Where We Wander
Hey Trailblazers! Discover WHERE WE WANDER, an exciting new outdoor adventure designed for young explorers and their families.
Roswell is nationally known for its incredible parks and trails and a few new visitors have come to explore the great outdoors, learn about our local wildlife and share their love of hiking!
Plan your trip today to Big Creek Park and/or Leita Thompson Memorial Park and as you walk, dance or jump along the trails keep your eyes peeled for amazing creatures (inspired by the real animals in our local environment) hidden in the woods!
Ready to conquer the great outdoors? Let’s GO!
Where We Wander is a presented by Roswell Arts Fund in Partnership with the City of Roswell. The cast of creatures were dreamed up and brought to life by Müelworx Fabrication.
Get Ready for Your Adventure
Here’s a hint for when you’re on the hunt for the hidden creatures… they like to climb the trees surrounding the signage with animal and hiking facts. Look up when you find a sign and search the trees!
Pictures –
Share your adventures with us! Tag us on Instagram #RoswellArts or send your pictures to info@roswellartsfund.org
Installation at Leita Thompson
Fun Activities
Interview with Artist Sam Carter
When you created the Woodknotts for ArtAround: Pathways you mentioned taking a walk with your daughter and dreaming up the odd creatures of the forests. What inspired you to create the creatures of Where We Wander?
Pathways was a fairly open concept. I was given very few guidelines outside of creating something that would exist along a walking path. “Where We Wander”, however, is meant to be educational and geared towards promoting healthy hiking habits to kids. So, as I talked through the concept and the goals of the installation with Elan, I kept coming back to the idea of kids playing hide n’ seek in the woods. One of the things I love about Georgia is just how many beautiful forests we have throughout the state and the amount of wildlife diversity we have here. The idea of creating a cast of Georgia native species anthropomorphized as kids playing hide n’ seek in the woods just sort of clicked.
What was your process bringing the Wander creatures to life?
I spent several weeks sketching out the characters. We landed on a cast of ten, so I began drawing up lots of animal kids and building a universal look to them. I wanted to make sure that the 2D and 3D versions of them looked like they belonged together. Once I had my character designs in place, I began enlisting some of my puppet builder buddies to sculpt heads, pattern bodies, and bring them to life. We all have day jobs working in film production, so there were definitely a lot of long nights and weekends. “Where We Wander” is unique in that it’s one exhibit that’s been built and installed in two seperate locations. We had to create a total of twenty puppets in just a few months!
What other projects have you worked on or created? Do you have a favorite one to share?
I’ve worked in film and television production for almost twenty years, building props, puppets, set pieces, and special FX for a variety of shows. I built sci-fi experiments for Shuri’s laboratory in “Black Panther”, working automatons for Eli Roth’s “The House with the Clock in its Walls”, and a trio of Pakistani Jingle buses for Apple TV’s “Ghosted”. A few years ago, I launched my own shop, Muelworx, with the goal of expanding out into other arenas, such as public art installations, corporate events and art toys. One of my favorite recent projects was a giant parade puppet called Ruppert the Dragon Wagon that I created for the Roswell Youth Day parade last year.
What do you think are some of the biggest benefits art can provide to a community?
I never know how to answer these kinds of questions. I never have some lofty explanation of the ways that art shines a light on the inner workings of the human spirit or makes people think. I have nothing against any of that, but typically that it isn’t me. I’d rather make you smile or, better yet, laugh. I want to make art that entertains and brings people joy and just brings people together for something that’s fun. I think that’s a benefit to a community that anyone can get behind.
If you could collaborate with any artist, living or deceased, who would it be and why? What would you hope to create together?
I would’ve loved to have worked with Marc Davis, Mary Blair, and the rest of the original Disney Imagineers, or the guys who started Industrial Light and Magic. True innovators who had to create worlds from scratch without a reference of how to do it. I often joke that I’m in the right business in the wrong decade. I guess if I were to pick someone living, I’d want to work with Adam Savage or Henry Sellick and make some weird cult classic type film full of puppets and practical FX.
What are you working on now?
As I mentioned, I just finished AUDI’s scarecrow project for the Botanical Gardens, so I’m now working on upgrading my shop with a lot of new tools and equipment. I have some big plans for 2025, so I’m taking this opportunity as the year winds down to get ready. Stay tuned!
Resources for Roswell Trails, Wildlife in Georgia and Healthy Hiking
Creative Team
