been hired to carve 70 pumpkins to create an exhibit at Ocean World, a theme park in Hong Kong, China.  First off, this theme park looks awesome so I’m pretty jealous already.   It’s like Sea World mixing with Six Flags or something.

So right off the bat, there aren’t too many pumpkins in of show size and quality in China, and oh yeah they need 70!  Well lucky for these two they have amazing friends Chris and Sue to help shoulder the burden and several large pumpkins from Kentucky being shipped in.  Now, this is only the beginning to the largest pumpkin fiasco they have ever faced.  You can hire helpers and ship in produce but, you cannot control the humidity in China!  As they begin to work on a giant Cthulhu like creature they soon run into a problem of mushy proportions, their pumpkin is literally melting mid sculpt.  Every cut they make wicks away into a gelatinous, orangey yellow goop.

In response to the goo, the boys change the design to become three expressive pumpkins trying to escape a tank of razor sharp fanged fish.  They complete the project but, something is missing.  As they look over the 1000 lb.  Pumpkin on display they decide that they need to carve one more!  They set upon the pumpkin to create a huge Jack-O-Lantern and pumpkin goblin of grotesque beauty.  As the crowd of on lookers invades “Pumpkin House,” the guys are presented with the record for the largest display of carved pumpkins and a certificate from Ripley’s Believe it or Not.  Pretty cool right?

So that’s it for the “First look” at Carvers.  Do this show a favor, watch it at SyFy.com, and if you like it give it the thumbs up and let them know they should give it a very serious go.  There is always room for more art out there, take the time to enjoy it.