Beginning later this month, some fish at the Georgia Aquarium will not be confined to giant tanks or the rolling exhibitions officials cart around the downtown attraction.

Italian painter Silvio Irilli is putting the finishing touches on a giant, 1,600-foot mural in the aquarium's lobby that will soon have aquatic creatures swimming over visitors' heads.

In what aquarium boosters see as their "Sistine Chapel," Irilli is bringing life to a ceiling with whale sharks, beluga whales and stingrays. While "Sistine" artist Michelangelo found inspiration in God's gift of life to humans, Irilli said his aquarium work looks into the souls of those who live under the sea.

"By watching the fish, I've gotten the chance to observe their souls," Irilli said through his interpreter, Peter Lococo. "I study strongly the eyes. Seeing it up close is absolutely an inspiration."

Irilli, who has painted other fish murals in restaurants and on walls around the world, has been working on the project for the past month. He hopes to be finished by the end of the next week.

Lococo suggested Irilli after talking with Karen Deaton, director of the aquarium's exhibits and graphics, who had been searching for someone to bring pizzazz to the entrance.

Irilli works on the project after the aquarium closes so that he can concentrate and connect with his subjects. While he has experience painting murals, it was his first time working on a ceiling. It required him to work from ladders at different levels because the ceiling rolls like a wave. This requires him to be titled up.

"The past couple of days have been the first time he complained about neck pain," said an impressed Deaton.

Irilli, who is on his third trip to Atlanta, said he loves the city and has fallen in love with the people. He said he is amazed that people speak to you, even though they don't know you.