San Jose resident Paulina Goff Stovall began her career as a professional pumpkin carver at age 18, just out of high school, when she carved a 600-pound pumpkin in the shape of a funnel web spider for a gathering at the home of a local corporate CEO.

“I was so intrigued by the opportunity to carve live for entertainment,” says Stovall. “I love entertaining and have always been artistic.”

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She gets to show off her pumpkin-carving prowess on season 15 of Food Network’s “Halloween Wars,” which premieres on Sept. 21.

Stovall says she could draw “from the time I can remember. I could pick up any art media that you could give a kid.”

Halloween was a favorite time, when she and her three siblings—two of whom are now tattoo artists and the other a muralist—would all carve Jack

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