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.

Jones and team on Food Network’s Halloween Wars

“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.

Kelly Khatib is a digital reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2019. See more of her work here.

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