Well, Ripley's Believe it or Not!

They call me the junkyard Picasso.

Name's Jim Powers.

Oklahoma.

Yeah.

I wanted a sculpture of this piece as the sculpture of the wind.

I worked at it, naturally, but I couldn't get it to work.

I can sculpture what?

The wind, but I just haven't mastered it yet.

This sculpture is, Well and it's a shaman, calling for his power.

Yeah.

It was one of those lucky pieces that wound up, as an item for sculpture.

A work of art.

Maybe that I like.

And then go back and jump out.

Other words.

That's about it on that one.

The reason why I make flowers is I like nature.

I like wildflower, it's a challenge.

I don't know of anybody that don’t like Flowers.

I never knew that this existed or I had become an artist long time before people started calling me one.

Anyway.

And sometimes when you're cutting, you should zig when you're supposed to zag that, A lot of time.

You can work it into your sculpture with that.

And then throw it back in the junk pile.

In large sculptures it’s a challenge to, get them to tell us.

Get your sculpture to tell a story because it gives you a chance to deal with space, shape, form.

Actually, it makes you a creator.

And if you can create what your desire is and it looks good and other people like it, then you've done something.

It was.

It was about a thousand pieces of scrap metal in this cowboy.

And it took about three years to do.

It's one of these kind of sculptures.

And when you find a piece, you just add to it.

You know, I just kind of guarantee this stuff to hold when I weld it and where I weld it is on top of this table.

If I'm at a scrap pile.

Okay.

And this barrel here, there's a light fixture.

I really don't know what I'm gonna do with that, but, let's see something in there, like door hinge you can make, Well, I make saddles out of, the spring are a good base for anything that you like.

Kinetic movement.

Use it on the base.

If I see a plow, disk.

I can take this plow disk and, create a beautiful flower.

But not all of this will be in that scrap now.

And if you can find two plow disks, you got the base and you got the leaves and you got, flower.

Now, I can work with my metal, which I love dearly.

And, if it gets to the point where I want to do something different, I'll paint a while.

You can do what you want.

You can create.

And if I want to build a sculpture with a paintbrush on a canvas, I can do that.

And then we're going to kind of get this little feller subject matter and kind of look at him.

I'm getting fan of steel on that.

I don't know, it's just a form of relaxation and beauty.

Everybody ought to experience it.

Get a comfortable spot here and get the rag sitting there for my message.

I don't know what his world be like if everybody was an artist, but, It's just a neat feeling to be able to do something that makes you feel good and that you don't dread to get up in the morning and do.

You know, people say they got their education out behind the bar, so I got mine.

As far as art goes, the little red schoolhouse and, there are a lot of wonderful people, go down there.

Okay.

What are you doing You visit about art?

It’s relaxing.

It’s something that I seem like every Friday night.

If I don't go down there, there's an empty spot in your life.

I've always loved to watch clouds and see the pictures that you could figure out in white fluffy clouds.

And I've taken lots of pictures of clouds.

And, I like to paint clouds.

Okay, this building has a feeling in it that you just.

You can't explain it.

And people feel it when they come in, and they've never been here before.

They just feel like they've arrived at the right place.

And it's a gorgeous thing.

You and I just love it.

She was very instrumental in me doing what I do today.

And she's kept this legacy of the little Red schoolhouse alive.

And so this will be in shadow Land and then catch it, the light on the edge of your home.

Okay.

And I owe a lot to what I have learned there.

As far as art goes.

And I just, it's something in my life that happened, that I sure would hate to not experienced any way to put it that way.

So the museum, here in Gage, is located on highway 15 and highway 46 south.

There's a sign out there.

It says Jim Power’s metal scrap metal museum.

And is for the passer buyers, too.

Well, if I have a nickel for every time I took a picture of my dinosaur, I’d have enough money to buy me a new pickup Maybe by now.

Anyway, it's just, A place, I guess, to store my art, show my art.

Talk about art.

If you want to look at art at midnight or just call me.

I’ll get up and show it to you.

Anybody who wants to see it, I want to show it.

But I don't want anybody to expect to find anything made out of gold or, carbon on the floor.

It's just nothing fancy to it.

It's just a backwoods kind of country type music.

Hi, folks.

Welcome to our, museum.

Glad to have you aboard.

It's all comes from the soul and heart, and, and I got a story about every piece.

If you want to take the time to hear.

Okay.

Well, here we got the baby elephant.

Now, I made the mommy elephant.

This is the baby that Ripley's museum bought the mama elephant.

So I had to deliver it at Saint Augustine.

It went to Korea, so we had to wean the baby.

And so here it is.

Made out of car rims, exhaust pipes, hay frames, brake shoes.

No.

I don't know, I know this art that I do is going to outlast me for sure.

You know, I don't look too much toward the end of it, but, I know it's going to happen.

And, I want my art to go on and make people feel good.

I want people to like it.

I want them to see how this junk or scrap metal can be turned into something that I think is got beauty to it.

Well folks, thanks for coming by.

Visit Jim's Metal Art Museum.

Come back and tell people about it.

Like it real good.

Okay.

Know.

Glad you like not only mine, but I'm sure every artist will want his work to be remembered and go on throughout the years to come.

Can never tell.

I might be worth something someday.

Might ought to come down and look at it.