"The Release"
About the Mural and Artist
To commemorate the opening of the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center in 2026, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County commissioned local artist Joel Sheesley to capture the Forest Preserve District’s mission and the center's spirit in one image. The final result, The Release, showcases the natural beauty of an early spring scene where both animals and humans have peacefully gathered to celebrate the release of a newly rehabilitated owl. It is painted on the south wall of the visitor center.
Sheesley, a former professor of art at Wheaton College and longtime DuPage County resident, is renowned for his work depicting the county’s natural and developed suburban landscapes. The Release is a departure from much of his work, which typically feature landscapes without people. On the contrary, The Release points to the important role that people play in the landscape.
Sections of the mural are shown in detail below with information about the scene and Sheesley’s inspiration.
The Owl and Forest Preserve District Staff
Nearly every person in the painting is looking at the visual and thematic heart of The Release: a great horned owl taking its first flight in the wild after recovering from an injury. In the background, two forest preserve employees watch the majestic raptor return to its natural habitat. Sheesley painted these two figures based on a photograph from spring 2014.
Person With Sling Pack
Sheesley finds interest in the intersection of people and landscapes. His sources for the humans pictured in The Release vary widely. While vacationing in Europe, he sometimes turned his camera toward fellow tourists instead of the marvel they were observing. “Some of these people are actually Croatians and Slovenians,” Sheesley said. Once strangers, these characters became familiar to Sheesley as he sketched them multiple times, and they will live on as welcoming faces for the thousands of visitors the center welcomes each year.
Sandhill Crane Near the Creek
Sheesley’s concept of animals and humans intermingling was inspired by the Peaceable Kingdom paintings by American artist Edward Hicks. In the early 1800s, Hicks spent decades painting 62 variations of The Peaceable Kingdom, each depicting a vision of harmony between people and animals — a theme Sheesley saw at work at the center.
Red-Tailed Hawk
“The mural contains 80 animals in total — 19 of them humans,” Sheesley said. The other 61 are species that inhabit the DuPage County forest preserves for at least part of the year. These include a red-tailed hawk, a coyote, wild turkeys, and a white-tailed deer. How many can you spot?
Bridge Truss in Vestibule Scene
Sheesley treated the wall in the entrance vestibule as a composition unto itself, but one that would connect with the larger piece. This separate painting depicts one of the Forest Preserve District’s many bridges and serves as a metaphorical link between the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center and the surrounding Willowbrook Forest Preserve, between the human-built and natural world.
Thicket
The complex, interweaving branches are rooted in early sketches Sheesley made in his Wheaton studio. After making increasingly complex sketches, detail studies, and grayscale and full-color prototype paintings, Sheesley projected a detailed line drawing of The Release onto the cener's 25-foot-wide wall and painstakingly traced every branch, cloud, and figure. The tracing process alone took 12 hours to complete.
The Fine Details
To paint the intricate early spring landscape — complete with budding trees and baby opossums — Sheesley approached the work like he would one of his easel paintings rather than a mural. Why? Sheesley thought standard mural conventions would oversimplify the piece. Instead, he wanted visitors to experience The Release as they would a forest preserve and become immersed in an environment rich with mystery.