Eagle Scout builds Stan Musial mosaic out of 5,980 Rubik’s Cubes

Connor-Wright-Rubik's-Cubes Baseball’s a sport of patience and persistence.

Those same qualities define a St. Louis Eagle Scout who used art, technology and brainpower to create a giant baseball-themed mosaic entirely out of Rubik’s Cubes.

But this wasn’t any mosaic. Connor Wright of the Greater St. Louis Area Council created a 17-by-12-foot masterpiece that honors Stan Musial, the baseball legend who played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963.

To make the mosaic, Connor used 5,980 Rubik’s Cubes, twisting and turning each one until the front-facing side of colored dots — 53,820 dots in all — was perfectly aligned. Connor had mapped out the mosaic on his computer, but turning the Rubik’s Cubes in the right way was a painstaking process done by hand.

It took Connor about a minute per Rubik’s Cube, according to this story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He watched the TV comedy 30 Rock as he worked.

Nearly 6,000 Rubik’s Cubes at a minute each means about 100 hours of work put in just to solve each nine-by-nine puzzle. (More than enough time to watch all 138 episodes of 30 Rock.) This took quite a toll on the 17-year-old’s hands and wrists, according to the newspaper account.

“In actuality, it became pretty painful,” he told the Post-Dispatch.

Just as challenging was caulking each cube onto the wall — a process that required him to stand on scaffolding for three days.

Watch the time-lapse video below to see the project come together. Or go see it in person. The mosaic will be on display indefinitely at Cardinals Nation, a new mecca for Cardinals fans that features a restaurant, shop and museum.

Potential carpal tunnel syndrome aside, the end result was worth it for Connor, who gained national attention for his masterpiece. Broadcaster Joe Buck called Connor a genius. Fox Sports correctly noted that “some folks are just a bit more skilled in the arts than the rest of us.”

Connor, though, just says he’s a big Cardinals fan. He says he once met Musial, who died in 2013. The Stan Musical mosaic was his tribute to the man considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. But it wasn’t until the last cube was attached to the wall that Connor really appreciated what he had done.

“That’s when I was able to step off the scaffolding and truly see it,” he told the Post-Dispatch.

Connor’s an Eagle Scout, so this isn’t the first time he’s completed a big project. For his Eagle Scout service project, Connor built a library for Crossroads Preparatory Academy, a grade school in East St. Louis. Thanks to Connor and his fellow volunteers, the school, which previously owned just 10 books, now has a fully stocked library.

connor-and-mosaic


About Bryan Wendell 3282 Articles
Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, is the founder of Bryan on Scouting and a contributing writer.