The story of Jack O’ lantern

 'Twas the night before Halloween, and I realized there was no better time to tell the tale of Jack of the lantern…

There are many stories about Jack, many explanations to that snickering face. You can find my version here:

If you know me, you knew that October’s Story & Art will be connected to Halloween, and since the last Friday of the month fell on the 30th, I mean - what else could I do? ;)

Jack’s story has many versions, I wasn’t just saying that, and I had a lot of fun reading as many as I could find as preparation. As I often do when there are numerous versions to the story I pick, I end up writing my own - I hope you enjoyed it! I’d love to hear what you think or if you found a completely different version.

Jack O’ lantern is very much associated with pumpkins nowadays, but the tradition seems to originates from Ireland, where they usually used turnips to curve Halloween lanterns. That’s why Jack is holding a turnip in the work, though I did use a lot of pumpkins because they became a symbol of Halloween and this is a Halloween special! Obviously, I also had to light up all those little veggie-lanterns, you can see in the video how I threaded a string of fairy lights behind them.

You could also see how I created Jack’s figure. I really wanted to use a photograph, but couldn’t find one that really worked with the story, so I ended up doing some creative surgery, and if he came out more creepy, well, that’s just fitting.

Another element I wanted to include was the devil-coin. Clever Jack really set that one up, didn’t he? I actually combined details from two story versions with this. One said that Jack convinced the devil to turn into a coin so he can pay for his last drink/meal, the second said that he was being chased by a mob when the devil found him, and convinced the devil to turn into a coin so that his pursuers will fight over the coin. In both cases Jack managed to trap the devil in coin form by using a crucifix. To make my silver coin more devilish, I gave it a skull pattern with glowing red eyes. I gave it some patina stains just for interest, though the devil would probably turn into a shiny new coin, don’t you think?

The main point of this work though is the moving background apparatus. It was inspired by Jack’s doomed soul, forever traversing the earth with no home in heaven or hell. Though to be honest, I think he quite enjoys himself sometimes, playing tricks on travelers in the dark. Jack O’ lantern is mostly familiar as the curved face placed in the window to ward off goblins and ghosts (and vampires according to some), but the term can also be a synonym of Will -o’-the-wisp or ignis fatuus, that ghost-light that leads travelers astray. In both cases the term connects a common name - Jack or Will - with a light source - wisp or lantern, and both are tricksters that may not mean harm, but can definitely cause it.

To make the moving background I resurrected a technique I learned in my childhood, but upgraded it a bit for smoother movement. I painted different landscapes on the background that changes behind Jack, to show his wandering soul, carrying the turnip lantern.

I really love how the feel of the work changes in different light. It’s pretty quirky in daylight, but in the dark, with the only the lanterns shining? Yeah, it gets kinda creepy 🎃

I hope you enjoyed the Story & Art Halloween special, I’ll be back with another story next month. If you don’t want to miss it, you can subscribe to my newsletter, I always have a recap of the weekly video there (among other things), so it’s a good reminder.

Have a wonderfully magical Halloween! 👻🖤

xx

Naama