CLARKSVILLE, N.Y. (WIVB)- When artist Eric Jones was walking through the Great Pumpkin Farm and saw a 600-pound pumpkin, he knew he found the perfect canvas for his next creation.

” I do some live carving there, and after the season was over they had some huge pumpkins left over so I went and bought an Atlantic Giant,” Jones said.

After recently letting his creative juice’s flow carving on Food Networks Halloween Wars, Jones decided to get a little help from Facebook friends on deciding how to transform his latest project.

“The response was Halloween is over, do something for the veterans. My son is ROTC so I thought absolutely, this is perfect.”

Jones decided to recreate the iconic image of marines raising the flag in Iwo Jima flag. The painstaking work took him a total of only five hours and because of it, his home has become quite the tourist attraction.

“People can drive by and see it. This one has drawn a lot more attention, there are people pulling in my driveway and checking it out, which is fine it’s there for them to enjoy. “

Jones says this project was particularly important to him because it’s been a difficult year in this country and he wanted a lasting image to bring us all together.

“With coronavirus, a lot of nasty politics, I just thought there’s one thing we can all kind of agree on and that is we owe something to our veterans. We look at the freedoms we have as a nation and we’re not perfect, but we owe some gratitude to them.”

For more information on Jones and his work, visit Erics Caricatures and Carvings or Ericjonescaricatures.com.

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