This Giant Sandworm is One of Our Favorite Halloween Decorations This Year

Beetlejuice…Beetlejuice…Beetlejuice…

As Halloween approaches, local artist Heather Lee McClellan may have the coolest lawn decoration in Cleveland. Wanting to make a big statement in her new neighborhood, McClellan created this life-size sandworm in her front yard. Creatively designed, the worm’s body comes out of the ground in four parts – a highly rendered and expressive head (well, two heads really), a tail and two separate body pieces that create an archway over the path to the home’s front door that each trick-or-treater will have to pass through on their way to and from the house on Halloween.

“I've always loved the movie Beetlejuice, and Halloween is the perfect time of year to feature all of its creative glory,” McClellan explains. “My dad has since passed away, but when I was young He would make lawn characters for Christmas. He'd cut them out of wood and I'd help him paint the Looney Tunes or Disney characters. I think of it a little like I'm carrying on his tradition.”

After receiving her BFA in Illustration from the Cleveland Institute of Art, McClellan and her family traveled to Vietnam and the Philippines, where she studied master techniques in lacquer and serigraphs, respectively.

The Sandworm can be viewed on the front lawn of 2265 Stillman Rd. in Cleveland Heights through Halloween.