[2] Around 1925, Spears graduated from SAIC and decided to move to Woodstock, New York to study with the sculptor Alexander Archipenko.

[2] Spears became known for her cartoonish, droll watercolors of daily life in Chicago and New York: in streets and parks, on playgrounds and beaches, and inside schools and apartments.

Like some of Ilonka Karasz's New Yorker covers, the outdoor scenes often show a bird's eye view of people all going their separate ways.

[2] The Flagg-Rochelle Public Library contains a mural, Merry Go Round by Ethel Spears, painted and installed in 1938.

The WPA was the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing individuals to carry out public works projects.

[7] In 2019 several of Spears' WPA murals were removed from Chicago area middle schools because of concern that the subjects depicted are primarily white and do not match the diversity of the student body today.