By John Huxman
Freelance Reporter
Special to the Tribune
The Kid’s Zone in the Pratt Public Library has a new mural. The west wall of the library is now graced with a painting depicting many beloved children’s book characters. The mural was the brain child of Abigail Skiles, who is the Assistant Director of the Pratt Public Library and also the children’s librarian.
“We had an orange wall back there, which I personally always thought was really ugly, and I have wanted a mural for a while. So I was like, ‘I bet Gracie might be interested,’ so I asked Gracie and she certainly was,” said Skiles.
Gracie Bronson, who works at the Vernon Filley Art Museum, painted the wall based on ideas provided by Abigail Skiles. She said she had an idea for what I wanted, but zero talent to actually do so, so she took a picture of the wall and printed it out and drew stick figures. Bronson’s daughters, Sophie and Emma, also contributed ideas to the mural. They added a pigeon and Emma had the idea for the words ‘Once Upon a Time’ to be in the sky.
The wall features the five monkey’s from the classic children’s story The Five Little Monkeys, plus characters from the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Pooh and Eeyore, Pete the Cat, Elephant and Piggie, Frog and Toad, the Mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the Pigeon from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Paddington Bear, Mary Lennox and the garden wall from The Secret Garden, the Lorax, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It also features (from no specific book) a castle, a fairy door, and a number of butterflies. The five monkeys were necessary in order to incorporate the crocodile activity wall panels that were already present before the project began.
“I love how it combines all the stories which is fun. The kids love it. They come in and say its so beautiful and so artistic and they want to know who painted it.”
Bronson taught oil painting classes at the Filley for several years and was a volunteer there before becoming an official employee four years ago.
“I’ve lived in Kansas for 16 years. I grew up in Mississippi. My husband is Eric Bronson [who works] over at the Peoples Bank. We have two daughters who go to Skyline. I’ve always loved art,” she said. “In college my major was English and my minor was Art. It’s just been my thing for a long time. It’s my hobby and my passion.”
Bronson said she has always loved children’s book illustrations and children’s book characters and, when she was little girl, had wanted to be a children’s book author and illustrator.
“As a parent one of my favorite things was reading to my kids. So being able to do a mural of children’s book characters was so much fun,” she said.
Libraries have also always been special to Bronson.
“When I was a child one of my favorite places to be was the library. We had a really cool public library and I spent a lot of time there. It was a very magical place. There was a lot of art on the walls and the books and everything,” she said. “Doing this mural was like bringing that magic to life in a really big way. And this library means a lot to me because we brought our girls here for story hour. We spent so many happy hours in this room. It was great to be able to do this.”
Bronson said that the most daunting aspect of the project was its size. She began the project at the beginning of August and completed it at the end of that month. Though she didn’t keep track of her hours, she suspects that it took over 100 to complete.
“It is a big wall. I’ve worked on some mural projects before but never anything this big by myself,” she said.
The base colors of the mural, such as the green of the grass and the blue of the sky, were done in latex paint, with the detail work being done in acrylic. Her daughters helped with some of the layering, such as adding the yellow color for Winnie-the-Pooh and the clothing colors for Frog and Toad. “I was really, really happy that the library gave me the opportunity to do this because it was super fun. It was really, really rewarding for me,” she said.
