Dorann Nelson is a lifelong creative who found her artistic groove fashioning Halloween figures in the Appalachian Mountains. Her art took a backburner while she raised her family and worked as an interior designer/architect for the Department of Defense. Dorann worked on everything from designing a general’s office to expanding an aircraft hangar. She only had time to do art in the wee hours of the night, hence the name of her business, Moonlight Artistry. After years of career relocations, Dor...
Aug 13, 2022•54 min•Season 4Ep. 40
Artist Joey Marsocci is a story teller who uses the mediums of theme park and haunt design, creature fabrication, illustration, writing, acting, cosplay, and more to tell his stories. He’s passionate about building immersive experiences for those who enjoy his strange worlds. He is the Creative Director and Co-Creator at the Curioporium, New England’s Premier Haunted Shopping Experience in Hartford, CT. The Curioporium is an immersive, 5 senses experience (some say 6) brought to fruition by Joey...
Jun 14, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 4Ep. 39
The Amanita Muscaria is the most famous mushroom in the world. Even if you don’t pay much attention to fungus, you’ve seen them in fairy paintings, Alice in Wonderland, Super Mario Brothers, and as the mushroom emoji. Also known as “fly agaric”, they are found all over the Northern Hemisphere, August through November. The most recognizable part of the mushroom is its stunning bright red cap with white spots. They also have little cute white skirts on their stems and a bulb at their base. While A...
May 30, 2022•22 min•Season 4Ep. 38
This is Kristen Stafford, your host of the Halloween Art and Travel Podcast. This is where you get the stories behind the best Halloween art being created today. I couldn’t think of a better day than Friday the 13th to drop this preview of Season 4 into your ears. Did you notice my new logo? It’s evolved from its original US passport inspired design to one that harkens back to luggage stickers from travel’s golden age. Speaking of travel, with events coming back, I’m excited to add more travel i...
May 13, 2022•2 min•Season 4Ep. 37
Isaias Urrabazo uses his diverse skill set to create stunning visual art that celebrates life. Isaias is an accomplished artist, singer, actor, speaker, and costume designer. Isaias is well-known for his elaborate ofrendas that he exhibits in Las Vegas for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead (DotD)). DotD is a bright celebration, in which we wait for our deceased loved ones to return to earth. His ofrendas are jam-packed with marigold flowers, a symbol of the Aztec sun god. The smell of the flow...
Oct 31, 2021•47 min•Season 3Ep. 36
You can be sure Jorene Lomenzo’s heart is racing in excitement whenever she’s clicking refresh in anticipation of a shop update or standing in line to get into an art show. Jorene is a Halloween art collector and blogger. “There’s so little in life that brings me this much joy,” sums up how she feels about collecting. Jorene’s superstitious grandmother sparked her obsession for all things spooky. Her grandmother believed her colicky uncle was cursed by a witch. If you’ve ever known a colicky bab...
Oct 29, 2021•49 min•Season 3Ep. 35
Picture a broom in your mind. Did it have glitter and dried flowers on it? Have you ever even dreamed those were possibilities? Creative Paskalini Savopoulos (Lena for short), is obsessed with crafting decorative and functional brooms by hand. She recalls falling in love with a broom at a Renaissance Festival. She didn’t buy it at first – but she found as she was walking around she couldn’t get it out of her mind. When she returned to purchase it, she was disappointed to discover it had been sol...
Sep 22, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 34
Have you ever realized that an art collection can have the same function as a library? All of the creations by doll artist Jennie Hepler-Takens are stories and her body of work is her book. Every doll Jennie creates tells a story. Sometimes she even continues to work on a character’s story long after he or she is settled into their new home. In this episode, we learn the stories behind some of Jennie’s past and current works. There’s a bearded lady, who gives us a glimpse into the life of a side...
Aug 31, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Lurena Williamson of Tattered Moon, is obsessed with resurrecting antiques by transforming them into one-of-a-kind Halloween dolls. She’s an outsider artist with an edge of creepy. All of her designs are one-of-a-kind and created without patterns. Even her sewing machine, which “drives like a Porsche,” is vintage. Lurena commenced her career by working at a fabric store. She’s had a variety of jobs, even working for a technology company. Through it all, her soul has always driven her to create d...
Aug 13, 2021•54 min•Season 3Ep. 32
A “Renaissance person” has many skills and areas of knowledge. This is an accurate description of Dennis Hayes – he collects vintage Halloween, creates whimsical art, and produces art shows. His business name, Runamuck Studio, is a nod to his love of variety. Today you can find him sculpting with paper clay, building feather trees, and carving scrimshaw. His creative style is bright with strong influences of vintage Halloween. His vintage collection includes over 250 paper party hats, some over ...
Jul 30, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 31
Professional eccentric, JR Pepper, combines her love of art and bizarre history into her entertaining lectures and spooky photography. She majored in art history with a focus on female surrealists. Today she is a Fellow and Curator, for the New York City Odd Salon, a non-profit that hosts curated talks on topics dealing with history, art, and science from 1950 or earlier. Pepper helps us understand that monsters are visual representations of our fears. Film serves as a medium to express those fe...
Jul 14, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 30
“Keeping our dead alive” is the passion of the devoted Gravestone Girls (GG). In this episode, we meet Brenda Sullivan, the founder of this New England-based crew. Brenda, Maggie, and Melissa make history relevant through cemetery lectures and tours, genealogy work, and castings of beautiful gravestones. It’s no surprise that Brenda grew up in a family skilled in antiques, restoration, art, and history. Young Brenda learned how to do gravestone rubbings and to respect cemeteries as repositories ...
Jul 01, 2021•50 min•Season 3Ep. 29
Becky Kilimnik fell in love with spooky storytelling during her childhood in the mountains of Tennesse. Today, she expresses this passion in her art, design, and podcasting. Listen today to hear her behind-the-scenes experiences of owning an art gallery, upbeat and humorous afterlife art collecting tips, and what it takes to scare someone who tells scary stories for a living. Becky owns a graphic design studio in Atlanta, GA. A few years back, Becky, along with family members, owned and operated...
Jun 13, 2021•52 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Sarah Boyce’s love of the autumn and winter holidays will expand your understanding of the passage of time and seasons. Sarah created Garlands and Gravestones to give her space to celebrate the folklore and magic of the spookiest half of the year. In many ways, holidays celebrate the seasons and serve as markers of time. Sun dials are just one example of a visual for that passage. Sarah loves history, especially ancient, medieval, and Renaissance. Who can resist being inspired by an Egyptian mum...
May 30, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 27
What do you think of when you hear the word cemetery? Spooky? Do you think history and art museum? If you haven’t, you should! This episode explores some common symbols found in Victorian era cemeteries in the US. Trigger Warning: Grief, loss, child loss Some examples of the symbolism covered: Broken columns symbolize the end of life, usually one cut short Snapped flowers and buds symbolize a life cut short, usually a young one Empty shoes, beds, and chairs symbolize the absence of a loved one L...
May 13, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 26
Sharon Bloom is a visual artist and teacher who LOVES Halloween. While her education is in painting and print making, today she is best known in the Halloween art world for her vivid Halloween themed hand-built ceramics. She enjoys clay because it gives her a chance to work dimensional. A life-long learner, Sharon is always trying out new technology, tools, and techniques. She’s had such variety in her creative journey: painting t-shirts at Nordstrom, painting thousands of cards and buttons by h...
Apr 30, 2021•59 min•Season 3Ep. 25
Artist Joey Marsocci is a story teller who uses the mediums of theme park and haunt design, creature fabrication, illustration, writing, acting, cosplay, and more to tell his stories. He’s passionate about building immersive experiences for those who enjoy his strange worlds. Joey knew he wanted to be in arts and entertainment since childhood. He loved watching scary movies like Jaws and figuring out how they were made. Authors like Jules Vern and Mary Shelley put his imagination into overdrive....
Oct 31, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Ellen Gee has dedicated her life to Halloween. It manifests in her music and fashion choices, home decorating, and career. Ellen is an artist, publisher, writer, and event planner – all in the theme of Halloween and horror. Ellen has embraced goth since childhood. As a child, she identified with the strong female leads in The Addams Family and The Munsters. Lily Munster and Morticia Addams served as fashion muses to her. In middle school she fell in love with Alice Cooper and started dressing li...
Oct 30, 2020•46 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Kristen Beason is creating cheeky folk art for Halloween merrymaking. She desires to make the holiday memorable for collectors, friends, and family. Kristen traces her fascination with witches back to childhood. She enjoyed dressing up as Witchiepoo from the TV show H. R. Pufnstuf. She constantly drew witches on her handwriting paper in elementary school. She loves the illustrations in the children’s book “A Woggle of Witches” by Adrienne Adams. In it you’ll find long and lanky witches flying ar...
Oct 21, 2020•39 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Artist Susie Krichbaum loves to create peculiar creatures with a twist. Not satisfied to create a standard mermaid, Susie sculpted one and gave it anglerfish head. This desire to mix things up is no surprise given Susie’s career history and diverse arts and crafts endeavors. Susie started her career as a nurse. After she became a mom, she took a break from nursing to be home with her two kids. During that time, Susie was creating part-time and selling at local craft shows. Instead of going back ...
Oct 13, 2020•51 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Minnesotan artist Nancy Malay has earned her nicknames of “The Christmas Lady” and “The Halloween Lady.” Early American Life magazine named her as one of the best artists in the country. She’s been published in multiple magazines, including five covers of Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts. She describes her Halloween style as “spooky sweet.” Nancy loves writing craft tutorials. She strives to simplify the artistic process for beginning creatives and to help them avoid pit falls she’s exper...
Sep 18, 2020•51 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Artist Melissa Belanger's desire to be contrary is rooted in her childhood. Her mother was supportive but didn't like candy, Halloween, and dolls, which Melissa adores. Melissa created all of her costumes. One of her most memorable was cardboard butterfly wings paired with a snowsuit. Halloweens were often cold in her Wisconsin hometown. Melissa loved her time as a middle school art teacher. She pushed her students to explore as many mediums as possible and to focus on process over outcome. She ...
Aug 31, 2020•49 min•Season 2Ep. 19
In this episode, you’ll meet British artist Sian Ellis. Sian is excited to be a full-time artist after years working concurrently in charity events management and art. Sian’s favorite events to produce were Halloween ones. She organized a children’s event that featured the crafting of monster lanterns out of tissue paper and birch. Once the children completed their lanterns, they put fairy lights in them and paraded around to the beats of a steel drum band. One of her favorite grown-up events to...
Aug 13, 2020•55 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Artist Karen Steinkraus, of The Victorian Witch Hat, uses her experience in theater costume design to create one-of-a kind, jaw-dropping witch hats. Karen started by creating big Victorian hats for theater plays like “Hello Dolly.” She discovered it was a joy to make them. A group of women wearing crazy witch hats for a girls’ night out inspired her to start creating them for use outside the theater. Karen sews without patterns. This skill commenced in childhood when she learned to make her own ...
Jul 14, 2020•49 min•Season 2Ep. 17
A man of many talents and skills, artist Tom Taggart is creating monsters and myths. Tom has a long list of artistic experience, including comic book covers (including Batman, Swamp Thing, and Doom Patrol), toy fabrication, movie sets, mini-golf design, and more. A New Jersey native, he currently lives in North Carolina. Self-taught, Tom stands out because he always puts his own take on characters. He loves coming up with this own designs and stories. When he was younger, he didn’t think he coul...
Jun 30, 2020•49 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Isaac Bidwell is a designer and illustrator. The inspiration behind Isaac’s business name, Pickled Punks, comes from side-show specimens that were displayed in jars. Isaac is into side-show gaffs, an example of one is the jackalope. He plans his road trips around weird museums and attractions. Isaac is inspired by spook shows. Spook shows started in the 1920s as live magic shows with creepy stuff. They eventually evolved into late night movies wildly popular with teenagers. All kinds of crazy st...
Jun 13, 2020•57 min•Season 2Ep. 15
George is a monsterologist who studies creatures, creeps, and cryptids. His web site is https://monsterologist.com . Ever since childhood, his radar has been on to look for Halloween stuff. He doesn’tremember a time he wasn’t completely obsessed. He would even put skeletons and bats on cards he drew for his mother. He dreamed of working for Mad Magazine and illustrating heavy metal covers. After studying art in school, he did freelance illustration. Unfortunately, he became burnt-out and conside...
May 30, 2020•51 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Today you’ll meet artist Kevin Buntin from Ohio. Kevin creates fantasy, seasonal, and Halloween based sculpture. Kevin’s childhood Friday nights were spent watching Indiana horror host, Sammy Terry. While watching the movies that gave him nightmares, he would create clay monsters complete with internal organs. After high school, Kevin wasn’t college bound, so he dismissed going into art as a career. Kevin worked multiple factory and labor jobs, including cleaning up roadkill. After her health cr...
May 13, 2020•49 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Meet artist Amber Leilani, a creator of folk surrealist paintings and mixed media. When I met Amber, she was sculpting. Repetitive wrist injuries made sculpting painful for her. She discovered painting is better suited for her wrists and she is obsessed. Amber recently changed her main focus from Halloween and Day of the Dead to nature-based topics. This change was deliberate. She still likes to have her gothic look come through. One of her favorite things to paint is ladies with skull faces whi...
Apr 30, 2020•37 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Meet artist Nicole Johnson, monster specialist. Since childhood she has been drawn to creepy stories and things – she doesn’t know why. She jokes that “something’s wrong with me.” She wanted to make realistic art when she was a student. She tried religious art, but it ended up looking creepy. With experience she came to the realization she is better at making cartoonish art. She has devoted herself to full-time monster making. Her favorites are the classics like werewolves and vampires. Some of ...
Oct 29, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 11
