Friday, May 23, 2025
Imagine walking up to the front entrance of the Hood County Library, where one can see visitors relax as they sit on the butterfly bench to enjoy butterflies and hummingbirds as they swoop in for a sip of nectar in the pollinator garden. Children touch, examine and delight in the metal art sculpture that depicts the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.
This vision will soon be a reality thanks to a community effort led by Lake Granbury Master Gardeners, Hood County Library Director Jennifer Logsdon and Friends of the Library of Hood County.
The public is invited to attend a live butterfly release and the dedication of a metal art depiction of the monarch butterfly life cycle at 1 p.m., Saturday, May 3, at the Hood County Library, 222 N. Travis St. Officials from the city of Granbury and Hood County will gather as the sculpture is introduced to the community and contributors are gratefully acknowledged.
During the past year, Lake Granbury Master Gardeners worked with generous artists and community members to construct the metal art, titled “Life Cycle,” while also navigating the approval process for its placement with the city of Granbury, Hood County Commissioners and the Lake Granbury Art Association. All of that coincided with a request from Library Director Jennifer Logsdon to assist with a Hood County Library beautification project, which helped pull everything together.
“The teamwork it took to put this together is impressive,” Amanda Salinas, Hood County AgriLife Extension Services agent, said. “I expect this will increase awareness of the master gardener program and horticultural issues in Hood County.”
The sculpture is a metal regeneration of the “monarch life-cycle totem” master gardeners created for the 2019 Romancing the Monarch festival. At that time, festival education chairperson Judy Duree asked Master Gardener Jack Hoover if he would create something similar to what she had seen on the Internet that would help children learn about the life cycle of the monarch. Hoover, a self-described idea man, designed the structure in four sections using round concrete form tubes, which resemble heavy cardboard, so it could be easily disassembled, moved, stored and then moved and reassembled. Creative Master Gardeners Colleen Lisenbee, Olivia Barden and Nancy Walsh illustrated each of the four stages of the life cycle on the tube sections, forming and then painting plants, eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies with paper, gourds and found objects.
“Now that it is made of metal, we can encourage curious children of all ages to interact with the sculpture, touching the caterpillars, eggs or other intriguing pieces,” Olivia Barden, president Lake Granbury Master Gardeners, said. “We expect this will be truly educational as people see the life cycle sculpture surrounded by nectar and pollinator plants that serve as hosts for the butterflies throughout their life cycle. It’s education come to life.”
Master Gardener Deborah Rollins provides continuing impetus for the Life Cycle project, due to her work as chairperson of the annual fall Romancing the Monarch butterfly festival. She offers workshops about the Mighty Monarch Migration and obtains official city proclamations to educate the public about the need to provide pollinator plants to support endangered monarch butterflies as they migrate through Hood County.
“I was sitting in my car at the library thinking about the best place for the sculpture, when Livie (Barden) called me to let me know Jennifer (Logsdon) had reached out to ask if the Master Gardeners would help with her beautification project,” Rollins said. “That’s when it hit me — the library is the perfect place.”
Both the city of Granbury and the Hood County Commissioners Court approved placing the monarch life-cycle sculpture at the library. It meets a city goal to add more art and provides an opportunity for both the library and LGMG to educate the public. In addition, the artwork is also consistent with the Color Our World arts theme for the library’s summer reading program.
“People come to the library for information and education, and frequently leave with stories,” Logsdon, who became director of the library in November 2019, said. “The library is a community hub for gathering — it’s a place where we can hold their stories and educate.”
Barden and library staff collaborated in 2020 to create a Seed Library, which continues today with master gardeners and community members bringing seeds they have collected to the library for people to take home and plant. About 20 years ago, LGMG and library staff collaborated on a redesign and installation of the entire library landscape. Although much has changed, some of the plants brought in then continue to thrive.
Thanks to funding from the Friends of the Library of Hood County, the renewal includes 40 new plants for the pollinator garden, a butterfly bench and the sculpture. While time and materials for the sculpture were donated, (see list), funds were needed for paint, as well as to purchase plants, the bench and the sign.
MONARCH BUTTERFLY LIFE CYCLE SCULPTURE CONTRIBUTORS:
Lake Granbury Master Gardeners, Friends of Hood County Library and the following:
Dwight Cullum brainstormed with the team, found metal for the sections and even let master gardeners dig through discarded metal to find springs, which became caterpillars. He offered his shop for painting and assembly, humored the master gardeners’ requests, and welded the pieces together, transforming all the efforts into the sculpture.
Danny Reed cut all the small metal pieces that would become the plant stems, leaves and blossoms, the butterflies, the eggs and chrysalises;
Colleen Lisenbee, artist, former teacher and former master gardener, was key in the creation of the original life-cycle totem and spent hours bending and painting the metal, both before and after it was welded;
Raul Sandoval, Sandoval Excavating, created and installed the concrete pad;
Kylee Peterson, Granbury High School teacher and volunteer, did the fine hand lettering on the lip of each section; and the
LGMG Life Cycle Metal Art Project and Design Team including Chairperson Deborah Rollins, Olivia Barden, Genie Bishop, Louise Hooper, Ondina Martins, Renee Rogers and Nancy Walsh.
SIDEBAR
Each stage of the monarch’s life cycle is described in the beautiful script of Kylee Peterson, Granbury High teacher and volunteer, who painted the lettering.
STAGE ONE — Monarch lays EGGS only on milkweed leaves.
STAGE TWO — EGGS become CATERPILLARS. Monarch CATERPILLARS feed only on milkweed leaves.
STAGE THREE — CATERPILLARS become CHRYSALISES, where metamorphosis occurs.
STAGE FOUR — The CHRYSALIS opens and a fully adult MONARCH BUTTERFLY emerges!
The Lake Granbury Master Gardeners (LGMG), a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, works to improve the quality of life in Hood County by sharing horticultural information through various projects, programs, events and activities. It is an educational volunteer program conducted by the Texas AgriLife Extension Services of the Texas A&M University System.
More information about LGMG can be found at txmg.org/hcmg, at Facebook.com/LakeGranburyMasterGardeners, by emailing lakegranburymastergardeners
@gmail.com or by calling the Hood County Extension Office at 817-579-3280.
