Carving a Career

Kristina Marie Patenaude transforms pumpkins, gourds and squash

By RACHEL STRICKLAND | Photos by BECKY STINEHOUR, WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY AND KRISTINA MARIE PATENAUDE

Kristina Marie Patenaude loves carving pumpkins. No, really. She loves it. Not just in October, either. Pumpkin carving has become a passion, an art form, and a full-time career for her, and she quite literally stumbled into it accidentally.

“My pumpkin carving story starts with me winning a culinary competition that I wasn’t even supposed to be entering,” Patenaude shared.

Kristina Marie, who goes by KM professionally, calls it her villain origin story. She was studying graphic design in college in Las Vegas when, one day, she saw a pumpkin-carving competition happening on campus and thought it looked like fun. What she didn’t realize was that it was the college’s culinary students’ final competition — in other words, it was closed to the public. Not knowing this, Patenaude carved a pumpkin and ended up winning the competition, much to the judges’ confusion. This was the first pumpkin she’d ever carved.

From then on, Patenaude was hooked. She began to experiment and realized that when you carve straight through a pumpkin, it dies rather quickly, especially in the heat. But she figured out that if you sculpt only the first layer of the pumpkin, it lasts longer. So, she made one with a funny face, put it on the desk in the front office of her college, and everyone loved it.

Unbeknownst to Patenaude, Ray Villafane, the “Godfather” of pumpkin carving, began creating similar pumpkin sculptures on the Food Network that same year. And little did she know, she’d soon be working alongside Villafane and making television appearances herself.

Fast forward a few years, and Patenaude has been on several Food Network shows, including as a guest on season one of Carvers and Creators, a finalist on season two of Outrageous Pumpkins, the winner of season 13 of Halloween Wars, and a captain and finalist on season 14 of Halloween Wars: All Stars.

Patenaude is best known for her hyper-realistic pumpkin carvings, focusing on pore and hair patterns as well as skin texture. In fact, her carvings are often so detailed and realistic that facial recognition technology on phones can recognize them. She also dabbles in mandala-style designs, chip carving and cartoon styles. She says she might be one of the few, if not the only, artists who have mastered every style of pumpkin carving at a professional level.

Patenaude says her story is unique because her entry into the world of carving began with pumpkins, rather than ice or wood carving, as with many other artists. She says she had no other experience sculpting or carving before that day on campus.

She now has her own business, KM Patenaude Studio, and along with her many television appearances, she has carved for big names, including ESPN, The Texas Longhorns and Hopdoddy Burger Bar. She attends Bell County Comic-Con every year and has become a full-time celebrity carver for Pumpkin Nights in Austin, an annual festival where spooky Halloween vibes meet art. Fun fact: Elon Musk loves Patenaude’s art and takes his kids to see her work every year at Pumpkin Nights.

As a Temple resident, Patenaude used to enter local competitions and would donate her proceeds to food banks and Families in Crisis. But over time, she felt it didn’t seem fair to compete professionally against local hobbyists. Now she sticks to mentoring because she doesn’t believe in gatekeeping. She says she’s developed her own innovative techniques and she’s more than happy to share them with anyone who asks.

“I feel like art belongs to everybody,” she added.

One of the main takeaways Patenaude always tries to drive home is that people don’t realize how many special opportunities there are. She reminds us to leave our minds open to the weird, whimsical types of art because we don’t always have to go corporate to make money.

“I make more money doing what I do now than I did when I had big, fancy, executive jobs. Of all the types of art I’ve done — I’ve done branding, I’ve done marketing, I’ve done design consultation, I’ve been an art director — I never expected pumpkins, of all things, to be the thing that stuck,” she laughed. “Just keep going and try to find your way in the art world.”

Patenaude will return to the TV this fall for Halloween Wars on Food Network. Locally, you can catch her at Pumpkin Nights, which will be held through Oct. 31 at Pioneer Farms in Austin.