Look!

Up in the sky!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Š

Sprinkler heads?

And Ric Sprynczynatyk?

The latter descended from the wild blue yonder on a diesel-powered lift.

"Hey," he said, after removing his mask. "An airport with a sky. Good fit, huh?"

Indeed it was.

Sprynczynatyk was part of the crew that finished painting a "sky" on the ceiling of the new Bismarck airport terminal on Wednesday. The blue sky and white clouds looked good spread over 9,000 square feet of ceiling.

Sky Art, a Denver-based ceiling-mural company, started on the project 11 days ago. Sprynczynatyk and Scott Buelow were up on lifts Wednesday, painting the finishing touches.

The airport project is Sky Art's first in North Dakota. Sprynczynatyk, who has been a contract employee with the company for more than a decade, put the deal together.

Sky Art owner Karen Kristin said Bismarck's terminal is, surprisingly, the first airport job her company has had. Most of her business comes from restaurants, hotels and casinos in Las Vegas. Sprynczynatyk and Buelow helped Sky Art complete a 105,000-square-foot sky at the Venetian Hotel in 1998. They've also traveled to India and Japan for jobs with the company.

Kristin was on the job site Wednesday, aiming a laser pointer at the ceiling to direct the painters. She designed the painting and decided on the colors. The fair-weather sky consists of eight shades of blue, six colors for the clouds and four hues - raspberry, watermelon, blueberry and cantaloupe - that highlight the clouds and lend a depth to the scene. All in all, it looks like a good sky to fly in.

"They don't like thunderclouds at airports," Sprynczynatyk said.

Other work on the terminal appeared to be coming along well, too. Two workers were putting tiles on the main floor as part of an image that will display the Missouri River and towns along it.

The terminal is expected to open in May.

(Reach Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tspilde@ndonline.com.)