Dressage at Devon is a celebration of art on horseback. Elizabeth Colly Kelly brought to Devon some art on pumpkin. Colly Kelly is a Pennsylvania artist who has carved just about everything on a pumpkin. In honor of Devon, she carved some dressage riders and horses and shared her art with spectators, including John and Lisa Seger and their guests who joined them in the Markel Insurance box on the evening of the Grand Prix Freestyle.

When the Segers arrived to prepare the box for the evening’s guests they found a beautifully carved pumpkin sitting on the table and learned it was left by an artist sitting nearby. Colly Kelly said she loves to share her pumpkin art and when asked what she is normally paid for such wonderful art, merely laughed. “My pay is usually a free meal at a local pub. It’s like, here’s the pumpkin, here’s a free hamburger,” she said.

Colly Kelly is widely known for her “wearable art” – artwork that she creates on clothing, particularly denim. She’s been coming to Devon for years and loves leaving carved pumpkins about. She’s been carving pumpkins “since I was very, very young and I love it. You don’t have to worry about the pumpkin, when it rots, it rots and you can give it to the horses, to the dogs, whatever. They love it. It’s temporary art.” Her carved pumpkins generally have a life span of 2-4 weeks. However, bigger ones last longer. “I’ve carved really big pumpkins, very, very delicately and had them last 6-8 months,” she said.

Pumpkin carving really is an art. Colly Kelly uses special hand-made tools that her father made for her nearly 25 years ago. She’s very careful about how she approaches the art of pumpkin carving. “I carve from the outside in,” Colly Kelly said. “The whole idea is that you don’t want to destroy the pumpkin, you want to display the colors, all the different layers of the pumpkin. What people don’t realize is that you can carve from the outside in, you don’t have to destroy it.”

While some pumpkins can take hours to carve, others go rather quickly. The one she carved for the Markel Insurance box at Devon only took her about an hour. She’ll soon be carving as fast as she can because on October 20, Colly Kelly is joining a mass of other pumpkin carvers at the Great Pumpkin Festival in Keene, New Hampshire. “We’re going to try to beat the world record for most pumpkins carved in a day. We hope to have 125,000 pumpkins on display,” she said. Based on what was on display at Dressage at Devon, whatever Colly Kelly carves is sure to look good.