Hmm But my work is kind of like a Halloween thing.

You see these things in your dreams, you know.

And so, oh, that monastery, I wish I could capture that monastery.

So with that paper, you can just start making the big eyes and the big mouth and the funny grin.

And I just got, I just love it.

Smokey is not as scared to take risks when it comes to the field of art.

He's always on the cutting edge, he's always trying something new.

Thing that drew me to his work and then to him was it was just so inventive and rather wild.

I can't sell him because ain't nobody said he ain't got no place in that network.

He can't be really considered a folk artist by strict definition because he did have training.

Outsider art is just something I've come up with because it serves as a larger umbrella so I'm not either excluding or including people incorrectly.

Outsiders artists do work that's very much about themselves and about their feelings.

It's very expressive.

Smoky studied art at the Dayton Art Institute, but his greatest influence was one of Columbus's most admired artists.

One person that he dealt with a lot and had the ultimate respect for was William Hawkins.

They used to call him Grandpa Hawkins, and Smokey and William Hawkin built up a tremendous relationship.

Grandpa had an old Cadillac that he had doctored.

He had a rearing horse on the hood as a hood ornament.

He had taken out portions of the dashboard and put just whatever suited his fancy.

And so I think that there was maybe a little bit of competition going on between the two men about who could have the snazziest cars.

I used to have all that on top of my car.

I was trying to figure out what was it, what is it?

Well, one of the kids over at school made that their Halloween mask.

See, I have Halloween 365 days a year.

Oh, okay.

I think you're involved in the arts community here.

I get it as much.

Smokey often weathers his paper mache monsters by putting, he used to, putting them on the top of his station wagon and driving around town.

And if these things could withstand Columbus, Ohio weather and the rain and the heat, I think they can last a long time.

He is a mentor for me and when there are things that I don't know or ways that have to find out about how to utilize material or how to use some certain technique, I will call Smokey because more than likely he has done it.

Or the pain, or it's the therapy.

I enjoy doing it.

It keeps your mind active, you know.

If you just say, well, I'm getting old and in a couple of years I'll be gone, you don't have no alternative.

Smokey has done work on alcoholism and drug abuse.

It's played a major part in his life due to the fact that he wasn't alcoholic at one time.

His therapy from alcoholism was to go back and to do artwork.

Oh, yes, one of my goals is for one day to get into the Jet magazine as the top black artist going back history week.

That's been about 50 years trying to strive to get in on that.

So I don't know if I ever make it, but I'm excited.