Whether he is using a chainsaw to transform a tree stump into a giant foot or traveling to Fairbanks, Alaska, to compete in the World Ice Art Championships, Daniel Miller gets a thrill out of creating carvings, especially when he has an audience to entertain.
“My background’s in fine art and painting: I’ve done murals; I’ve done all kinds of things. You just tend to get a bigger reaction out of people when you’re carving something that shouldn’t be carved, or when you’re carving with something that you normally don’t carve (with). If you’re standing there with a tree stump, and you’ve got a chainsaw, people want to watch that,” said Miller, who lives in Stonewall, a Pontotoc County town southeast of Ada.
Although he is an electrician by trade, Miller, who previously lived in the southern Oklahoma town of Wilson, considers himself a fourth-generation artist, with pumpkins serving as a primary medium.
“Carving, it’s a lot of fun, and then there’s something about the pumpkins. You can carve the best one you’ve ever done or the worst one you’ve ever done, it doesn’t matter, because in about four or five days, it’s not going to be around anymore. I like to see my own art; I just don’t want to see it all the time,” he said with a chuckle.
Over the past few years, Miller’s flair with one of fall’s favorite fruits has earned him a spotlight on the seasonal Food Network shows “Halloween Wars” and “Outrageous Pumpkins.” After contending last year on “Outrageous Pumpkins,” the Oklahoman is returning for an all-star season of the competition series, joining 13 fellow top pumpkin carvers vying for a grand prize of $50,000.
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With Season 5 of “Outrageous Pumpkins” premiering at 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29 on Food Network, Miller chatted with The Oklahoman about his love for Halloween, his artistic roots and his plans for if he wins the show’s top prize:
Q: When you’re a pumpkin carver, Halloween is really your time to shine, right?
Oh, definitely. From the middle of September through like the first week of November, maybe even the second week, because people are still asking for pumpkins and stuff like that. I’ve even carved leftover pumpkins as turkeys for Thanksgiving for people so they could make use of them.
But yeah, October is the pinnacle, and Halloween being the top of it.
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Q: Was Halloween always one of your favorite times of year?
Oh, yeah, loved it, because you got to see so much cooler stuff than any other time of year. I mean, you get to see a lot of cool stuff at Christmas, but there’s no costumes, none of that. You don’t get candy at everybody’s house. My mom’s nickname for me, is pumpkin — or punkin — and it’s been that since I was a little kid, yeah. So, Halloween’s always been fun and my favorite.
Then, it’s always my kids, my niece, my brothers, we all get together and carve pumpkins together. It’s a big time for us.
Q: What do you carve when you don’t have pumpkins to carve around here?
I have found pumpkins as early as July, but rare. Most of the time, you get them in September, so I start carving them then. But year-round, you can get butternut squash, so I carve those. I’ve even carved those in Alaska when it was minus 40 below. … And sometimes you add butternut to pumpkin, because you build off of it if your pumpkin’s not big enough to do the task you’re after.
Then, I carve ice in February in Alaska at the world championships. … So, there’s always something to carve, and when that’s not around, I carve on wood.
Q: Could you have imagined 10 years ago that you would be traveling to different states to carve pumpkins or ice or whatever?
Oh no, no, no. It’s all kind of weird, because … I’ve always done art. I always watched the Halloween shows on TV. I got into chainsaw carving wood because I had a tree fall on the fence in my yard. At the time, I was writing a children’s book about Bigfoot, it’s called ‘Myth Hollow’ … and I only wrote it so I could do the illustrations. Just anything with art.
So, they knew I was writing a children’s book about Bigfoot, I’m cutting the tree down, and my buddies come by just poking at me, saying, ‘Why don’t you carve a Bigfoot?’ And at this time, I’d never carved anything with a chainsaw. So, I said, ‘All right, you sorry dogs, come back tomorrow.’ They came back, and I had turned the stump into a five-foot foot — a giant foot. I had a limb, and I made a three-foot pair of toenail clippers just laying up against it.
So, they’re like, ‘That’s not a Bigfoot,’ and I was like, ‘That is, in fact, sir, a big foot.’ So, that was my first chainsaw carving. So, I started carving with a chainsaw in wood, and then someone asked me, ‘Can you carve a pumpkin with a chainsaw?’ Well, you can, but it’s really horrible with, like, a small one.
So that led into, ‘I bet I can do it like I’m seeing them on TV,’ which led into ‘Halloween Wars.’ Then, I won ‘Halloween Wars.’ Well, that next year, after the show aired, I reached out to Tator Edwards, who’s been on a few shows, and Tator led me into ice sculpting.
Q: How has it been to return to ‘Outrageous Pumpkins’ for a second time?
The chance of glory anytime you can compete at that level with that many people is amazing, because you don’t get that kind of group together every day. It’s not very often that that happens. But yeah, I was stoked to be on the show and compete with everybody. Some of them I’ve just met, but I’ve never competed with. And then some of them I’ve only met through (another) person. So, you don’t know them all.
So, it’s exciting to be on the show, and it’s really fun because you’re outdoors. … You think it’s going to be bloodthirsty. … But everybody’s willing to do whatever they can to help you out. If you’re struggling, or if you break a tool, they’ll let you borrow one. So, the environment is a lot different than you get in other places and competitions. It’s more of a family environment, I would guess; they really care if your piece breaks, or if you’re having problems.
Don’t get me wrong: Everybody wants to win, but my take from it is everybody wants to beat you at your best.
Q: I read that you want to start your pumpkin patch if you win the big prize on this show — is that correct?
Correct, but not like your average pumpkin patch. I want pumpkins there, of course. But I want to be able to have like a little amphitheater, so you could put on classes and teach people how to carve. But I also want to make up a walkthrough with displays that could be up year-round. So, you could dress them up for Halloween, or add to them or take away. … So, (it would be) more of an attraction that stays more than just one month, so you can enjoy the carving — because you can carve stuff all year — and then do fun events.
I’ve always wanted my whole life to be a full-time artist. So, I’m hoping that’s the platform to jump off of to be it: having a place that’s your own, that you can make your own displays and have money coming in from them. That would allow you to travel more, to go to more events, also. So, I think the whole thing, the whole dynamic, would work, to quit changing fuses on poles and start carving pumpkins all the time.
HOW TO WATCH
Oklahoma pumpkin carver Daniel Miller will compete on the all-star Season 5 of “Outrageous Pumpkins,” premiering at 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, on Food Network.
