Giant Celebrity Pumpkin Display Pays Homage to Swift…and Kelce
DUBLIN, OH (Oct. 23, 2023) – The 35th anniversary giant celebrity pumpkin from artist Jeanette Paras, 68, is Taylor SwiftKin, whose concert tour and movie, merchandise, and her very ethos – and dating life – continue sweeping the U.S. This year’s pumpkin weighs in at 399 lbs. and was grown by co-workers Jason Johnson and Kurt Rossbach of OCLC in Dublin, OH who began growing pumpkins as a fun pastime just a couple of years ago.
“With so much going on in the news today, much of it disturbing, Taylor SwiftKin stood out. I considered ‘pumpkinizing’ others, but Taylor is a bright star in today’s pop culture,” said Paras, “And then, when she was romantically linked to two-time Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce, that certainly made her more interesting. As I like to say, I don’t make the news, I pumpkinize it.”
For more than three decades, Paras has captured the ‘cultural zeitgeist’ (defined as the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of a time) through her giant celebrity pumpkin creations. Her giant celebrity pumpkins typically range from 200 to 400 pounds, but she has created pumpkins as large as 1,200 pounds. In 2021, Ted LassoKin tipped the scales at 705 pounds and was the largest displayed on the Paras Pumpkin porch. Larger pumpkins – such as 1,197-pound ‘Carol’ from Where the Wild Things Are – were displayed at the residence of then Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.
And her creations – such as Ted LassoKin (2021), Baby YodaKin (2020), Trumpkin (2015) and PumpKim Jong Un (2014 & 2017) – have drawn intense national and international media attention on CNN, NBC News, Fox News, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! News, the Huffington Post, Gawker, and many other outlets.
“This is top-secret stuff. I have to cover the windows of my studio/garage because no one knows who the subject will be until the reveal each year,” said Paras. “And when I crack up because of one of my pumpkins, that’s when I know I’ve picked the right subject. It’s so much fun to do this every year. I love the reactions from my neighbors and all the people who stop by to take pictures.”
October is also breast cancer awareness month, which is important to Paras a two-time breast cancer thrive-r for over 20 years. Paras Pumpkins has partnered with the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research at the Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC). You can donate at www.give.osu.edu/ParasPumpkins. Paras will match the first $2,500 in donations dollar-for-dollar.
#
Facebook: facebook.com/ParasPumpkins
Instagram: Instagram.com/Paras_Pumpkins
X (Twitter) @ParasPumpkins
Media Contact:
Stacey Stathulis
614.296.6351
English
Arabic
Chinese (Traditional)
Hindi
Japanese
Korean
Spanish