How one Blue Zones resident connects with other through art

The piece that I just did was a crosswalk mural of brook trout swimming. So it looks like the pavement is broken

and the brook trout are swimming underneath the pavement. My dad, who passed away and had a brother who passed away,

would go fishing a lot. That's the way that we would connect and just let go and go out and relax.

So I said, why not bring the forest to the town? Everyone who sees it, they take selfies with it, it brings joy to their life.

And that's what I enjoy the most about any piece of art that I do. If it can bring someone joy, then I

feel like I've done what I was supposed to do. My name is Billy Smith.

And I am an artist and art instructor here in Brevard, North Carolina. My work, it goes from illustration

to painting to drawing. I'm always working on honing those skills and making them better.

COVID put a big damper on a lot of the things that we were able to do. But it also, I think, reinforced the importance of art.

So I have people knocking my door down right now trying to get on the list to be a student. There are so many people who wanted to be creative.

But it's definitely a way to connect with all ages, I mean, from five years old all the way to 92 years old.

Whenever I started to create, I felt alive. I started feeling like I had purpose. I noticed that I impact a lot of young people,

especially here in our community in Brevard and especially young artists. They always come to me and ask me questions about art and my process.

And I know that my purpose is to be here for them, to help encourage them. Belonging, I think, is something that we all

need to find in this world. I think being 100% of who you are, that takes a lot of trust.

And you have to be around people that you can trust in order to let that part of yourself out.

I feel like, especially here in Brevard, we really want to make sure that people belong.

Blue Zones has all kinds of different activities that people can come together and connect with.

Our forests are just completely packed with people right now just because they want to get out. That, for me and for Brevard, I think

is the ultimate connector here that we have is our environment. We have over 250 waterfalls.

So there's so many things that you can do. And we try to create events and different things that where everyone feels like they belong.

To reflect other people in my work is kind of the reason why I got into doing portraits. When you capture the actual essence of somebody,

you have to be able to connect deeply with the spirit of that person that you're drawing. That's what I enjoy the most about any piece of art

that I do. If it can bring someone joy, then I feel like I've done what