Pumpkin Artist Marks 40 Years of Spooky Carving at Halloween Event
WHO:
NY Post - Farmer Mike Valladao is a pumpkin artist who has showcased his pumpkins on “The Tonight Show” and at the Texas State Fair.
ABC News - Mike Valladao is a systems engineer at a cybersecurity company and is also known as “Farmer Mike” and the “Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers.”
ABC News - Valladao has no formal artistic training and has carved hundreds of gourds.
WHAT:
ABC News - Valladao marked 40 years of Halloween pumpkin artistry at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, carving onstage for attendees.
ABC News - His carvings include ghoulish faces, seaside landscapes, witches, dragons, Yoda and Charlie Brown.
ABC News - Valladao once grew an 800-pound (363-kilogram) pumpkin but does not enter the giant-pumpkin contest because growing it was too much work.
ABC News - He has carved at the San Diego Zoo, the California Academy of Sciences and the State Fair of Texas.
ABC News - Valladao said he has no plans to stop carving: “It’s fun, it’s enjoyable and, quite frankly, it’s a piece of me.”
WHERE:
ABC News - Valladao began growing large pumpkins at his home in San Jose, California, and the Half Moon Bay festival takes place on the coast south of San Francisco.
ABC News - He has appeared at venues and events in different parts of the country, including “The Tonight Show,” the San Diego Zoo, the California Academy of Sciences and the State Fair of Texas.
WHEN:
ABC News - Valladao began growing large pumpkins in the mid-1980s. Festival organizers invited him to demonstrate his carving after seeing a photograph of his pumpkins in 1986.
ABC News - The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival is a two-day event held in mid-October.
WHY:
ABC News - Valladao started carving after growing large pumpkins and not knowing what to do with the massive gourds.
ABC News - He draws inspiration from museum art and everyday observations, including people’s teeth, ears and nostrils.
HOW:
ABC News - Valladao carves Atlantic pumpkins weighing 100 to 1,000 pounds (45 to 454 kilograms); their thick skins let him cut features at varying depths.
ABC News - He describes his engineering-influenced method as building “one layer at a time” and creating “the illusion of depth,” with inset eyes and a protruding nose.
ABC News - His creations last only a few days; he does not name them and says aging can “build character.”
(UPDATED October 26, 2026 15:35 UTC)
Pumpkin artist Mike Valladao marked 40 years of Halloween carving with an onstage demonstration at the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. Known as “Farmer Mike” and the “Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers,” the systems engineer has carved everything from ghoulish faces and seaside scenes to Yoda and Charlie Brown, using layered cuts to create depth. He began carving after growing giant pumpkins and says he has no plans to stop, calling it fun and “a piece of me.”