The Devil Made Me Do It

Today marks the start of one of Puerto Rico's most popular fiestas in the town of Loiza Aldea—a festival celebrated by dressing up in outlandish devil masks and costumes.

Devil on a Root Monster could ride into Loiza Aldea today and feel right at home.

This sculpture from the Smithsonian Americian Art Museum's folk art collection is made by wood carver Miles Burkholder Carpenter. An experienced lumberman, Carpenter was accustomed to dealing with wood's potential. In the countryside around Waverly, Virginia, he collected fallen branches and exposed roots and also cut trees into thick planks as the raw materials for his carving.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: Miles Burkholder Carpenter, 1889–1985, Devil on a Root Monster, 1974, painted wood, fur, leather, synthetic cord, 26 3/4 x 29 3/4 x 10 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment.