WONDER WALL

The long-awaited, incredibly detailed mosaic mural, “Ears Looking at You,” dominates one full wall of the Mobius Kids museum. The 22-foot-wide by 8-foot-high collaborative public art project began more than two years ago.

“We wanted a mural that would help tell the story of the Spokane River,” says former Mobius exhibits and program coordinator Mary Brandt. “You can’t talk about Spokane without talking about the river.”

The mural would be the backdrop to “Geotopia,” the museum’s earth sciences exhibit that includes interactive displays on the interplay of water, wind and weather on the region’s ecosystem.

Brandt approached artist Ken Spiering of Valleyford for ideas.

She had known the artist for years and worked with him when she spearheaded the community effort behind “The Childhood Express,” Spiering’s big red wagon in Riverfront Park.

“When Mary called,” recalls Spiering, “we talked about a design featuring animals that live along the Spokane River.”

Brandt says she had envisioned a simple design with a half-dozen animals.

“But Ken became excited about the project,” she says, “and came up with an amazing design featuring 26 different species that inhabit the Spokane watershed.”

Spiering’s design includes a stylized Eastern Washington landscape with a meandering Spokane River flowing horizontally through it.

“I just kept plugging in animals,” says Spiering, “trying to arrange some interrelationships between the animals and each other, and between the animals and the viewer.”

After he had placed the creatures, many looking directly at the viewer, Spiering hit on the title, “Ears Looking at You Kid.”

“It is a play on Humphrey Bogart’s famous line in ‘Casablanca,’ ” he says. “It needed to be fun because of its location in the kids’ museum.”

With Spiering on board as the designer, Brandt contacted Quarry Tile Company and Precision H2o.

Quarry Tile committed to donating all ceramic tile for the project with eventually 70 different colors being selected to make up the animals and landscape.

“We used a number of dusty colors to depict our dry Eastern Washington landscape,” says Spiering.

The finished design was transferred into a CAD computer program and Precision H2o custom-cut the 3,000 individual pieces of tile using a high-pressure water jet cutting system.

“It took a long time to cut the tile,” says Bud Smith of Precision H2o. The smallest piece, the pupil of a cougar’s eye, is the size of a beebee; the largest is an 8-inch square.

Precision H2o assembled the design into numbered 8-inch squares.

Two workers from Associated Terrazzo & Ceramics spent three days installing the puzzle-like tile pieces, says company president John Mantello.

“The tile was installed while the museum was open,” says Mary Tyrie, executive director of Mobius. “Children got to watch each tile go up and see the mural come to life.”

The project is a testament to the generosity of people in Spokane, says Brandt.

“The mural is another great community project where an artist and businesses stepped up to the plate and created a wonderful piece of public art,” says Brandt.

“The detail and craftsmanship are exquisite,” she says. “It’s gorgeous, utterly gorgeous.”