The artist, Bale Creek Allen, thinks Val is smoking some serious tumbleweed if he believes he came up with the inspiration for his $150,000 "Tumbleweed" piece by himself. In his lawsuit, Bale says Val is passing off the high-priced art as his own idea, when it's clearly Bale's inspiration and idea.

Bale says he's been creating and selling golden tumbleweed sculptures for years ... and Val cut in on his action AFTER visiting Bale's New Mexico gallery and asking loads of questions about his methods.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Val was super interested in Bale's 3-D tumbleweeds ... until it was time to buy, and that's when Val told him he couldn't afford one!

Bale claims he has a copyright for the tumbleweed sculptures, and he never gave Val permission to make replicas. He's suing for damages and wants Val to be barred from whipping up anymore tumbleweeds.