Late last year, Karen Gonzales, children's librarian at the Missoula Public Library, was looking for someone who could turn a vision into a reality. And do it without breaking the budget.
The vision started with Mona Frangos, the architect and builder of the “Gnome House” that for two decades has graced the library. The idea was to create an entryway to the children's part of the library that somehow drew on the Gnome House.
Meanwhile, her husband Steve was busily plastering way over at the Wilma. Steve's a third-generation plasterer and artistic type, always dabbling behind the scenes in the arts community. He also has the artist's quirky eye.
“I pretty much begged him to help us,” Karen said.
And thus the Gnome Entryway inspired by the Gnome House became pretty much a family affair.
Karen's daughter, Casey O'Harren, an architecture student at Montana State University, made some drawings for the entry. Then Steve and a friend, writer and master carpenter Kim Zupan, got to work.
“Basically, I felt that we had the master plan in what Mona had done with the house, so we really wanted to honor that and build on that vision,” said Steve. “And then, as we moved ahead, I just found myself building on where Mona started and bringing in all sorts of stuff.”
Zupan and Gonzales labored over the long nights of midwinter, building the framework that essentially created a Gnome House roof spanning the entry to the children's section. The roof, which sports mushrooms and chimneys and a toy train, is supported by four “trees.”
Even the trees are “art.” On one of them the shape of Steve's face emerges from the bark, while others have sprouted birdhouses that Steve made from found objects.
“I pretty much went wild finding things to get up there,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales, who became something of a “gnomeologist” during the five-month-long project, also arranged for Missoula poet Dave Thomas to write a gnome poem for Saturday's unveiling of the new entryway.
“One day, I had a little boy give me chapter and verse on everything about gnomes, so I am fully up to speed on what it means to be a gnome,” Gonzales said with a laugh.
Armed with such knowledge, Gonzales carved features from foam, then plastered and painted them. He built scenes from toys and figurines he picked up around town. He wound up not only with gnomes, but fairies, butterflies, owls and rabbits.
Also an astronaut.
“Probably the only gnome house with an astronaut, but he felt right,” Gonzales said.
He worked on a principle of “nothing square, nothing straight,” keeping the entryway in sync with the animating concept behind Frangos' marvelously drooping house.
“For me, I know how much kids love Mona's house, and I just wanted to do something that would honor her whole vision and give the kids something else to love,” Gonzales said.
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com
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