MT. MORRIS — Rochelle sculptors Mark and Danica Rogers again entered the U.S. National Straw Sculpting Competition in Mt. Morris, held Aug. 9-25 this year. 

The father-daughter sculpting duo have a history of competing locally in both straw and snow competitions. They’ve entered the Mt. Morris competition for a number of years and have entered snow sculpting competitions in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and Rockford.

The Rogers’ entry to this year’s straw competition is named "Merry Summerweenmas", and is a summertime-themed Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas hanging a carved watermelon on a Christmas tree.

“This summer there was a trend on social media where people were celebrating Summerween, Halloween during the summertime, by watching Halloween movies outside or in the pool,  carving watermelons instead of pumpkins, or making snacks that are Halloween themed,” Danica Rogers said. “Oregon had a downtown Summerween event with activities and trick or treating downtown. I loved the idea of it, but unfortunately didn't get around to celebrating it. So to tie in more summer elements we gave Jack shorts and flip flops and he's hanging a jack o' lantern watermelon on his tree.”

Mark and Danica enjoy planning out which parts of the sculpture need to be a different texture to stand out. They glue chipped straw to styrofoam for parts where a lot of detail is needed. Other parts are made of straw that's put over a chicken wire form and wrapped with twine, straw put over a form and stapled down with chicken wire, and bundles of straw tied onto the chicken wire form.

“This year we had to tie a lot of bundles together for the tree to give it a pine needle look,” Danica said. “Jack is also one of the thinnest pieces we've made so we had to make up for it in the detail. The biggest difficulty that we run into every year is time. We had a couple vacations planned for the weeks leading up to the due date so we had a lot of work to get done in the several days we were home before we were supposed to have it delivered.”

The Rogers originally planned to make a Medusa piece for both the Mt. Morris event and the drive thru Halloween light display in Sinnissippi Park in Rockford. They ran short on time and decided to do something simpler. After the new idea started with a Christmas tree, Jack Skellington was added in to meet themes of summer and Halloween. 

Mark and Danica’s entry is among five new sculptures displayed on the Mt. Morris campus. 

“It's a fun festival that we enjoy seeing bring in a crowd and we would hate to see it end because of lack of participation,” Danica said. “Encore! Mt. Morris does a great job and makes it a really special time. The outdoor gallery of sculptures they have set up at the campus looks really cool and they also run it alongside their Jamboree concerts that bring in people to the band shell so they can enjoy the sculptures as well.”

Entries made by Mark and Danica Rogers over the years have included Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street, Baby Yoda, a 1970s troll doll, King Kong, the Headless Horseman, and the Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow man.

Danica said her favorite piece would have to be the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, due to it being their biggest, most impressive piece because of its size alone. “A lot of hours” go into the making of each piece, even before the work with straw starts. 

The Rogers try to come up with pieces that will work in their timeframe that audiences will enjoy, and then comes the planning, sketching and scaling. Mark handles the framing stage and then chicken wire is added to give the frame its shape. Then comes foam sculpting, before the straw is finally applied in different techniques. 

Mark and Danica enjoy the process because it allows them to spend quality time together and bond over a task. 

“It's a lot of fun to joke around and bounce ideas off each other of things we should do or would be funny to add,” Danica said. “My dad has four daughters and art and these sort of building projects are something that are more specific to me and him. My other three sisters aren't as artistically inclined as we are so we bond over that. We joke around that I'm my dad's favorite son.”