ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607160005
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FORT WAYNE, IND.
SOURCE: CAROL TANNEHILL KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Jill Fisher hunts monsters. She looks out for them wherever she goes. Ever since she bagged her first one in March, she's been utterly charmed by their tortured grimaces, squinty eyes, wicked talons and pointy horns.
``Even the ferocious ones appeal to me,'' the LaOtto, Ind., woman says. ``I don't know why I like them. There's something majestic about them, I guess.''
Fisher - and growing numbers of unlikely fans - have gone gaga for gargoyles. The grotesque stone beasts that once adorned the Gothic cathedrals of Europe now are gracing offices, homes and gardens. For reasons no one can quite grasp, the homely beauties have become the hottest yard accessory since the cement goose.
These fantastic creatures originally did double duty from their towering perches on castles and churches. While their menacing faces scared away evil spirits, their gaping mouths diverted rainwater away from the walls. The ancient Greeks first used terra cotta or marble lions' heads as architectural drains. Gothic architects borrowed the idea, sculpting bizarre man-beasts and unflattering caricatures of their patrons to disguise purely practical waterspouts. Because the water poured from the creatures' mouths, the word gargoyle may have come from the Latin gurgulio, meaning gullet.
Gargoyles' renaissance as modern decorating accessory is part of a renewed fascination for things from the Middle Ages - from Gregorian chants on compact disc to Walt Disney's just-released movie, ``The Hunchback of Notre Dame.''
``A lot of people are accessorizing their gardens, and they're looking for new and different pieces to put there. They like (gargoyles') history, their ties to medieval times,'' says Greg Markley, manager at Neuhouser Garden and Gifts in Fort Wayne.
Shoppers who aren't aware of gargoyle lore often are initially turned off by them. ``They think they're evil,'' says Mike Bowmar, assistant manager at Natural Wonders in Fort Wayne. ``But once we explain that gargoyles were originally used on churches to drive evil away, people are really intrigued by them.''
Michael Stopka of Chicago's Design Toscano, which sells historical reproductions for homes and gardens by mail order, foresaw the beastly boom six years ago. Thanks largely to gargoyles, his business has grown from a $6,000 investment to $6 million in sales since 1990, Time magazine reports.
Many home accessory companies have added gargoyles to their lines in the past two years, and innovative variations on the gargoyle-in-the-garden theme keep on coming, Neuhouser's Greg Markley says.
Cement and outdoor resin gargoyles - as well as leaf-faced ``green men'' and mythological beasts such as griffins, sea serpents and dragons - are tucked into garden beds, mounted on brick walls, perched on porches and suspended like birdhouses from trees. They show up as lawn sprinklers, wind chimes, wall brackets and birdbaths. There's even one - called the Grow-Goyle - that's molded from natural, odorless cow manure.
Some of the figures are reproductions from real landmarks. Dedo, a harmless-looking best seller at many stores, supposedly still perches on the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. According to French folklore, ``the littlest gargoyle'' was carved by Sister Marie Therese and once broke the fall of a child who ventured onto the cathedral's precipices.
Goose Creek Manufacturing of Asheville, N.C., has reproduced Victorian architectural pieces from George Vanderbilt's splendorous Biltmore House in Asheville. One of the company's most popular items, a foot-tall faux marble ``roaring gargoyle'' is adapted from a limestone figure that lunges from the mansion's central tower.
Other gargoyles are the work of modern artists who've borrowed design elements from ancient pieces. Fearsome gargoyle cats and pigs with wings are among their imaginative creations.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: BRIAN TOMBAUGH/Fort Wayne News Sentinel. 1. Aby CNBbronze-colored flying gargoyle (top) is $46.50. color. 2. ``Dedo,
the littlest Gargoyle'' (above left), $44.50, and ``Sitting
Gargoyle''(above right), $49.95, provide a contrast in the styles
available at Neuhouser Garden and Gifts. 3. ``Egad,'' a gargoyle
from Natural Wonders in Glenbrook Square, Fort Wayne, Ind., is $55.