When Ashfield artist Robert Markey looked at the empty wall on the side of Keystone Market in Shelburne Falls, he saw a blank canvas.

When the building’s owners agreed that the wall could be the location of Markey’s latest mosaic mural, he was excited because he doesn’t often get to do work near his hometown.

“I do mosaics all around the world,” Markey noted.

“Doing mosaics on the wall — I really like doing that,” Markey added. “And it was really special for me to be able to do it in Shelburne Falls, because I live in Ashfield, so it’s right next to me. It’s nice to be able to do work next to home.”

Markey’s mural depicts Ariel Cohen, a now-professional dancer who he has known since her childhood. In the mural, Cohen is dancing with another dancer who is an acquaintance of Markey’s.

The mural also depicts a friend’s child releasing birds into the air from her hands.

“It’s sort of a gift from a girl to the universe,” Markey said.

The girl releasing the birds was not originally intended to go with the dancers, but Markey discovered he liked the two images together after his plans changed when the building where he planned to install the mosaic mural of the girl with the birds was sold.

Markey creates the mosaic murals in his studio. He first photographs his subjects, then draws them on large pieces of paper. From there, he cuts his materials — in this case, bits of mirror — and assembles his mosaic on fiberglass mesh with mortar to hold the pieces in place.

Occasionally, Markey will put his tiles directly on the wall, rather than assembling his mosaics in his studio first.

“When I do murals with kids and communities, that’s the way I do it,” Markey said.

Next, Markey has his sights set on the Greenfield Savings Bank in Shelburne Falls.

“I went in there to cash a check, and you know the wall over there? Total blank brick wall,” he said.

Markey said he went inside to request permission, and upon showing his other mural to a bank employee, was told that “it would be wonderful” to have one of his murals on the exterior of the bank. Still, he’s waiting for official permission to pursue his next mural.