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During the month of October, many people honor Selena Quintanilla with creative costumes that pay homage to the late singer. However, there are other people who choose to honor and remember her through art. And because it’s spooky season, those artists are using pumpkins to bring the singer back to life. The latest person to create a Selena tribute is San Antonio artist Arthur Alaquinez, who carved Selena’s portrait onto a pumpkin with a Halloween twist.
“Worked on this for a couple days,” Arthur wrote alongside the portrait of the late singer. He added: “Artificial pumpkin Carving. Tag The biggest Selena fan you know.” The artist, who has carved different artists, basketball players and celebrities, uses two methods for his pumpkin art. He does traditional and “artificial” carving. His Selena portrait was done using the latter, which isn’t actually carved, but gives the illusion that it is.
Besides the power of Selena, this pumpkin includes a festive twist. Arthur opted to give the late singer a Day of the Dead makeover. On her right side, she has Día de Muertos-inspired makeup with floral details around her eye and a delicate spider’s web at the top of her head. Other stars that Arthur has used on his pumpkins are Drake, Nipsey Hussle, and the basketball players from the San Antonio Spurs.
When speaking about the pumpkin to My San Antonio, Arthur shared that he wanted to do something memorable for the Day of the Dead. The Mexican holiday, which honors late loved ones, was the perfect opportunity to remember the Queen of Tejano, who passed away in 1995. “To think it all started only a couple years ago coming across a pumpkin on the internet,” he wrote on his social media. “I’ve always been artistic but never pursued it, that 1st pumpkin I did went viral from there ppl started asking me do you do paintings…learning on my own along the way tried it got better little by little.”