Local artists Paul Kuhn and Lucas Salvesen say they draw with steel. Building their sculptures fragment by fragment, they outline in big pieces and shade with small. Sometimes the duo experiments. Sometimes they erase and start again.

The metalwork is remarkably fluid, and just what Naper Settlement needed to add a unique, almost supernatural addition to its usual slate of fall events this year.

For the first time, the history museum’s annual All Hallows Eve and Howlin’ at the Moon events will have a hair-raising centerpiece: a 15-foot werewolf art installation, courtesy of Kuhn and Salvesen. While not quite finished yet, the pair promises the piece will be ready just in time for All Hallows on Oct. 20-21 and Howlin’.from Oct. 27-28.

Until then, the artists will be at the drawing board.

“We know there are long days and nights ahead of us, but those are fun long days and nights,” Kuhn said. “It’s physically taxing, (but) you just have to remind yourself that, wow, we’re building a werewolf right now. That’s awesome.”

A new art installation for Naper Settlement’s October fare has been in the works for nearly a year now. In late 2022, the museum approached Kuhn with the idea and early back-and-forth over possibilities began. A few months later, back in March, an official partnership formed.

The parameters: a piece commissioned by the Naperville Heritage Society — with grant support from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity — for both family favorite festival All Hallows Eve and its 21+ companion event Howlin’ at the Moon. Kuhn and Salvesen jumped at the opportunity.

To them, the spookier the art, the better.

“With spooky stuff, you can get away with things not being perfect or lumpier or less symmetrical, you know,” Salvesen said. “Certain textures are just fun to make. It’s fun to make bumpy, horny skin. It’s harder to make things smooth.”

“Making something scary and gross lends itself to being a more freeing experience,” Kuhn added. “It’s fun and rewarding to let loose and say, that should be a little extra bumpy, or this or that.”

Unfettered is how they like it. That goes for their process, too.

For Kuhn and Salvesen, sculpting starts with a sketch — on paper. But the rough plan is just that. The duo likes to leave the final decisions to deft hands as they work.

“We have (a design) but we aren’t overly concerned with it,” Kuhn said. “We want to be thinking of it but not totally controlled by it so improvisation can happen. With this style, bending steel, welding it and shaping is definitely the crux of these projects. It starts with one piece. … It’s this ongoing process where you’re bending and welding and stepping back and checking to see that it looks right.”

Their DIY, off-the-cuff sort of style is evident in their work space. Tucked away on Kuhn’s family property in Naperville, the workshop is a maze of upcycled materials and inventions.

That includes a handmade mini crane, which Kuhn and Salvesen use to cart heavy materials and project pieces around. Last week, it hung just above a crouching werewolf. Well, the frame of one, so far composed of more than a thousand steel pieces welded together. Up next will be a layer of rubbers, foams and paints. The detail makers, Salvesen said.

Kuhn and Salvesen started working on their Naper Settlement commission in early September. Though giving them just a short two months to pull the 15-foot feat off, the artists said their working relationship helps make fast work of their projects.

“Truly, it’s a great partnership as far as art is concerned and really a big part of these sculptures that we make is a we,” Kuhn said. “I’m very thankful for this guy.”

Both from Naperville, Kuhn and Salvesen went to the same junior high and high school, though their paths didn’t cross. Kuhn, 44, was a few grades above Salvesen, 41. It wasn’t until their mid- to late-20s that the two became friends, after Kuhn had earned his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and Salvesen had launched his own tiling business.

Their path to sculpting took a while too. When they first connected, Kuhn and Salvesen mostly painted. Or, they worked on “really weird art projects,” Kuhn said. When they discovered sculpture, the medium stuck.

These days, Kuhn and Salvesen are booked a year out for commissions. They’ve found particular success in the music business, making large sculptures for festivals like North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, Suwannee Hulaween in Florida and Electric Forest in Michigan. Nothing quite beats making something for home, though.

“A lot of our stuff goes around the country, which is awesome, but there’s an extra special touch to a hometown project,” said Kuhn, whose local works include the “Tragedy of Triumph” sculpture at Naperville’s Metra station, dedicated to the 1946 train accident in which 45 people lost their lives, and “Ladder of Light,” which pays tribute to city firefighters.

Still, Naper Settlement’s commission is especially personal.

Kuhn and Salvesen remember visiting Naper Settlement when they were kids. School field trips, family outings — it’s where Kuhn tried beef jerky for the first time. They’re glad they can fashion a new memory-maker for the history museum campus, they said.

“When you go to a place as a kid on a field trip, you never really think one day you’re going to make a werewolf for them, you know?” Kuhn said, smiling. “It’s super rewarding.”

Once complete, Kuhn and Salvesen’s werewolf will be a permanent addition to All Hallows Eve and Howlin’ at the Moon every October. With the installation, Kuhn sees the beginnings of a local tradition.

“Having people come back every year, they will find new details or have memories of it,” he said. “It builds up this love towards the sculpture that really is fun as an artist to see, for people to be excited about the same werewolf that they saw last year. I think that’s beautiful.”

As beautiful as a werewolf can be.

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