BELLE — Visitors to the Osage Arts Community (OAC) Art Center in August will find an exhibition spotlighting a Belle local.

“Paint Your Life: Commercial Painting by Josh Gray” is on display at the gallery. As part of Gray’s business Shades of Gray Custom Paint and Design, he designs and paints action sports gear with a focus on motocross helmets.

Gray is a self-taught artist. One of the items in the exhibition is a set of three helmet designs that Gray said he found in a notebook from middle school.

“The dream of being a helmet painter started when I first started getting into the motocross scene, which was around 12 or 13,” he said. “All I did in high school was draw pictures. If you talk to any of my old teachers, they’ll tell you ‘Josh just wasn’t there.’”

Drawing during classes provided Gray with a lot of practice. He never had any formal training in painting with an airbrush; the closest he got was when he was a teenager and spent a few days working with an airbrush artist in Los Angeles.

“Everything I know has just come from doing it,” Gray said. “Hands-on experience, trial, lots of error, lots of failing, lots of redoing things.”

Also on display in the exhibition is the helmet that started Gray’s helmet painting business. When the Great Recession slowed the construction business around 2008, Gray had more time to paint. He painted his own motocross helmet in a closet. After Gray posted a picture on Facebook, he caught the attention of local riders.

“Some of the local riders out of the St. Louis area ended up winning national titles,” Gray said. “They were so excited about their painted helmets that they would hold them up at the stadiums, so all my marketing started happening like clockwork.”

One event that Gray said was especially noteworthy was the 2016 Dallas Supercross. In a sold-out AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, riders competed to earn their spots among the best riders in the world. Of the top 40 at the competition, 26 of them wore helmets Gray had designed. He watched Gray’s helmets displayed on the stadium’s 160-foot by 72-foot video screen, which is among the largest in the world. The cameras focused on riders wearing his helmets because the bright designs were eye-catching on TV.

“Nothing gives me chills more than at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium,” he said. “I’m looking at the world’s biggest TV and there’s two of my helmets up there that are like the size of Volkswagen Beetles. You know 70,000 people at that moment are just staring at it. In my head I’m like, ‘I painted those in a closet.’”

At the peak of his helmet business, Gray designed more than 100 helmets per year. Now, he does helmet work part-time while also doing construction work. He is more selective with the projects he takes, and he paints between 50 and 60 helmets each year.

“Sometimes I have to do the pinch myself-type thing like ‘How did I get here?’” Gray said. “I think as an artist, sometimes you’re like ‘Nobody will ever pay me to paint anything.’ Artists don’t get famous until they’re dead most of the time. All of the greats. But there was a market for (helmet painting).”

Another helmet on exhibit is a Gray design from earlier this year. One of the action sports teams that Gray works with has a military appreciation night. He designed a helmet to commemorate the event and honor his late father, a United States Air Force veteran who died by suicide. His family attended the event in San Diego.

“There’s been an endless amount of opportunities with painting helmets,” Gray said. “I never realized I would get to do the things I get to do. God’s definitely opened a lot of doors in it, and it just seems to keep going.”

Gray’s design work has expanded into other parts of the action sports industry such as skateboarding, BMX and auto racing. He has even painted guitars.

“If you can paint on it, I’ve probably painted on it,” Gray said.

His work also includes business murals, including the one at Dave’s Pizza and Wings in Linn.

Designing and painting helmets has given Gray a career that connects him to his lifelong passion for motorsports. When he was younger, he had not fully realized that a career in motorsports could mean more than riding.

“As a rider, I never could flip that switch to go pro because it’s just too much risk,” he said. “It’s just too fast. I didn’t feel like I have that gift to be that fast on a dirt bike, but I wanted to be… You always kind of dream of that other side of the fence. I wanted to find a way to work myself into that other side of the fence with the industry.”

When Gray was drawing his first designs in the early 1990s, the most recognizable riders in motocross had custom-painted helmets.

“You knew the guys that made it because of their helmets,” he said. “I was never fast, so I was like ‘Well, I can at least have a cool helmet on my own. If you’re not fast you’ll look fast; that was kind of always our motto.”

Gray said he appreciates his connections in the action sports industry because it allows him to bring athletes to mid-Missouri to talk with local youth. Last year, he brought professional skateboarder Beaver Fleming to Rolla Public Schools to speak with about 2,400 students and perform shows.

“It’s neat because I can say this was my gift that got me in the industry, so it’s cool talking to the kids that don’t play all the sports,” Gray said. “You can be a part of it, but you don’t have to play it. I wasn’t good enough or brave enough to go hit the stuff that these guys hit or backflip a dirt bike, but I can paint their helmets, and now I get to go stand next to them and cheer them on. I’ve made all these incredible friendships over the years.”

Gray said one of his keys to success has been his authenticity and love for his work. From his earliest days of drawing helmets in class, his passion for motorsports helped propel him to the career he has today.

“The main message that I want to get out is just the authenticity of being yourself,” Gray said. “I preach to my kids constantly: don’t do what everybody else is doing. You have to find that niche that you’re doing differently where people will feed into it. You have to tell your story differently. That’s the main thing I think makes anybody successful with what they do.”

Another message Gray wants to convey through the exhibition and sharing his story with local youth is that they do not have to be in an urban area to pursue their dreams.

“You can still be small-town,” he said. “But you can take your talents and you can send them out as far as you want to. I’ve sent helmets to Belgium. I’ve sent helmets to Canada. I’ve worked with international riders. And I work right here in Belle.”

The exhibition continues until Sept. 2. The OAC Art Center is open from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.