Jessie Robertson
Forest of DREAMS
The Forest of DREAMS has been the source of some of the best experiences of my life. Its concept began in October, 2015, when my mom, UNCW education professor Dr. Janna Siegel Robertson, contacted DREAMS of Wilmington, an after-school art center. For her sabbatical, she came up with the fun idea to teach a concrete sculpture class there. However, when she spoke with DREAMS executive director Matt Carvin, he asked her to paint the huge 240 wall behind the DREAMS building instead. They came up with the concept of a fantastical forest made up of fifty different creatures, which would represent fifty different organizations. The organizations
would pay $50 for their creature, which would pay for the supplies to paint the Forest of DREAMS.
​
My mom immediately set to work, contacting everyone
involved with non-profits she could think of to see if they
would like to have a creature for the Forest of DREAMS, and
invited her friends and acquaintances to participate in
painting the mural, including me. I, forone, was eager to
volunteer. Having always loved creating artwork and trying
new mediums, this seemed like an exciting opportunity to
practice and beautify the community at the same time.
Together, we designed three creatures for three different
organizations, my mom designing an osprey-fish combo
for the UNCW Center of Innovation and a sea turtle with a colorful apple as a shell for Nourish NC. Meanwhile, I combined traits from the five different types of amphibians- frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecillians- into a creature for SAVE THE FROGS!, an international non-profit organization and public charity dedicated to conserving amphibians. Before long, 50 organizations andhundreds of volunteers agreed to take part in the Forest of DREAMS community art project.
​
We eventually began painting the mural on March 5th, 2016. Over 25 volunteers came including myself and my mom, and that day we made amazing progress. We cleaned the litter and debris around the neglected gray wall, cut down the pointed vines that climbed it, covered the entire wall with a layer of paint, and even added some rough looking plants on top. Essentially, in just a matter of hours, we had created a rudimentary forest 240 feet long.
Every Saturday since, we had numerous volunteers come (usually between 50 and 80) come and participate in creating and maintaining the mural, whether by painting, designing, cleaning, or other. Additionally, many groups came during the school week to create their creatures. Given the sheer size of the mural and the quality we wanted it to possess, progress was slow, but due to the many who helped, it was steady.
​
As for me, I came whenever I could to help paint. Even before we ever painted, I had grown a passion for the Forest of DREAMS, and by the time we started on March 5, that feeling had solidified. I would spend every Saturday painting from morning until evening. Other days, I would spend my afternoons designing creatures for organizations to paint, or work on organizing photos or updating the Forest of DREAMS website. By the time I finished school that year, I was spending thirty to fifty hours a week volunteering. I knew how vast this project we were undertaking was, and I wanted to do as much as a could to help. That said, I enjoyed every minute of it. I was seeing the impact we were making on the community, how so many people of so many different backgrounds were meeting and befriending one another through the mural. I for one, made many friends, and I would love seeing beautiful things they were painting on the wall. I'd have fun coming up with ideas for creature designs, or how certain areas of the forest would look, and I felt pride in the idea that we were all working towards something important. By the time the mural was completed on June 11, 2016, I had spent over 400 hours working for the Forest of DREAMS. I had worked on over ten different creatures, made many friends, and had grown as an artist and as a person.
​
​
Several signs were created by my mom, Dr. Janna Siegel Robertson, as a fun way to decorate the fences around the mural. This is a photo of two of them.
This is my original design for Phlib, the SAVE THE FROGS! amphibian creature. In the final painting, the back leg and gills are more realistic, and the tooth is removed.
This is what the retaining wall originally looked like. It was covered with prickly vines and sharp debris, which was unsafe for the hundreds of children that walked by it everyday for school and clubs.
Unlike other creatures I worked on, I sponsored this myself. I will always love SAVE THE FROGS! because it is the nonprofit that originally involved me in frog conservation. While I was considering simply doing a frog, I needed to make it a fantasy creature to fit on the mural, so I combined a variety of amphibians to create Phlib. Because of that, he is representative of SAVE THE FROGS!'s true goal; not just to protect frogs, but to conserve all amphibians.
Other than Phlib for SAVE THE FROGS!, this is the only creature I designed and painted entirely by myself. I was asked to make it by my computer and business teacher Mr. Dwight Findlay, who also co-owns Superb Soccer with his wife. The mother bear with her children is for Superb Athletics, a non-profit private sports program for youths. The bears here not only represent the three different sports Superb Athletics offers, but also shows how the organization nurtures the children it teaches.
This adorable creature was designed for the Transition Program for Young Adults at UNCW without any color, so I colored the design in to reflect the many animals this is creature is formed from. After the TPYA students painted a base coat for their creature, I re-outlined the design on the wall as a reference, and then finished up the creature by adding a whole new layer of shading, textures, and outlining, as well as adding the Trillium logo for the group that sponsored the creature.
Unlike other creatures I worked on, I sponsored this myself. I will always love SAVE THE FROGS! because it is the nonprofit that originally involved me in frog conservation. While I was considering simply doing a frog, I needed to make it a fantasy creature to fit on the mural, so I combined a variety of amphibians to create Phlib. Because of that, he is representative of SAVE THE FROGS!'s true goal; not just to protect frogs, but to conserve all amphibians.