cant compile gtk theme

[Marcial Zamora III <chic0@msdelta.com>]

hey all. im tryin to install a gtk theme from source, and am getting this error:

checking for gtk-config... no
checking for GTK - version >= 1.2.0... no
*** The gtk-config script installed by GTK could not be found
*** If GTK was installed in PREFIX, make sure PREFIX/bin is in
*** your path, or set the GTK_CONFIG environment variable to the
*** full path to gtk-config.
configure: error: *** GTK 1.2 not installed - please install first ***

I am running potato, and do have libgtk1.2 installed, along with gtk-engines-pixmaps package as well..
any ideas ? new to debian, so any input would be appreciated  =)